06.13.08
New Mola Exhibit at Hood Museum of Art
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH - Press Release,
June 9, 2008
News Release Contact: Sharon Reed, Public Relations Coordinator
June 9, 2008 (603) 646-2426 Sharon.reed@dartmouth.edu
Colorful textile art of mola making from Kuna Yala featured in new exhibition
HANOVER, N.H.—The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College highlights selections from its collection of colorful and visually enticing blouses, or molas, made by the indigenous women of Kuna Yala, a narrow strip of land and islands along the Caribbean coast of Panama. On view now through December 7, 2008, in the first-floor galleries, Dressing Up Culture: Molas from Kuna Yala explores the textile art of mola making and its importance to the cultural survival of the Kuna women.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, mola making has become an important means of cultural expression among indigenous Kuna women. Executed on layered panels of cotton fabric, mola patterns yield an astounding array of traditional and contemporary themes via abstract, geometric, and figurative designs with diverse representations ranging from appropriations of pre-Hispanic symbolism to motifs derived from the natural world, Kuna legends and daily life, political posters and events, commercial labels and advertisements, books and magazines, mass media and popular culture, cartoons, and of course, the human imagination.
As a uniquely Kuna art form, molas have helped the indigenous peoples of Kuna Yala, particularly women, preserve their cultural and ethnic identity in the face of homogenizing Western forces. The wide diversity of the molas in the Hood’s collection reveals not only the imaginative breadth of this textile art but also the cultural resistance and strength of survival that characterizes Kuna culture. With its seemingly endless potential for artistic and cultural expression, the mola has indeed become an international symbol of Kuna woman’s identity and cultural survival.
The Hood Museum of Art’s holding of almost sixty molas was assembled primarily by two Dartmouth collectors. Russell A. Mittermeier, Class of 1971, purchased about twenty molas for the Dartmouth College Museum while he was in Panama in 1970, conducting research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center Baloa. Alice Cox (Mrs. Sidney Cox, Class of 1939hW) collected almost thirty molas while traveling to Panama to visit her daughter Barbara Vallarino (Mrs. Joaquin J. Vallarino Jr., Dartmouth Class of 1943W), who gave the collection to the Dartmouth College Museum in 1977.
About the Hood
The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College is an accredited member of the American Association of Museums (AAM) and is cited by AAM as a national model. The Hood is located in the heart of downtown Hanover, N.H., in an award-winning building designed by Charles Moore. The museum’s outstanding and diverse collections include American portraits, paintings, watercolors, drawings, silver, and decorative arts, European Old Master prints and drawings, paintings and sculpture, and ancient, Asian, African, Oceanic, and Native American collections from almost every period in history to the present. The Hood regularly displays its collections and organizes major traveling exhibitions while featuring major exhibitions from around the country. The museum provides a rich diversity of year-round public programs.
Admission is free of charge. Operating hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 12 noon to 5 p.m. The Hood Museum of Art Gift Shop offers items inspired by the collections and exhibitions. The Hood is wheelchair accessible and offers listening devices. For further accessibility requests, please contact the museum. For more information about the collections, exhibitions, and programs, visit www.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu.
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From someone with a collection of molas and books about them, I can testify that this exhibit, that we plan to attend, will be of interest.
Patricia Cummings, http://www.quiltersmuse.com/a-history-of-molas.htm
Use the search word function, on the front page of my website, to see other files that feature molas.
