Collecting in a Changing World

Home / Exhibitions / Collecting in a Changing World

Collecting in a Changing World

March 1, 2025 – January 4, 2026

Iitah kwatsiim övah taayugnwaa, tuswkai nit kii ow tunaatyowugnwaa (Watching from above, helping to protect the lands and their home) Kwak kwaa iitaamuy pahawgnaatötah (Thank you for all the help), painted by Duane Koyawena (Hopi) during the 2019 Museum Fire.
Navuktsina, Prickly Pear Cactus Katsina by Tayron Polequaptewa (Hopi)
Pictograph #13 by Dan Namingha (Hopi-Tewa)
Cocklebur Katsina (Patsoktsina), by Gene Lalo (Hopi)
Jar with Sikyatki style abstract bird by Donella Tom Zacarias Nampeyo
Face mask designed by Loren Aragon (Acoma Pueblo) for use during the COVID-19 pandemic
Ceramic, black on white olla by Myron Sarracino (Laguna Pueblo)
Wool and cotton butterfly weaving by Alice Benally (Diné)
Fundraising and awareness T-shirt from Yee Ha’ólníi Doo (May the People Have Fortitude in Times of Adversity), also known as Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Diné sand-cast silver cuff with turquoise and coral from MNA's 2019-2020 The Force is With Our People exhibit

Collecting in a Changing World showcases recent Museum of Northern Arizona acquisitions that reflect evolving art, culture, and science across the Colorado Plateau. The additions were carefully chosen to enhance MNA’s research, exhibits, and educational programs and highlight how people engage with shifting environments.

Featured works in the exhibit include art and pottery from the Hopi-Tewa Nampeyo-Namingha family, paintings by Hopi-Tewa artists Duane Koyawena and Ed Kabotie, and items representing resilience, such as pandemic-era Indigenous artifacts and moccasins worn by Bearsun, a social media phenomenon who walked across the Navajo Nation. The exhibit includes Star Wars-inspired Diné art, collected initially for MNA’s popular The Force is With Our People exhibition from 2019-2020.

In addition, Collecting in a Changing World underscores the MNA’s focus on the art, culture, and science of the Colorado Plateau with newly acquired Hopi kachina dolls depicting plant and animal life positioned alongside corresponding regional botanical and insect specimens.