60 curators, 1 show: Native Americans pick favorite pottery

Native American voices and artistry are at the core of a new traveling exhibition of clay pottery from the Pueblo Indian region of the American Southwest, as major art institutions increasingly defer to tribal communities for displays of ancestral art and artifacts.

In all, 60 Native American artists, museum professionals, storytellers and political leaders collaborated to curate the exhibit.

Each picked a few of their favorite pieces from institutional collections in New Mexico and New York that didn’t always defer to Indigenous perspectives. Personal statements and sometimes poetry accompany the clay ceramics.

By Morgan Lee