Chiapas Collection
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) invites you to explore 20th and 21st century Maya material culture from the state of Chiapas, Mexico. You will find items housed at SMM and at La Asociación Cultural Na Bolom, located in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Search Chiapas items by institution / Búsqueda de elementos de Chiapas por institución:
Search by municipality / Buscar por municipio:
The Chiapas collection at SMM was assembled between the late 1970s and the early 2010s to document and celebrate the vibrant culture and art of the Maya of the region. The collection illustrates a remarkable cultural resilience that recalls the Pre-Columbian past, while also capturing the influences of globalization and international tourism of the last 40 years.
One highlight of the collection is the weaving traditions represented, including a spectacular multi-generational collection of textiles purchased from artists from over a dozen individual Maya communities. The collection also includes weaving tools and other items of modern Maya material culture, and an extensive ethnographic photo archive that illustrates both artisan work and daily life in the Chiapas highlands.
Na Bolom holds a similar textile collection to that at SMM, collected over the same period, but in many cases from different artists, communities, or particular years. We are hosting their digitized data here to expand awareness of their collection and to digitally unite these two related collections.
SMM is working closely with Na Bolom and consulting with Maya weavers and others from surrounding communities to enrich our understanding of the items and images in the collection. Ultimately, our intent is to expand access to these collections for Maya artists and communities while also making them available to a wide international audience.
Curated Selections / Selecciones curadas
Take a look at highlights from the Chiapas collection.
For more information please contact:
Ed Fleming, Director of Anthropology
efleming@smm.org
