Bhutan

In 2015 I guest-edited Arts of Bhutan, a special issue of Marg Magazine, vol. 66 no. 4, with contributions by Susan S. Bean, Ugen Choden, Madeline Drexler, Yeshey Dorji, Christian Luczanits, Diana K. Myers, Dorji Namgyel, Françoise Pommaret and Kinley Wangmo.

In 1994, co-curator Diana Myers and I organized the award-winning traveling exhibition From the Land of the Thunder Dragon: Textile Arts of Bhutan and edited the accompanying volume, which includes contributions by Michael Aris, Francoise Pommaret, as well as the co-editors. The exhibition originated at the Peabody Essex Museum and traveled to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Textile Museum in Washington D.C. In 2008 the accompanying book was reprinted by Serindia and the Peabody Essex Museum.

The exhibition’s success in the U.S., and the positive attention it brought to the country’s outstanding textile traditions textiles, is acknowledged in Bhutan as inspiration for the founding of the National Textile Museum in 2001. During the final phase of preparation for the museum’s opening, Diana Myers and I, with support from the Asian Cultural Council, were able to assist with the conceptualization, design and installation of the inaugural exhibitions.

Over the years I have written and lectured on Bhutan’s textile art and its museums at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, Harvard University, the University of Texas at El Paso,  the University of Texas at Austin, and at conferences of the American Association of Museums and the American Anthropological Association (see Writings on Museums and Exhibitions). I  also served on the advisory boards of the America-Bhutan Council and Friends of Bhutan’s Culture.