Threads of Time & Wisdom: Chilean & Guatemalan Fiber Arts
Located in the Down Jersey Folklife Center 
April 1 through November 13, 2022

This exhibition provides a visual comparison between traditional textiles of two indigenous communities of Latin America—the Chilean Mapuche people and the Guatemalan Maya. Both Mapuche and Maya artists create artworks that speak about identity and cultural heritage in a modern interconnected world, weaving ancestral knowledge and wisdom into present-day ways of life. The exhibition also features Chilean horsehair (crin) miniatures of religious and secular objects—flowers, animals, or human figures—that aim to engage viewers in a conversation about the dynamics of living traditions over time, their social, artistic, and ritual messages conveyed by the artworks and by the nature of the creative process.