A new exhibition at the Longyear Museum of Anthropology is bringing global textile traditions to the forefront.
“Unraveled: Labor and Meaning Behind Weaving,” curated by 10 students in Colgate University’s MUSE 300: Museum Curating course, showcases 10 tapestries that highlight the artistry, labor and cultural significance of weaving. Featuring pieces from the museum’s collections and new acquisitions, the exhibit examines how textiles shape identity, politics and tradition across different communities.
The exhibition opened on Feb. 6 with speeches from the student curators, who shared their experiences developing the show from start to finish. Among them were seniors Leila Bekaert and Meg McClenahan, both museum studies minors.
“It’s such an interesting concept for a class because you’re intended to work with these people for the rest of the semester,” McClenahan said. “Coming in on the first day can always be slightly daunting. How are we going to get along?”
As the 10 curators divided into smaller groups focusing on different themes — makers and their tools, commercialization, globalization and consumer culture, aesthetics and function and culture, politics and pride — they collaborated creatively to bring the exhibition together.
“It’s so useful in learning how to collaborate with people,” McClenahan continued. “[My partner] and I are both big voices in class — we had to learn the balance of working together.”
Beyond working with their peers, the curators also collaborated with Co-Director of University Museums and Curator of the Longyear Museum Rebecca Mendelsohn, who also teaches the course, to bring pieces — some from other continents — to Hamilton. Mendelsohn described her passion for teaching the class.
“It’s one of my favorite things I do here at Colgate,” Mendelsohn said. “I love pushing my students through the process of creating an exhibition. We started the semester with just the theme of weaving and took it from there.”
Later in the semester, Mendelsohn welcomed two artists from Jalabil, a women’s weaving collective in Oxchuc, Chiapas, Mexico, for a two-week residency at Colgate. The artists spoke to the class about their work and the museum acquired two of their pieces, which are now on display at Longyear.
Reflecting on the visit, Bekaert described it as a highlight of the semester.
“Their visit to our class was definitely the most memorable moment,” Bekaert said.
In the end, the weavers gifted the University a loom, now featured prominently in the exhibition. Both students agreed that it was an honor.
The theme of weaving extends beyond the art on display — it also reflects the collaboration that made the exhibition possible.
“A great number of these woven works embody the spirit of collaboration, continuity and shared responsibility, no matter where on the globe they’re from — whether it be the Two Row Wampum belt or West African Kente cloth,” junior Kegan Foley told the packed crowd gathered in front of the exhibition doors.
The curators described how the belt, for instance, represents a treaty between the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch that has endured for centuries.
“The two rows of dark purple wampum symbolize two different communities with vastly different notions of religion, statehood and culture, traveling through history side by side,” Foley said. “In many ways, this mirrors our class — students from different backgrounds, majors and interests coming together to create something greater than ourselves.”
People from outside the museum studies class were als0 instrumental in making the exhibition a success. Darwin Rodriguez, the operations manager for the museum, helped coordinate the extra components such as the art-making activities, marketing the event and finding the caterer.
“Even though my title is about operations, I’m an educator,” Rodriguez said. “I couldn’t find a better way for young students and professionals to learn how to work in museums than curating their own show, and then to be involved in programming and have a creative role in every aspect of what this is.”
At its heart, “Unraveled” is a testament to the power of collaboration — between students, faculty and artists but also across generations and cultures. Just as weaving interlaces individual threads to create something greater than the sum of its parts, this exhibition highlights how collective effort and shared knowledge sustain artistic traditions.
“Unraveled” is now on display at the Longyear Museum of Anthropology.
