DAM staff and Acoma Pueblo cultural advisors looking at a large cloth on a table in the textile conservation lab

Pueblo of Acoma Textile Conservation Project

Dakota Hoska and Danielle Stephens

Dakota Hoska is Associate Curator of Native Arts at the DAM and Danielle Stephens is a Senior Interpretive Specialist at the DAM.

DAM staff and Acoma cultural advisors looking at a large cloth on a table in the textile conservation lab

DAM staff in consultation with representatives from Pueblo of Acoma as part of a conservation grant collaboration project in partnership with Bank of America.

people by a table with a textile on it. a man points at the textile

Acoma cultural advisors Prudy Correa and Elvis Howeya and DAM conservators Allison McCloskey and Sarah Melching examine an Acoma cape, ca. 1820-1840, from the DAM collection.

people around a table with a black and red texile. A man points at the fabric

DAM Textile Conservation Fellow Marina Hays, Associate Curator of Native Arts Dakota Hoska, and Acoma cultural advisors Lilly Salvador and Elvis Howeya examine an Acoma manta, ca. 1860-70, from the DAM collection.

gloved hands on a table with a textile that is white with black and red designs embroidered on it; mannequins are in the background

Denver Art Museum staff and Acoma cultural advisors met in Denver to view and discuss Acoma textiles in the DAM collection. Here, an Acoma cape, ca. 1830–1850.

conservator at a table sewing a long brown textile

Marina Hays, Andrew W. Mellon Textile Conservation Fellow, works to stabilize an Acoma manta from the Denver Art Museum collection.

An Acoma Pueblo textile with graphic designs embroidered on the top and bottom

The mantas are woven from natural or dyed cotton and wool, with characteristic embroidered borders. Each manta exemplifies traditions and techniques that embody the Acoma Pueblo practice of cooperation between male weavers and female embroiderers. Lolita Torivio, manta, 1941. Cotton and wool. Denver Art Museum, Native Arts acquisition funds, 1942.327.

an Acoma Pueblo textile with red and black and green graphic designs embroidered on in

Acoma artist, "cape", ca. 1820–1840, cotton and wool. Denver Art Museum, Native Arts acquisition funds, 1942.325.

An Acoma textile that is black with red and gray graphic designs on the top and bottom

Acoma artist, manta, ca. 1860–70. Wool. Denver Art Museum, Gift of Alfred I. Barton, 1955.206.

A black textile with red and gold graphic designs on the top and bottom

Acoma artist, "cape", ca. 1860–70. Wool. Denver Art Museum, Gift of Alfred I. Barton, 1955.207.

DAM staff and Acoma cultural advisors looking at a large cloth on a table in the textile conservation lab
people by a table with a textile on it. a man points at the textile
people around a table with a black and red texile. A man points at the fabric
gloved hands on a table with a textile that is white with black and red designs embroidered on it; mannequins are in the background
conservator at a table sewing a long brown textile
An Acoma Pueblo textile with graphic designs embroidered on the top and bottom
an Acoma Pueblo textile with red and black and green graphic designs embroidered on in
An Acoma textile that is black with red and gray graphic designs on the top and bottom
A black textile with red and gold graphic designs on the top and bottom

About Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project

This project was made possible through a grant from Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project. This project provides grants to nonprofit museums to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art that are in danger of degeneration, including works that have been designated as national treasures. Since 2010, Bank of America has provided grants to museums in 36 countries for more than 200 conservation projects comprising thousands of individual pieces. Pueblo of Acoma textiles were among a select group of 23 Art Conservation Projects announced in 2022 by Bank of America, with recipients based in 13 countries and nine US cities.