Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete 
Diné Textile Artists

Fifth generation master weavers and acclaimed authors Lynda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornelas return to Bard Graduate Center as cultural consultants for the exhibition Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest. Join us for this lunchtime talk where they will share the many ways that they work with museums and cultural institutions—as artists, as consultants, and as educators—and their strategies for successful collaboration and transformation.

Barbara Teller Ornelas (Diné) is a fifth-generation master Navajo weaver and culture bearer, who sold her first rug when she was only ten years old. Her father, Sam Teller (1918–2000), was a Diné (Navajo) trader for thirty-two years and her mother, Ruth Teller (1928–2014), was a weaver, gardener, quilter, and photographer. When Ornelas was ten, her paternal grandmother dreamt that her granddaughter would become a great weaver who shared their traditions around the world. Fifty-six years later, Ornelas has not only honed her artistry as a Two Grey Hills weaver but shared it with audiences internationally in the form of workshops, lectures, and exhibitions. 

Lynda Teller Pete (Diné) is an award-winning, fifth-generation weaver, who is best known for using a traditional Two Grey Hills regional style. Instilled in her work from the age of six, when Pete was officially introduced to weaving, is the belief that beauty and harmony should be woven into every rug. Along with her weaving, she collaborates with art centers, guilds, museums, universities, and other venues to educate the public about Diné (Navajo) history and the preservation of Navajo weaving traditions. Together with her sister Barbara Teller Ornelas, she wrote Spider Woman’s Children: Navajo Weavers Today (2018), the first book written about Diné weavers by Diné weavers since the time of Spanish and colonial contacts, as well as How to Weave a Navajo Rug and Other Lessons from Spider Woman (2020). Pete is also the director of equity and inclusion at the Textile Society of America.

Tuesday, February 21, 12:15 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Lunch will be served starting at noon. Registration required.