Dear Friends of the Ixchel Museum:
Well, we did it! Thanks to an excellent partnership between the FOIM Exhibit Team (Ray Senuk, Abby Sue Fisher, Yolanda Alcorta and me) and the staff and volunteers at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, our exhibit opened on July 21st. The reception was well-attended, including by the Consuls-General of Guatemala and Mexico, and was framed by a marimba, live weaver, and Ray’s gallery talk. This bulletin will give you a quick view of the final installation and provide a skeleton of what we put together. But there’s more:
We created a gorgeous publication available for purchase now. It is slender, yet packed with beautiful photographs and extensive explanatory text for the objects displayed. Please consider supporting us by purchasing them as gifts or for use in education settings.
Coming soon, we will create an On-Line Exhibition to be posted on our website so a broader set of photos can be enjoyed. Somewhat of a virtual tour, it will do a fuller job of showing you both the exhibit and the “surround sound” activities.
If you have local small museums as candidates for this exhibit, do let us know – the building blocks are in place. We thank those of you who provided special donations for this effort, and look forward to re-filling our coffers so that it can travel to other locations. Regardless, please spread the word about this accomplishment. An anonymous donor provided a matching grant for NEW donors during this exhibit period, yet we know that the real incentive is if you share this bulletin with friends and encourage them to become members.
The Museo Ixchel cataloguing project continues, but is still lagging in terms of external technical support. The curatorial staff is actively working a Phase 1, which is to take digital photographs and create a preliminary description for the textile backlog which exists. We continue to review collection software proposals and solutions.
Thanks again for your interest and support, welcome to those who have recently joined us, and do enjoy the crisp Fall weather which is finally here.
Ana-Maria V. Zaugg
President, Friends of the Ixchel Museum
Visit Ixchelfriends.org
