Celebrated Heritage: Mohawk Expands Museum-Inspired Carpet Collection

Mohawk Group, a Museum of New Mexico Foundation licensee, is revisiting and expanding its Celebrated Heritage carpet collection inspired by the collections of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Museum of International Folk Art.

Initially launched in 2021 and comprised of four patterns based on pottery, basketry and textiles, the new items feature updated color lines. Additionally, a new style called Woven Traditions has been added to further share the storied traditions of pottery, basketry and textile weaving by Indigenous artists of North America.

As with all our partnerships, Mohawk’s design team collaborated with the museum to thoughtfully reinterpret hand woven basket designs into a new machine-tufted carpet pattern. Fusing Native craftsmanship with contemporary technology, the new pattern reflects both
the essential qualities of this craft tradition and its evolution into a modern design.

The new Woven Traditions style was inspired by two Northwest Coast baskets in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture collection. The name of the new pattern references the structural elements of basket making and the natural materials used in its construction.

This complete soft surface portfolio has a variety of constructions, textures and pattern scales to appeal to a broad range of spaces and projects. The aim of this collection is to share the vitality of living artistic traditions and the people who produce and maintain this rich celebrated heritage.

A portion of the proceeds from Celebrated Heritage supports both the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Museum of International Folk Art in their mission to preserve and promote the artistic and craft traditions of the world’s artisans.

Established in 1998, the Foundation’s licensing program forges creative partnerships with manufacturers worldwide to develop new products
inspired by cultural material and fine art in the collections of the four state museums in Santa Fe. In exchange for providing collections access to manufacturers, the Foundation receives a royalty, or percentage, of the product’s wholesale price. Revenues provide vital financial support for the Foundation and for the museums that are at the heart of its mission. For more information, visit mnmlicensing.org.

This article and images are from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Member News Magazine.