Lois Sherr Dubin | Curatorships & Museum Shows

Curatorships & Museum Shows

“The Beaded Universe: Strands of Culture”

Mingei International Museum, San Diego
February 1, 1997- November 2, 1997
An exhibition based on The History of Beads: 30,000 BC to the Present.
The exhibition traveled to:

  • American Craft Museum, NY, October 20, 1999-January 30, 2000
  • North Dakota Museum of Art, August 15-October 15, 2000


“Arrows of the Spirit”

Mingei International Museum, San Diego
August 29, 1999-April 2, 2000
An exhibition based on North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: Prehistory to the Present. It included 500 objects borrowed from 39 institutions and 63 private collections.


“Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest”

An exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History
October 2004-July 2005.

Click any photo to enlarge it.

Dubin was guest co-curator of the exhibition with Dr. Peter M. Whitely, curator of North American ethnology, American Museum of Natural History and advising artists Jesse Monongya (Navajo-Hopi) and Chief Jim Hart (Haida).

The exhibition had its genesis in a cultural exchange program that Lois Dubin initiated and organized between Southwest and Northwest Coast Native jewelers in 2000. Despite living in vastly different landscapes which influenced each groups culture, the exchange resulted in the artists finding common ground in their world views, spiritual values and commitment to tradition. The result was Totems to Turquoise.

The exhibition traveled to:

  • The Fernbank Museum, Atlanta
  • The Vancouver Art Museum
  • The Autry National Center, Los Angeles
  • The Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis

Acclaim for the Totems to Turquoise exhibition:

“a groundbreaking exhibit” —Boston Sunday Globe, October 24, 2004

“it revels in the sheer radiant splendour of its displays” —The Globe and Mail, Toronto, 2005

“not only are the pieces in the show truly examples of wearable art, the show itself is a smart, sophisticated journey through the cultures of two of the wettest and driest regions of North America.” —The Vancouver Sun, October 27, 2006


“Floral Journey: Native North American Beadwork”

An exhibition at the Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles.
March 15, 2014-April 26, 2015.

Floral Journey celebrated the beauty and power of Native North American flower art. The exhibition told the story of why beaded, quilled and embroidered floral imagery became both an important art form and a means of economic and cultural survival within Native America. It is also an important example of how two differing cultures—indigenous North American and Euro-American—established a common ground of economic and creative exchange.


“Glittering World: Navajo Jewelry of the Yazzie Family”