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"West Mexico: Ritual and Identity" on View at Gilcrease Museum

Aired on Thursday, July 7th.

On this installment of ST, we speak with Dr. Bob Pickering, a Professor of Anthropology in the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences here at TU. Dr. Pickering is also the curator for a new exhibit at Gilcrease Museum; "West Mexico: Ritual and Identity" will be on view through November 6th. It's a show that, per the Gilcrease website, "will feature a spectacular selection of ceramic figures and vessels from the Gilcrease collection, augmented by items from public and private collections.... West Mexico's past is a fascinating story that dates back more than 2,000 years, around the time that Teotihuacán (near present-day Mexico City) was emerging as the most important city in the Americas. Due to its sizable population, stature as a religious center, and apartment-style dwellings, this city was a cultural center in its day. Meanwhile, another vibrant society, the Teuchitlán (commonly known by social scientists as the 'Shaft Tomb' culture), was developing between Guadalajara and the west coast of Mexico in what is now Nayarit and Jalisco. This land of mild climate offered abundant fresh water, rich soils, mineral wealth, and access to the resources of the ocean and the mountains. Large, expressive ceramic figures frequently were part of the ritual items deposited in shaft tombs. Ceramic human figures adorned with brightly colored clothing, tattoos, and body paint provide an intimate look at men and women of the culture, along with a variety of animals, birds, fish and reptiles. In the 1940s and '50s, Thomas Gilcrease amassed a collection of more than 500 ceramic figures and vessels from West Mexico, including two significant human figures, each more than 30 inches in height, and among the finest figures from the region. This exhibit will examine and interpret the art and artifacts of the shaft tomb culture that flourished in West Mexico 300 BC-500 AD, bringing together the most current research from the field, scientific laboratories, and objects to re-create life, death, and ritual."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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