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The Southwest Mural Project

Originally named, the Hopi Mural Project, The Southwest Mural Project (SWMP) was a cooperative collaboration between the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) in Flagstaff, and the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office (HCPO). The 1935-1939 Peabody Museum Awatovi Excavation (Awatovi Ruins) unearthed thousands of ceramic artifacts, and produced hundreds of 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" black and white negatives, hundreds of glass vials of paint chips from Kiva mural paintings, and over 9,000 pages of field notes. The excavation documented over 100 painted murals discovered in underground ceremonial chambers (Kivas). Most of the murals were destroyed during the excavation process. World War II broke out following the excavation and for the most part this material sat waiting for analysis for 60 years.

Project History

In 1998 the Hopi Mural Project came into being because of generous funding provided by the Getty Information Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Flinn Foundation, and the Wilson Foundation. The name was changed in 1999 to the Southwest Mural Project to include examples of Pueblo Native American Kiva mural painting beyond the Hopi Tribal area. Other sites with painted Kiva murals included in the project included Kuaua and Pottery Mound in New Mexico and Lowery Pueblo in southwestern Colorado.

The Project was based at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. The initial phase of the Project included the creation of a digital database of all known images of Kiva mural painting, ceramic objects from the included sites, and sketches and drawings from the Peabody Awatovi Excavation field notes. Using mural reproductions and field note sketches and paint chips the 1935-1939 black and white photographs of mural walls were 'colorized' as accurately as possible. Many Kiva wall layers became available for viewing using virtual reality software (CosmoPlayer). For the first time since many of the Kiva murals were excavated they were viewable as the excavators saw them.

Utilizing the digital database created other team members included Kelley Hayes-Gilpin, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Northern Arizona University (ceramic seriation); Steven LeBlanc, Director of Collections at the Peabody Museum (Kiva wall layer seriation); Emory Sekaquaptewa, Professor of Anthropological Linguistics at the University of Arizona (conceptual mural imagery); Dorothy Washburn, Professor at the Maryland Institute, College of Art (aesthetic image analysis); and Edwin Wade, Senior Vice-President and Curator of Ethnology at the Museum of Northern Arizona (sematic model of Hopi art). Additionally, Dennis Gilpin, M.A., RPA PaleoWest Archaeology, worked on an extensive architectural history of Awatovi Pueblo.

The second phase of the Project was envisioned to produce an international traveling exhibit, tentatively named the Magic of the Painted Room. Several total immersive viewing platforms were tested toward the end of 2002. In 2003 the Project was halted until an extensive Memorandum of Understanding could be negotiated between the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office. A final MOU [1] was negotiated in 2005 at which time the Project was renamed, the Hopi Iconography Project. The traveling exhibit component of the Project has been put on indefinite hold.[2]

References

[1] MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING between THE MUSEUM OF NORTHERN ARIZONA and THE HOPI TRIBE (March 2005)

[2]"The Hopi Mural Project," (2000) Presentation packet prepared for a Museum of Northern Arizona Board of Governors Meeting; Erdmann, Steven F. (Project Senior Analyst)

Further Reading

"MNA Partners with Hopi Tribe," March 23, 2005 Museum of Northern Arizona Press Release

Hopi Iconography Project at the Museum of Northern Arizona

External Links

Hopi Tribe - Official website

Museum of Northern Arizona

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Northern Arizona University

An Architectural History of Awatovi Pueblo, 2019 presentation to the Verde Valley Archaeology Center by Dennis Gilpin, M.A., RPA PaleoWest Archaeology