Wheelwright Museum
Welcome to the Wheelwright Museum’s new website and to our News/Blog feature. We want to thank Mindshare Studios, Santa Fe, for creating the site with extensive input from the museum’s staff and volunteers. We are especially grateful to former board president Darla Cox and current vice-president Jean Higgins for the many hours they contributed to planning and organization of content.
The museum has lots of staff news. As many of our members know, the manager of our Case Trading Post, Ken Williams, is an accomplished artist. We featured the work of Ken and his partner, Orlando Dugi, in an exhibition that closed early this year. Ken was recently awarded Best of Show at the Heard Museum Guild’s 56th Annual Indian Fair and Market for a tobacco bag honoring the memory of Charles Loloma. The piece, titled “He Was Iconic,” was promptly purchased by the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS. Congratulations to Ken for this great honor.
We hosted a book-signing event for Ken and Orlando on Saturday, March 22, which drew a nice crowd. Their catalog, It’s in the Details: Kenneth Williams and Orlando Dugi, is now available in the Case Trading Post.
In November Jaclyn Gomez joined us as Fiscal Officer. By January she had caught up on a huge backlog, had prepared our 2014 budget, and had made several carefully considered changes to procedures and software. Last month Neebinnaukzhik Southall joined the staff as our web/social media manager. Neebin was instrumental in preparing our website for launch. Elizabeth Quinn recently joined us as collections manager. She will provide invaluable support, completing our new collection database and supporting the installation of our new galleries.
Construction of our new wing is more than 60 percent complete. This 7,000-square-foot addition is the largest and most anticipated expansion in the museum’s 77-year history. We started planning this expansion in 1996, but before we could start, we had to plan and complete three other building projects. Some public spaces in the new expansion will be open this summer, and we will celebrate the opening of our new galleries in spring 2015.
This portion of our website will have constant updates. We will feature treasures from our collection and archive, new items available in the Case Trading Post, and news about upcoming events and activities.
We are grateful to the hundreds of people nationwide who have engaged in years of planning and donated the funds that have made our dreams become reality.
Jonathan Batkin
Director