Mead Art Museum Casa Mañana: The Morrow Collection of Mexican Popular Arts

February 8 – April 21, 2002

The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College will present Casa Mañana: The Morrow Collection of Mexican Popular Arts, from Friday, Feb. 8, until Sunday, April 21. This exhibition celebrates the collection of Mexican folk art assembled by Dwight W. Morrow (Amherst College Class of 1895) and his wife Elizabeth Cutter (Smith College Class of 1896) during Morrow's tenure as the United States Ambassador to Mexico in the late 1920s. Highlights include rare lacquered trays and boxes from the Mexican states of Guerrero and Michoacán, ceramics from Puebla, Oaxaca, Jalisco and Guanajuato, and textiles from Mexico, Zacatecas and Coahuila.

The Mead Art Museum's Morrow Collection of Mexican folk art is one of the most important in the United States. The Morrows, among the vanguard of early collectors of Mexican folk art, purchased most of these objects for Casa Mañana, their weekend residence in the resort town of Cuernavaca. Morrow also commissioned a mural by Mexico's leading artist Diego Rivera. The Morrows believed that Mexico's visual arts would complement political and economic negotiations and facilitate greater understanding across the border. More than a retreat, Casa Mañana was a sympathetic gesture of goodwill and a visual declaration of allegiance to the indigenista rhetoric of the post-Revolutionary era, which placed Mexican culture at the heart of national identity. In 1955 the Morrow family gave a selection of 159 pieces to Amherst College.

Events:

Monday, March 25, 3:30 p.m.
Open Forum. Stirn Auditorium.
US Ambassador to Mexico, Jeffrey Davidow
Moderated by Aimee Wilczynski '03

Monday, March 25, 7:30p.m.
Lecture. Stirn Auditorium.
US Ambassador to Mexico, Jeffrey Davidow
"The Future of the US-Mexico Relationship"
A reception will follow in the Museum.

Mexican-American Film Festival | Press Release

This exhibition, and its accompanying catalogue, were funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Fideicomiso U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture and the Hall and Kate Peterson Fund.

Mead Art Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of:

American Association of Museums
Institute of Museum and Library Services
National Endowment for the Arts
US-Mexico Fund for Culture
Hall & Kate Peterson Fund
Spanish Department; Chicana/o Caucus; and La Causa Student Organization at Amherst College
UMASS Multicultural Film Festival
Summerlin Floors, Amherst, MA