Coiling Kin: The Life of Pueblo Pottery exhibit at UNM’s Maxwell Museum

The University of New Mexico's Maxwell Museum of Anthropology's newest exhibit, Coiling Kin: The Life of Pueblo Pottery, opened in June and will be on display until May 27, 2028.

The exhibit features more than 60 pots from Maxwell's collection, along with pottery-making tools, photographs, and audio and video interviews with each co-curator, creating an immersive experience in the world of Pueblo pottery making. Visitors can walk through the process from start to finish, guided by the co-curators.

"The exhibit was designed with the visitors' experience in mind. It needed to show more than just objects in cases," said Julián Estrada, the museum's curator of education and public programs. "It was a really interesting process to watch this exhibit take shape, from initial conversations to the tangible experience."

Every aspect of the exhibit was considered and analyzed, even where benches would be placed. The team considered what a person would see if they sat in a spot and faced a certain direction.

The carefully curated exhibit took three years to open. It began with a simple question from a friend to Lea McChesney, recently retired curator of ethnology and lead curator of Coiling Kin.

Her friend asked where the follow-up exhibit was that shares what has happened since the museum's famous 1974 exhibit, Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery, a pivotal show that changed the narrative about what pottery means to Tribal communities in the Southwest.

Pueblo pottery has long been central to Native communities. It is deeply rooted in family and community traditions, shared across generations and passed from elders to youth. Elders pass down techniques, designs and stories to youth, preserving tribal history and identity through the family's skill and artistic ability.

The question posed to McChesney set her on a path of grant writing and prompted her to open calls to Native potters within her network and beyond to participate in the exhibit.

Her time was well spent: she received 25 positive responses from Native American potters, along with herself and Toni Gentili, the curator of exhibits at the Maxwell Museum; there are 27 curators in total. This alone is monumental in the museum field.

Video co-produced by Megan Borders (exhibit overview) and Toni Gentilli (Native potter interviews).

McChesney began hosting workshops with the 25 co-curators to discuss the importance of pottery in their families, its societal importance and its personal meaning, culminating in each potter visiting the museum to select a pot from the Maxwell's collection for display.

Marita Hinds, Tay tsu'geh Owingeh (Tesuque Pueblo), chose a Tsuki Rain God to be part of the show for visitors because her aunt made rain gods when she was alive, and it serves as a wonderful reminder of her aunt's life's work. The figurines are called 'fun makers'; they are meant to help people laugh. Hinds has been working on Rain Gods in her own practice to keep the tradition alive in her family.

Gentilli brought the exhibit to life through hours spent combing through McChesney's research, attending and facilitating many co-curator workshops and working with a videographer to record video interviews that captured the reasoning behind each potter's selection.

"My 'aha' moment was when I realized I could use the digital technology to marry it with the traditional displays of a museum exhibit to create something bigger as a whole than their two individual parts," Gentilli said. "As a visual artist who does not normally work with video, I started thinking of it as a multimedia collage."

At the heart of the Coiling Kin exhibit is its multivocal nature. McChesney and Gentilli worked hard to ensure that the Native potters told their own story and were able to share with non-Native communities why each piece is so meaningful.

"The designs and painting on each pot are intentional and reflect each potter," said Clarence Cruz, Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), a co-curator. "They are storybooks that tell the story of the person who made it, to share with the person or people who use it. It is not just decoration. There are particular reasons why an element is placed on a pot."

For the co-curators, the materials come from Mother Earth, making each one alive and a living relative. Each curator has a process in which they give thanks and ask Mother Earth if they can take the material to create and honor her through use, highlighting the co-curators' bond with nature. This is why the exhibit also displays an array of natural clays and pigments the potters use in their craft, so visitors can see the range of materials present in Pueblo pottery.

"The co-curators knew we wanted to bring a feeling to the space itself. What we landed on for the design was the inclusion of clays, slips and pigments at the center of the exhibit," said Gentilli.

The exhibit also showcases elements that represent Mother Earth, from rainbows to rain clouds and lightning. The walls are colored in hues of the land and decorated with symbols used in Pueblo pottery, like kiva steps and spirit lines, showing visitors pottery's deep spiritual connections.

"The co-curators knew we wanted to bring a feeling to the space itself. What we landed on for the design was the inclusion of clays, slips and pigments at the center of the exhibit."

- Toni Gentilli, Maxwell Museum curator

The audio above the center case is a nature soundscape featuring black-chinned hummingbirds, northern flickers, downy woodpeckers, black-capped chickadees, crickets, rain, and more, all of which can be heard if one were to sit in silence in nature.

Gentilli shared that this exhibit would not be possible without the advice and partnership of the museum's Preparator, Chris Albert. Gentilli would take what she learned from each workshop and conversation with McChesney and speak with Albert about how they could implement the ideas and desires from the whole group.

Considering the room layout, square footage, lighting and installation. He also helped with painting, mounting and any construction needed to help showcase the display elements.

"Chris was my biggest ally when it came to working within the space. We played the biggest game of Tetris in the gallery," said Gentilli. "His extensive knowledge of how to build cases, consider what is feasible and how much it will cost was invaluable. He helped me take the limitations of the space and make something fabulous"

The Coiling Kin exhibit is truly a multi-collaboration effort, making the end result an unforgettable experience for visitors, who will walk away with a heightened sense of understanding and connection with the pottery.

Visit the museum's website for details on times and location.