Kicking off the highly anticipated 2020 rendition of the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market is the Best of Show Reception on Friday, March 6. The ticketed opening-night party will feature a warm welcome by Anna Flynn, chair of the museum fair; awards announcement by David Roche, Dickey Family Director and the museum’s CEO; fashion show; small-plates dinner and dessert; and a look at the fair’s award-winning art, which will be on display throughout the evening in the Steele Auditorium and will be available for purchase during the weekend’s market.Ephraim Anderson (Navajo) stands with his award-winning piece at the 2019 Best of Show Reception.

“At the Best of Show event, the community acknowledges and honors the award-winning artists and their creations as well as all the artists who had the courage to enter the competition,” says Flynn. “The market in general has been a gathering place for art lovers and the community to celebrate and learn about Native arts and cultures for 62 years. For the community, I think these events are public testaments to the staying power of Indigenous arts and cultures. Fairgoers will meet artists who are fourth or fifth generation who learned from a grandparent, uncles or aunts, mothers or fathers. Those artists will show the family legacy in design or color or form and then point out the new direction they are taking the family legacy. I think this is a strong message to the community that Indigenous artists have been, are, and always will be, standing their ground.”

Included in the evening’s awards are the 10 Best of Classification winners, the coveted Best of Show Award, the Idyllwild Arts Imagination Award, the Innovation Award for nine classifications, and the Conrad House Award, which is presented to an artist who, according to the museum, “is grounded in traditional precepts yet shows originality, vision and innovation.”Guests enjoying dinner at last year’s Best of Show Reception.

The award pays tribute to Conrad House, a Navajo and Oneida artist who passed away in 2001 and worked in a variety of mediums, including paint, glass, collages, ceramics and textiles.

Artwork considered for the award must exemplify House’s artist’s statement: “My concerns as an artist reflect life and all its complexities, from color and textural relationships, to confronting contemporary issues (i.e., impact of A.I.D.S., political beliefs, spiritual values, environmental destruction, trips to Europe, Sweet Love Relationships, etc.), the list goes on, but are all interrelated. My concerns can change as drastically as the many mediums I play with, from pastels, to clay, to glass, to beads, to collages, to paints, then back to pastels. Freedom of choice is essential…With the drawing mediums I can spontaneously release my thoughts and findings, whether literal or not. I am always trying to learn and explore other possibilities freely, therefore growing and changing.”

A new honor, the People’s Choice Award, will be unveiled at this year’s fair and market.3. Lakota Honor by Rhonda Holy Bear (Cheyenne River Sioux/Lakota), who won a Best of Classification award for the diverse arts category at the 2019 market.  4. The Beauty Within Us by Fritz Casuse (Navajo), who won second place, Division C, in the jewelry and lapidary category at last year’s market.  5. Attendees at the 2019 Best of Show Reception.  6. Guild member Nancy O’Neal (far left) points out the details of Lyndon Tsosie’s The Air People and Their Tea.  7. Anna Flynn, chair of the museum fair, welcomes guests to the 2019 Best of Show Reception.  8. Visitors view The Air People and Their Tea by Lyndon Tsosie (Navajo). Tsosie won the Conrad House Award for the piece at last year’s market.  

“As people view the winning art, they can participate in giving an additional award to an artist by voting for the artwork that spoke to them,” explains Pat Kilburn, chair of the juried competition.

Kilburn, who has participated in the annual fair for the past 13 years, knows firsthand how much work and dedication goes into making the event possible.

“Numerous volunteers are involved in all aspects of the fair, and Best of Show is no exception,” she shares.

While putting on the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market is a year-long process—with preparations for next year’s fair beginning “a few weeks after the fair closes with debriefing sessions to determine how to make the fair even better the following year,” as Kilburn explains—it is well worth the effort.Song of the Rain Spirits by Cliff Fragua (Jemez Pueblo), who won a Best of Classification award for the sculpture category at the 2019 market.

Ephraim Anderson (Navajo), the 2019 Best of Show Award and Best of Classification (Weaving & Textiles category) winner, says: “The best of show award sparks enterprise in an artist whether they are using established classifications, creating new ones, or reviving little known history and techniques. I took a risk in learning and spending months researching textile fragments to create my textile and I came so close to shelving the project. Now with the Best of Show, I can be free to explore this new, or actually, very old way of weaving. Who knows who else will have such a life altering experience by winning a prestigious and proper award that allows them also to truly flourish in their art form. Thank you.” —

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