Skip to main content
Vilcek Foundation
  • About
    • About

      The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences.

    • Our Mission
    • Our Founders
    • Our Team
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prizes

      The Vilcek Foundation Prizes celebrate extraordinary achievements in the arts and sciences.

    • About the Prizes
    • Prize Recipients
    • Vilcek Prizes

      Awards immigrants with a legacy of major accomplishments.

    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

      Recognizes young immigrant professionals for outstanding achievements.

    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence

      Celebrating intellectual and cultural leaders in the United States.

    • Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History

      Honors art historians, curators, and fine arts professionals.

  • Art
  • Grants
    • Grants

      Grants awarded to 501(c)(3) cultural, educational, and philanthropic organizations in the United States.

    • Grants

      Learn more and apply for a grant.

    • Grants History

      Explore a list of past Vilcek Foundation grantees.

  • Events
  • News
Sign Up Search
Home > News > Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery opens in New York

Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery opens in New York

News | July 12, 2023
Tags
exhibition Grounded in Clay Native American
Download audio
Audio: Listen to this post
Share this page
Share this page on X Share this page on Facebook Share this page on LinkedIn
A close up of a pueblo pot against a black background.
Martina Vigil and Florentino Montoya | San Ildefonso. Storage jar with lid, c. 1905, Clay and paint
20 ½ x 26 in. (52.1 x 66 cm), IAF.1221

The Vilcek Foundation is pleased to present Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, with dual presentations at the foundation’s Manhattan headquarters and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from July 2023 through June 2024. Developed in partnership with the School for Advanced Research (SAR), the exhibition includes more than 100 historic and contemporary works of Native American pottery originating in the Pueblo communities of what is now the southwestern United States. 

Curator Brian Vallo places a pot onto it's display.
Community curator Brian D. Vallo placing a pot during the installation process.

The exhibition at the Vilcek Foundation opens July 13, 2023, and is on view through June 2, 2024, by appointment. Tours will be conducted by the foundation’s Native American Art Fellow, Povi Romero (Pojoaque, Cochiti, Santa Clara, and Ohkay Owingeh).

A nativity set with people and animals painted with red, black, and cream.
Mary Elizabeth Toya | Jemez. Nativity set, c. 1982, Clay and paint, dimensions variable. School for Advanced Research Collection, Gift of Betty and Luke Vortman. SAR.2010-2-34A-K

Living traditions: Pueblo Pottery

The works included in Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery were selected by members of the Pueblo Pottery Collective from the Vilcek Collection and from the collections of the School for Advanced Research and the Indian Arts Research Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The collective, established specifically for the purpose of this exhibition, comprises more than 60 curators of diverse ages, backgrounds, and professions from more than 20 Native American communities, as well as non-Native museum professionals. 

Curators  wrote about the works they selected for the exhibition and its accompanying catalog. Grounded in Clay is enriched by their voices and the diversity of personal, historic, and cultural insights they bring to exhibition visitors’ understanding of these works. The curators’ essays range from recollections on the practices of gathering clay and preparing pigments to poetry and essays reflecting on the works and their meanings. Several curators wrote about the living traditions of pottery-making and the artists and makers today whose work links the present and future of pottery-making to the rich and important history of pottery-making in Pueblo communities.

A round pot with cloud banks and leaf motifs in red and black.
Tesuque Jar, c. 1870–80, VF2016.01.08
A round pot with bird forms in red and black.
Tesuque Jar, c. 1870–80, Clay and paint, 15 ½ x 17 in. (39.4 x 43.2 cm), VF2016.01.08
  • A round pot with cloud banks and leaf motifs in red and black.
  • A round pot with bird forms in red and black.

Felicia Garcia (Chumash) of The Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center and of Native American Art Magazine writes, “Exhibitions like this are really pushing the needle forward within the field and changing the way that Native art is presented within these spaces. Through this diverse collective of Native voices, we can see what is possible within these institutions when it comes to representing Native communities in a more honest, positive, and accurate way.” 

Expanding on the exhibition

As Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery opens in New York, the Vilcek Foundation launches a digital experience, Pueblo Pottery: Stories in Clay, online. The foundation worked with Pentagram to develop the experience, which serves to highlight and expand on the curatorial insights that make Grounded in Clay so unique, and to bring these insights to a wider audience. Users can navigate three-dimensional views of selected works of pottery that were captured using photogrammetry with the support of foundation partners at Cortina Productions and Forum One. 

A pot dense with geometric shapes and black lines.
Tewa or Hopi Hano Jar, c. 1900, Clay and paint, 9 x 14 in. (22.9 x 35.6 cm), VF2018.02.06
A pot dense with geometric shapes and black lines.
Tewa or Hopi Hano Jar, c. 1900, Clay and paint, 9 x 14 in. (22.9 x 35.6 cm), VF2018.02.06
  • A pot dense with geometric shapes and black lines.
  • A pot dense with geometric shapes and black lines.

The digital experience, Pueblo Pottery: Stories in Clay, is enriched by audio and video features with curators from the Pueblo Pottery Collective that provide context into selected works of pottery, and insight into pottery-making traditions more broadly.

Tags
exhibition Grounded in Clay Native American
Share this page
Share this page on X Share this page on Facebook Share this page on LinkedIn

Related News

December 2, 2024

Grounded in Clay: Now on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Developed in partnership with the School for Advanced Research (SAR), the community-curated exhibition includes more than 100 works of historic and contemporary Pueblo pottery.
A Zuni pot centered with other pottery works displayed behind it.
July 31, 2023

Pueblo Pottery: Stories in Clay

A new digital experience centers the voices and insights of the community curators behind Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery.
The digital exhibition homepage with a black background and the exhibition title in yellow and white text.
July 5, 2023

The Met to present exhibition of ‘Grounded in Clay’

The Vilcek Foundation partners with the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the exhibition of Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery in New York.
9 pots featured in the exhibition on a blue background.

You may also be interested in

Exhibition, May 29, 2025 - May 29, 2026

Il Lee—Energy and Flow: Abstraction of Movements

Il Lee is widely acclaimed for his large-scale abstract compositions, created through the intricate use of numerous ballpoint pens on paper and canvas.
Overlapping white lines on a dark background. The lines form an abstracted cluster along the top of the artwork, densely packed in the middle and loosening toward the edges, creating a sense of motion and intensity.
Exhibition, July 13, 2023 - June 4, 2024

Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery

Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective, features works from the Vilcek Collection and from the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research.
Pueblo pottery placed in cases and on tables in a gallery.

Schiff

April 1915 Marsden Hartley
A ship, blue and white waves with four emerging stylized plants, and a yellow sun with symmetrical white wings hovering above.

Join our mailing list

Sign Up
Vilcek Foundation
21 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021

Phone: 212.472.2500

Email: info@vilcek.org

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our Founders
    • Our Team
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prize Recipients
    • Vilcek Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise
    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence
    • Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History
  • Art
  • Grants
    • Grants History
  • Events
  • News
  • Careers
Connect with us
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Facebook
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Instagram
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on X
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on LinkedIn
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Youtube
  • Connect with the Vilcek Foundation on Vimeo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
© 2025   Vilcek Foundation
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok