TELLURIDE MUSEUM HOSTS TRAVELING EXHIBIT

15 Feb TELLURIDE MUSEUM HOSTS TRAVELING EXHIBIT

Telluride Historical Museum celebrates agricultural life, art and regional traditional artists

“Harvest of Heritage, Colorado Masterpieces: Celebrating Agricultural Life and Art,”  an exhibit honoring over two dozen of Colorado’s master traditional artists, opens at the Telluride Historical Museum on February 16 with a special reception for museum members. (The exhibit has traveled across the state and was even displayed at the Colorado State Fair.)

Harvest of Heritage includes wheat art, leather and rawhide braiding, Mexican fabric art, woodcarving, Japanese paper art, and ornamental iron work. An interpretive display features photographs and information about those and many other art forms including stained glass work, quilt making, painting and weaving. All of the featured artists have links to Colorado’s rich agricultural heritage and their stories bring our state’s history to life.

Having met the highest standards of the Colorado Creative Industries’ Cultural Heritage Program, many of the featured artists have been awarded state grants and fellowships to help them preserve, present, and celebrate their traditional art forms. Two have received the National Endowment for the Arts’ highest honor for our nation’s tradition bearers, and many serve as master artists passing on skills and knowledge to the next generation of apprentices.

The exhibit also includes photos and information about projects—supported through Colorado Creative Industries’ various grant programs—which contribute to the preservation and promotion of Colorado’s cultural heritage.

In attendance at the opening is Ronna Lee Sharp, the exhibit’s curator and one of Colorado’s three regional folklorists.

Harvest of Heritage is presented by Colorado Creative Industries, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces Program and created and toured by the Museum of Western Colorado.

Harvest of Heritage will be on display until the museum closes at the end of the ski season