A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Dr. Mindy Besaw talks "Knowing the West" art exhibit at Crystal Bridges
Join us as Dr. Mindy Besaw from Crystal Bridges addresses traditional American Western narratives with passion and insight, discussing the groundbreaking Knowing the West art exhibition coming to Crystal Bridges from September 14 through January 27. Co-curated with Jamie Powell, this show will help expand our thinking on the West and include voices and stories often overlooked. Knowing the West highlights the contributions of both Native American and non-Native American artists. With more than half of the artists being women, this exhibition promises to offer a fresh and inclusive perspective on the American West. From textiles to painting, pottery, and even a saddle, this exhibition promises to surprise and delight!
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studio, and today we have a special guest, Mindy Besaw, from Crystal Bridges. She's going to talk about knowing the West, and welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Beth, so fun to see you again. So Dr. Besaw is the Director of Research, fellowship and University Partnerships and Curator of American Art at Crystal Bridges, and, Mindy, you came to Crystal Bridges we were just talking about this around the same time, I was there in 2014 from the Buffalo Bill Center as part of Whitney's Western Art Museum, so you are very uniquely qualified for this exhibition. How excited are you?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:It's hard to contain my excitement when the banners first went up on the building, advertising Knowing the West in bright purples and yellows and oranges, I almost drove off the road. I had to stop immediately and take a picture, of course. So I'm so excited for the exhibition. In many ways it's a culmination of so much of my research over two decades. True, and here it is.
Beth Bobbitt:Yay, I'm excited too You're curating this alongside Jamie Powell. It opens September 14th, first major traveling exhibition to embrace the American West as more inclusive, complex reflective of diverse people who contributed to art and life there. So talk about the show, how it came together. Yeah, a little bit about the unique aspects of putting it together and then where it will go next. Absolutely.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:I would say I brought Jamie Powell on as a co-curator. Maybe close to three years ago we received a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities which also encouraged and allowed us to bring in a whole Curatorial Advisory Council. So we have seven members who are experts in their field from across the country, from Michael Grauer, who's at the Cowboy Hall in Oklahoma City and knows everything there is to know about cowboys, to Chelsea Herr, who's at the Gilcrease Museum, curator of indigenous art, who was able to really advise on artworks from the collection to come in. So with all of the experts put together, they really helped us shape the themes, help us shape the checklist, held us accountable to make sure the stories that we were telling were broad enough, inclusive enough, and that was really the kickoff of the show was part of that planning.
Beth Bobbitt:Awesome, star-studded advisory council for sure. So talk about the checklist over 120 historic works you mentioned, up until 1930s, by Native American and non-Native American artists, including textiles, baskets, paintings, pottery. What are you most excited about?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:It's so hard to choose. I will say one of the reasons why the exhibition is so vast and includes so many different types of materials is starting from that standpoint of wherever you are. Whatever you think about the West, bring it to this exhibition. Maybe you lived in the West. Maybe your favorite films were something that you grew up with with big, wide-open Western scenery. Perhaps you have a different kind of experience with the West. Even people who've lived there lived in desert type of weather or the lush green of the Northwest. Perhaps you think the West is a different time and place. All of those starting points are great to bring into the exhibition and with the variety of paintings all the way to saddles. This is the first exhibition I ever even imagined there would be saddles.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:We is the first exhibition I ever even imagined there would be saddles. We imagine that there'll be something for everyone to respond to and really catch on to and perhaps expand their idea of the West.
Beth Bobbitt:I love that. I love the accessibility. I'm already thinking back to my vacation. I was in your old stomping grounds this summer at. Yellowstone, and so I will bring that to this exhibition, as you say. So the idea is to break down stereotypes about the West. Can you talk about specific stories or artists that have been overlooked?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:So many. I will start with a Yellowstone artist, since you just mentioned Yellowstone. Grafton Tyler Brown worked in Yellowstone National Park. He was a Black artist working in the late 19th century Almost unheard of really. There are many artists painting geysers and waterfalls and, of course, selling to tourists because people were clamoring to see the American West as early as the late 19th century and then take home a little souvenir. So we have a Grafton Tyler Brown geyser painting in the exhibition.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:Just a story that is not often told, even if the subject matter is recognizable, and that part of that stereotypes and just maybe adding to perceptions. So, for example, we have a large Albert Bierstadt exhibition or painting of the Sierra Nevadas. Now, that might be a little more expected. Okay, big, grand landscape, no problem. But what may be less expected is what we're showing in conversation with the landscape, and that's basketry by Louisa Kaiser, for example, a Washoe woman making baskets, again right after the turn of the 20th century, and she's using fern and willow for her designs, weaving tight, beautiful shapes. These are some of the women her Louisa Kaiser, elizabeth Hickox and Elizabeth's daughter Louise who are gathering and engaging with the landscape in a very different way than Bierstadt is, but all in the same place, or at least referencing the same place.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:Bierstadt paints his paintings in New York City in his studio. Louisa Kaiser and the Washoe people had lived in the Sierra Nevadas for 6,000 years before Bierstadt even came out there. So to show these two things in conversation, what we're trying to do is repopulate that West that's so often seen or imagined as vacant or just of animals and waterfalls. So some of what we're doing is really putting things in context and conversation to pull out some of the stories that might not be quite as expected.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:And another thing to be really excited about in this exhibition is more than half of the artists are women artists, and so from Louisa Kaiser to Nellie, two Bear Gates, who's Dakota, to Bear Gates, who's Dakota, and from the Standing Rock excuse me, lakota, from the Standing Rock Reservation, with this beaded valise that is just like this little suitcase, that's just like a gem of blue and imagery. And another one, that is has green beads, to Helen Blumenshine, who painted and lived in Taos and paints herself as a huntress, a self-portrait, as one of the concluding images. So the stories of women especially are really exciting.
Beth Bobbitt:I love that. Love the idea of pulling back the curtain of these landscapes that are so iconic and talking about the people that lived on the land. Yes, especially the women. Great, any partnerships you can talk about. You talked about the advisory committee.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:I did, and actually I wanted to step back, Beth, because I forgot to tell you where this exhibition is going next.
Beth Bobbitt:Oh, yes, please, which is?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:a little bit of how we think of the national interest in the West. Again, however you think about the West, after presenting at Crystal Bridges, we'll send it to the Cummer Museum and Botanic Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida they're very excited about this and also to the North Carolina Museum of Art by North Carolina Museum that will be in early 2026. So we have two venues. Afterwards, part of what we're doing for partnerships and thinking of these other venues. And then also, how is it meaningful to the audiences that are coming to Bentonville, Arkansas, because we have such a wide range of how we think about the West and embrace that we partnered with community stakeholders, invited people to come to Crystal Bridges and have dinner with us and tell us their stories about the West, whether one individual was an immigrant from Turkey and she talked about growing up watching Westerns with her brother in Turkey, and she talked about growing up watching Westerns with her brother in Turkey and so these kinds of role-playing games that children play was part of her examples.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:Another person shared a story about growing up in Fort Smith and thinking, well, of course that was the West, and then going on a road trip out to California and just how varied one of these experiences can be. We were able to interview a couple of them for interpretation for the exhibition. So asking that question how do you know the West? If you could explain the West in one word or phrase, what would that be? And the vast variety of answers is just fascinating. We also did an interview with Jadiah Kirsch, who was the first black rodeo queen in.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:Arkansas, and she has worked very hard with brands like Wrangler and other places like Boot Barn to show the wide diversity of rodeo culture, of cowboy culture, relevant today.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, yeah, I love the depth of that kind of leads into talking about what we can expect in the gallery. You know you talked about some of the colors of the graphics and the warmth and the boldness. What will the galleries look like? Are there interpretation? You know different aspects of the graphics or the you know interactives that we can expect.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:Yeah, um, it is. It's bold, it's bright, it's colorful. Uh, not so many brown neutrals, so pops of purples and tomato red and bright yellow. The reason for that is to again push against maybe some stereotypes that have the West trapped in the past or frozen in the past as one thing and really see the relevance today. So the design of the exhibition is very contemporary, even if the artwork is more than 100 years old. Part of that is also to emphasize contemporary relevance of some of the objects.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:One example of interpretation I mentioned Jediah Kirsch. We're actually including a photograph of her in the exhibition to talk about the continuance and importance of Black cowboy and cowgirl culture and relate it to the past and some of the stories of Nat Love, who was born into slavery in Tennessee and then went on this big adventure once he was a freedman, became a cowboy and wrote an autobiography that was very popular in the 19-teens. So how to connect past and present is really important. Or Hunter Old Elk, who is an assistant curator in Cody at the Buffalo Bill, and she is Crow and she sent us a photo. She wrote for the catalog, which has many different perspectives, and wrote an authored label in the exhibition. So you'll hear a lot of perspectives that are not just mine and Jamie's and the curatorial team.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:The perspectives also helped to show in Hunter's case, for example, she sent a photograph of her aunt at Crow Fair where there were multiple parades a day. She's all decked out in regalia, her horse is decorated and she's carrying a lance case, and we have a lance case from about 100 years ago in the exhibition that is Crow and that continuation of cultural significance and relevance is something that we'll emphasize throughout the exhibition with these authored labels, with also audio labels that talk about the importance, and so you'll hear lots of perspectives and voices that talk about the importance, and so you'll hear lots of perspectives and voices.
Beth Bobbitt:Wow, my knowledge is already expanding. I just can't wait. I think it's going to be so inclusive and dynamic, and September 14th is the date that it opens, and so what are the programs and lectures we need to put on the calendar now? I know there's an opening lecture that Friday, the 13th. Is that right?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:There is. So the opening lecture is a panel discussion between myself and Jamie Powell and some of our curatorial advisors, so Michael Grauer and Chelsea Herr that I mentioned, and also Kirsten Pai Buick, who teaches at the University of New Mexico. So that's the 13th in the evening, but just stick around, because on the 14th we're doing something that we have nicknamed the West Fest, and you can come and meet rodeo queens, including Jediah.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:We're going to have horses, we're going to have food trucks, we're going to have all kinds of community activities, gallery talks, it's going to be so lively of community activities, gallery talks, it's going to be so lively, and it's museum-wide for all families, you know, families multi-generational. So that's happening. But there are other great features of artists. Just as we're saying, all of this doesn't happen just in the past. There's continuation. So Bryce Arroyas is doing some denim workshops with us. He essentially is the artist in residence in some ways in October. So you can do adult workshops, even art by the glass. So look on the calendar for Crystal Bridges, October 26th and the 11th. There's also an Osage ribbon worker coming. You can do an adult workshop with her, with Jasmine Fentz-Saxseth, and so Jasmine Phetsacksith is an Osage Ribbon Worker. She's doing an adult workshop on November 9th and there's also a Wednesday Over Water with yours truly, with me and with Larissa Randall.
Beth Bobbitt:Those are always so much fun, so much fun. Culinary delight, visual, just aesthetics. It's just so sensory stimulating. I can't wait. This sounds amazing. And when is the closing?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:So it closes on January 27th, so there is a lot of opportunity to see the show and a quick plug for membership.
Beth Bobbitt:If you're not already a member, it's so worth it. You get free access to all the temporary exhibitions and in addition to discounts and other cool amenities. So, Mindy, thanks for sharing. To wrap up, we always talk about a dream day in Bentonville. Most of the guests talk about Crystal Bridges, and so I'm going to challenge you to not mention Crystal Bridges somehow in your dream day. But what would that look like for you and your family around town?
Dr. Mindy Besaw:Oh gosh for me it would, especially with my family so I have two children we would be outside, so we would do something outside, maybe with our bicycles, but usually on a flat paved road rather than hilly wooded ones, and so riding bikes around, and then we would stop and get something to eat, maybe a beverage you know, beer for the adults, perhaps a smoothie for the kids. So we would do something to eat, and then we would also stop for ice cream Of course terrible.
Dr. Mindy Besaw:So it would be food focused, outdoor focused and, yeah, that would be a dream day in a bookstore yeah, sorry.
Beth Bobbitt:Good call. That's what I would add. I love that. Thanks so much for sharing, mindy, and thanks for being here. It was a pleasure to have you in the studio. Thank you so much. Yes, and Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social media. Check out the website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.