The GFR Center conducts all of our research and public programs through our office at the Arizona State Museum (ASM) in Tucson.  We also work closely with staff members on a variety of ASM public programs and museum educational activities.

Southwest Indian Art Fair.  Each year in late February, the Southwest Indian Art Fair at Arizona State Museum hosts over one hundred native artists, with sales booths, performance arena, food court, and more.  More than 5,000 people typically attend the two-day event.  Since 1999, the GFR Center has sponsored and staffed the “Learn About Weaving!” area, where Navajo weavers demonstrate their craft for two days (see The Susie Tom Family). Volunteers of the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild assist the public in carding and spinning sheep’s wool and weaving on a Navajo-style loom.  The excitement of learning new skills is contagious.

Lawrence School Partnership.  With GFR Center support from 1999 through 2001, fourth graders at Anna Lawrence Intermediate School (with trilingual Yaqui/Yoeme, Spanish and English speakers) produced a series of beginning tapestries.  On simple frame looms, they explored color, geometry, the alphabet, and their own imagery.  Following the lead of instructor Ann Keuper and assisted by GFR Center volunteers, they incorporated natural and synthetic materials into their artwork and learned about dyeing.  In addition to individual pieces, they worked together on a collaborative art project.  Learning to weave and creating expressive tapestries  has offered an excellent step to learning about other subjects--for example, lessons in anthropology, geography, basic chemistry, and mathematics have all grown from studying weaving.  The students have kept journals that honed their writing skills and reinforced what they’ve been learning in class.  Because of its educational merits, the project begun by the GFR Center is now supported by the school itself and has expanded to include more instructors and multiple classrooms. Read more in Articles under the heading Educational Programs.