Autry Museum
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles, CA - Navajo Rug Auction
theautry.org

Value from $100 to $10,000

The Navajo Weaving Tradition Supported Through Annual Auction

12:30 p.m. Jackson Clark, Toh-Atin Gallery - Durango, Colorado, leads a walk-through of all the rugs available for sale, discusses the importance of Navajo rugs, and offers tips for building a Navajo rug collection. Rugs generally range in price from $100 - 10,000.

Autry National Center hosts an annual Navajo Rug Auction which began in 2001, providing shoppers and collectors the opportunity to own intricately hand-woven rugs made in hozho (beauty and balance). The weaving, a tradition passed down through generations, provides commerce and sustenance for families who seek to tell stories through their work, and continue an important tradition. The annual auction is one of the most important events that contributes supporting the continuity of the Navajo weaving tradition.

Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango, Colorado, generally offers a selection of these prized rugs and art throughout the year, but introduces around 100 contemporary and antique weavings to the Autry Museum each year with designs ranging in value from $100 to $10,000. Jackson Clark II will also lead a walk-through of all the rugs available for sale, discuss the importance of Navajo rugs, and offer tips for building a Navajo rug collection.

The Navajo people have been weaving their magnificent textiles in a tradition dating back to the 1860s when the tribes and people were removed from their lands to Fort Sumner in southern New Mexico.

Each blanket is made in an authentic, artful process from start to finish. From raising sheep to shearing, carding, and dying their wool, each hand-made blanket represents a tradition passed down from mother to daughter. Woven in hozho (beauty and balance), the weaving then becomes commerce, sustenance for the family, so that the tradition can continue. Events such as the rug auction have become an important part of this continuity.

Without traders and rug auctions, the Navajo rug weaving tradition could not survive.

Other events of interest include Powwows in California you might enjoy.

Autry National Center, formed in 2003 is a merger of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage with the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the Women of the West Museum.

Located in Griffith Park next to Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry's collection of over 500,000 pieces of art and artifacts, is one of the largest and most significant in the United States.

Open: Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: $10 adult; $6 student, senior 60+; $4 ages 3–12; free for Autry members, veterans, and children age 2 and under. Admission is free on the second Tuesday of every month.

Braun Research Library and the Autry Library are available to researchers by appointment.