Shows Apache Women's Baskets And Frederick Peso Sculptures

[ September 2, Truth or Consequences ] – Women Weave the World ( www.womenweavetheworld.org ), a newly formed campaign to engage people to actively participate in unity and resilience, has been invited by the Chiricahua Apache Nation to join in their Sacred Origins and Lifeways Art Exhibition. The show has its opening reception Friday, September 6, 5 – 7 pm at Light Art Space, 209 W. Broadway Street, Silver City, New Mexico.

A collection of over thirty baskets – some three hundred years old – woven by Mescalero Apache women will be shown. They are from the collection of Sophia Peso and her husband, renowned sculptor, Frederick Peso. Several of his bronze sculptures will also be shown.

Women Weave the World has swiftly come together to support women cultural makers and leaders. Initiated around a historic collection of baskets, woven over centuries by Apache women, the weavings, and their many uses, are symbolic of the strength, vitality and leadership women bring to their communities, large and small.

A basket filled with symbolic items that represent the people of the tribe's hopes for longevity, courage, and resilience, is blessed by the maiden in the Apache Girl's Sunrise Ceremony. Women Weave the World offers a ritual basket in their pop-up flash gallery exhibitions of the Peso Basket Collection in which participants can add their names of support

Sophia Rose Peso, the keeper of the baskets – who will be present at the opening reception -- lives on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Over decades, she has sought and been given these baskets, representing works over three centuries, to keep the traditions intact. With her husband, she raised over thirty children, their own, via adoption and fostering youth. Her dedication to the tribe is to preserve its culture and traditions. To accompany the exhibition and deepen the context of the basket collection, is a short documentary, In Conversation With Sophia Rose, shot by Bianca & Anthony Quiterio and produced by SŰŰS STUDIOS.

The display of this rich cultural heritage of women's basketry – itsįįs in Apache – has long been a vision of Kristi Moya. The project, umbrellaed under her newly formed SŰŰS STUDIOS, is activated by her production team and friends: Ariel Dougherty, Jia Apple, Judy Reagan, Delia deVer, Jeanne Callahan, Barbara Bennett, Anthony and Bianca Quiterio, and Pete Padilla.

The exhibition runs through October 5th. Newly forged copies can be ordered of the Peso sculptures. The baskets will only be on display through September 8th as a pop-up flash display. Women Weave the World seeks other flash display opportunities throughout the Southwest.