The Linfield Anthropology Museum presents “Pueblo Visions: Artistic Traditions of the American Southwest,” a thought-provoking exhibition that explores the intersection of Native American art, tourism and cultural identity.
“Pueblo Visions: Artistic Traditions of the American Southwest” invites visitors to reflect on how art, tourism and cultural identity intersect across time — and how these traditions continue to adapt in the present day.
Focusing on the early 20th century, the exhibition examines how the rise of automobile travel brought non-Native visitors into closer contact with Pueblo communities across the American Southwest. As road networks expanded, pottery, textiles, jewelry and basketry became central to cultural exchange. Tourist routes, trading posts and regional marketing campaigns circulated this art, which frequently reframed these symbols as “authentic Southwest.”
“Pueblo Visions” also showcases the enduring creativity of Indigenous artists, whose work continues to evolve and gain recognition worldwide.
“This exhibition highlights the innovation, adaptability and enduring creativity of Indigenous artists in the American Southwest,” said Leslie Walker, assistant professor of anthropology and coordinator of the Linfield Anthropology Museum. “Particularly compelling is the way it reveals the continuity of artistic traditions across generations, demonstrating how families have sustained and reimagined their creative practices over time.”
The exhibition features objects collected by Linfield alumni John ’25 and Emma ’25 Dulin between the late 1930s and early 1980s. Additional works were acquired by former Linfield professor and alumnus Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds ’37. Alumni donated both collections to the Linfield Anthropology Museum in the 1990s.
The Linfield Anthropology Museum offers undergraduate students valuable hands-on experience in a variety of areas. This includes collections management, curation and the exhibition of historic and ethnographic materials. As a student-driven and student-curated museum, the exhibits reflect the distinctive opportunities for close collaboration, mentorship and experiential learning that define both a small college and a small museum.
Linfield students Elizabeth Arnold ’25, Sophia Sabelhaus, Ferrill Johnson, Zoey Ahl and Echo Koons created “Pueblo Visions,” devoting extensive time over the past year to research, documentation, interpretation and exhibition preparation.
The exhibition will be on display at the Linfield Anthropology Museum on Linfield University’s McMinnville campus from May 13 through November 20. Admission is free and open to the public, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
For more information, contact Walker at lewalker@linfield.edu.
