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- Newly renovated LSU Textile and Costume Museum reopens with Mayan textile exhibition
(07/30/21) BATON ROUGE, La. — The newly renovated LSU Textile and Costume Museum will reopen Sunday, Aug. 29, with the debut of an exhibition of Mayan textiles.
The museum gallery, which is located on the LSU campus, will be open for viewing of the “Trajé, Maya Textile Artistry” exhibition from 2 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
The exhibition features the recently acquired Travis Doering collection of textiles and related artifacts from 40 Mayan villages in the Guatemala highlands. It is curated by Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, professor emerita in the LSU Department of Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising, and Alexandra Forestier, graduate assistant.
Additional public lectures will take place in the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters while the Trajé exhibition is open to the public. The museum is open during LSU business hours — Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — and on the first Sunday of each month from 2 to 4 p.m.
Trajé, or traditional dress, has deep cultural significance to the Maya people. The tradition of weaving and symbolism has been passed from mothers to daughters for hundreds of years and supports the legacy of craftsmanship that defines the Guatemalan Maya culture.
Traditional dress is primarily still worn by women. It includes colorful backstrap loom-woven huipiles (blouses), cortes (skirts), cintas (headdresses), rebozzos (shawls) and fajas (belts). Examples of these items are on display in the gallery.
Accompanying the textile exhibition are photographs by Connie Frissbee Houda, a humanitarian photojournalist from New York known, that depict the spirit and sacredness of the Mayan people and their surroundings. Houda will be at the Aug. 29 event to discuss her perspective on the nobleness of the Maya people in her photographs.
Travis Doering, co-director of the digital heritage and humanities collections at the University of South Florida, will present a lecture titled “Woven Voices: A Journey into Maya Textiles and Cultural Heritage” at 2:30 p.m.
The LSU Textile and Costume Museum gallery is in the back wing of the Human Ecology Building on the LSU campus at the corner of Tower Drive and South Campus Drive. Access to the gallery and parking can be found off South Campus Drive.
For more information on the exhibition and gallery opening, contact Erica Woolard at 225-578-2448 or ericaw1@lsu.edu.
Pieces from the exhibit “Trajé, Maya Textile Artistry” are on display at the LSU Textile and Costume Museum. The museum, located on the LSU campus at the corner of Tower Drive and South Campus Drive, will reopen Sunday, Aug. 29, with the debut of Mayan textiles. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter