Mayborn Museum Presents Celebrated American Indian Performers

Media Contact: Sherry Jurls, assistant director of marketing, Mayborn Museum, (254) 710-1108

Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex will present award-winning American Indian performers Lowery Begay and Dallin Maybee as part of the summer programming complementing the "Wrapped in Tradition: The Chihuly Collection of American Indian Trade Blankets" exhibit. Begay and Maybee will perform traditional American Indian dances and engage visitors with their storytelling skills and flute performances on Saturday, July 28, and Sunday, July 29.

Growing up on Navajo reservations in New Mexico and Arizona, Begay was raised in the "old ways," sitting around the fire listening to his grandma tell stories and watching his grandpa prepare the horses. He says that growing up on a Navajo reservation was "very powerful and wonderful."

Maybee, an accomplished dancer and choreographer, is Northern Arapaho and Seneca Indian. He was raised on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Western New York, but he also has family on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming. His dance tours have led him throughout the United States and the world, and he tours regularly with the critically acclaimed American Indian Dance Theater.

This weekend, the duo will present two dance performances in the grand rotunda at 1:15 p.m. and 4 p.m. Additionally, they will also tell traditional American Indian stories in the Anding Traveling Exhibit Gallery, beginning at 2:30 p.m.

"We are so excited to bring these extraordinary performers to Central Texas," said Dr. Ellie Caston, director of Baylor's Mayborn Museum Complex. "The beauty of traditional American Indian dancing, flute playing and storytelling is of historical importance and is the perfect complement to our cultural history exhibits and our interactive discovery rooms."

"Wrapped in Tradition" is a traveling exhibit organized by Chihuly Studio of Seattle, and will be on display through Aug. 18 in the Thomas E. and Emilyne Weed Anding Traveling Exhibit Gallery. The exhibition features 15 glass "Blanket Cylinders" by Dale Chihuly, who was first inspired by Navajo handmade textiles, and then began to collect machine-produced blankets made for European-American Indian trade.

Today, Chihuly is known as a pioneer of American Studio Glass as well as a contemporary artist who creates monumental glass sculpture and environments. Additionally, the exhibit offers six stops on an audio tour at which visitors can dial prompts for insightful commentary on the pieces such as how the trade blankets are made, their beautiful designs, and modern uses for the blankets.

The Mayborn Museum Complex is located on the Baylor campus at 1300 S. University Parks Dr. in Waco, Texas. The 143,000-square-foot facility houses dynamic natural history galleries, 16 themed discovery rooms and a 13-acre historic village for visitors of all ages to engage, explore, and enjoy! Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $4 for children, and free museum members and Baylor students.

For more information, please contact the Mayborn Museum Complex at (254) 710-1110 or visit www.baylor.edu/mayborn.