Collecting Jewelry: Conversations with the Curator featuring Jennifer Curtis and Allen Aragon

Continuing public programming for Collecting Jewelry: H. P. Mera’s Trip to Navajo Country in 1932, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture hosted two contemporary Navajo/Diné jewelers in conversation with exhibition curator Ross Altshuler and MIAC assistant curator, Lillia McEnaney.
Collecting Jewelry showcases 160 pieces of jewelry made between 1880-1930 that Dr. Mera gathered. These pieces were made with rudimentary tools and without available references for style and technique. The amazing pieces created form the basis of Navajo/Diné silversmithing and inspired the generations that followed.
Born in Keams Canyon, Arizona, in 1964 and raised on a remote area of the Navajo reservation, Jennifer Curtis, the daughter of famed silversmith Thomas Curtis, began playing around in her father’s studio at the age of eight. Today, she is honored to carry on his exquisite approach to jewelry-making, and she continues to reference her father’s work, noting him as her biggest inspiration. “All of the elements I work with come from Mother Earth.” She references this connection to living on the reservation, “where we learned about life.” The graceful tenacity of her work reflects her personal fortitude, illuminating the wearer with a reminder of their own unique courage and inner power.
Acclaimed Navajo artist Allen Aragon creates miniature pottery and jewelry that is highly celebrated by collectors of Native American art throughout the United States and beyond. Allen’s miniature pots are created in the traditional ways, but he has developed his own style, combining ideas from Navajo, Hopi, and Acoma artforms. To create his unique jewelry, Allen paints intricate abstract and animal images on pieces of pottery. He then fires them and sets each one in sterling silver to create beautiful pendants, earrings, rings, bolo ties and concho belts. Born in Ganado, Arizona, Allen was raised on a ranch near Chaco Canyon