The Briscoe Western Art Museum, which opened less than one year ago and has since embarked on an ambitious schedule of events and programming to complement exhibitions, announced a new lecture series Tuesday that will showcase high profile Western writers, historians and policy makers.
The Distinguished Lecture Series: “Voices of the West” will be launched Thursday, Oct. 2 with a lecture by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Native American leader and former U.S. senator from Colorado who was instrumental in winning passage of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which protects Native American artists and their work.
Campbell is one of 44 members of the Council of Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, and also a respected jewelry artist.
The following weekend will feature the Briscoe’s two-day Yanaguana Indian Arts Market in the Jack Guenther Pavilion and McNut Courtyard and Sculpture Garden. More than 20 nationally-known Native American artists will showcase their work in various media, including jewelry, pottery, beadwork, basketry, and carvings.
Expert Navajo weaver Nanabah Aragon was declared Living Treasure by the state of Arizona at the Briscoe Museum’s Grand Opening. She will make another appearance at the Yanaguana Indian Arts Market.
Writer and Texas journalist S. C. Gwynne will deliver the second distinguished lecture in the series on Thursday, Nov. 6. Gwynne is the author of “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History,” which spent four months on the New York Times Top 10 Bestseller List and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gwynne’s new book is “Rebel Yell,” a biography of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.
Labor organizer and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta will deliver the third distinguished lecture in the series on Thursday, Dec. 4. Huerta has a long and distinguished career as a champion for social justice. She co-founded the National Farm Workers Association alongside Cesar Chavez and was a 2012 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Tickets for the series are $10 per lecture or $25 for an all-lecture pass. The series is free of charge for Briscoe Museum members and UTSA University members. All lectures begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Jack Guenther Pavilion at the Briscoe Western Art Museum at 210 W. Market St. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.briscoemuseum.org.
*Featured/top image: The Briscoe Western Art Museum. Photo by Iris Dimmick.
Related Stories:
Briscoe Museum, Opera Avoid City Funding Loss
Bihl Haus, Home to Art and History
Briscoe Western Art Museum Revives Historic Downtown Cultural Landmark
Diez y Seis de Septiembre: San Antonio’s Month-Long Grito
I Spy Vermeer, Ingres, Cezanne, and Van Gogh in the Matisse Exhibition
