MOIFA | March 2025

Paraphernalia of an Active Mind: The Girard Foundation Archives

Image: Girard File Boxes from Paraphernalia of an Active Mind: The Girard Foundation Archives display. Photo by Addison Doty.

“We can, and I firmly believe we should, preserve evidence of the past … as nourishment for the creative spirit of the present.” — Alexander Girard

The Museum of International Folk Art presents Paraphernalia of an Active Mind: The Girard Foundation Archives, a long-term display of 133 decorated research file boxes from the personal collection of Alexander Girard. This ongoing mini display just outside the Bartlett Library opens Friday, February 28, 2025, and archival materials from this collection will be on continuous rotation.

In May 1961, Alexander and Susan Girard created the Girard Foundation to manage their collection of folk art and toys. As Alexander Girard amassed research materials on myriad subjects—described by designer Jonathan Olivares as the “paraphernalia of an active mind”—he organized these in cardboard file boxes labelled by hand and decorated with papers both from his international collection and of his own design.

Following the gift of the Girard Foundation folk art collection to the Museum of International Folk Art in 1979, a set of these file boxes was donated to the museum archives. Other boxes were kept by the Girard family or donated to the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. The Girard archives at MOIFA are accessible through the Bartlett Library and Archives.

Paraphernalia of an Active Mind: The Girard Foundation Archives is made possible through the generous support of the International Folk Art Foundation.

 

Ukrainian Short Films Screening

Image: Olga Butko, Ukraine Under Fire

Join the Museum of International Folk Art on Friday, March 28 at 6 p.m. for a special Ukrainian short films program featuring Jordan Campbell’s Ukraine Under Fire and Betsy West’s Once Upon a Time in Ukraine. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session featuring select filmmakers. R.S.V.P. Here

Ukraine Under Fire | Jordan Campbell | 40 min | 2024

American journalist Jordan Campbell returns to Ukraine on a mission to amplify the voices of Ukrainians who have endured life under fire. With the war escalating daily, Campbell chronicles Olga Butko, a national news anchor, and Peter Fouché, a frontline medic from the UK. Their remarkable personal stories, along with a series of interviews with Ukrainian citizens, underscore Ukraine’s battle for freedom amidst unimaginable circumstances.

Once Upon a Time in Ukraine | Betsy West | 32 min | 2024

A surprising story of resilience: how Ukrainian children are surviving the Russian war machine that has targeted them and their families. With creativity and imagination, they transform backyards and playgrounds destroyed by missiles, invent fairy tales where vegetable armies vanquish Russian attackers, and carry on the Ukrainian tradition of music and dance in demolished studios. A portrait of life behind the frontlines as seen through the eyes of the children who will inherit a country struggling to survive a brutal invasion.

 

School Partnership at Sweeney Elementary for La Cartonería Mexicana

Image: Michelle Rodriguez with students in La Cartonería Mexicana: The Mexican Art of Paper and Paste at MOIFA

Students from Sweeney Elementary School will be taking a field trip to view the La Cartonería Mexicana: The Mexican Art of Paper and Paste on February 25. Papier mâché artist Francisco Rodriguez will meet the students and do short presentations on the tradition of cartonería. Following the fieldtrip, bilingual educator Kemely Gomez, will be co-facilitating a mask making project at Sweeney during the month of March. The Museum is planning a student art show reception at MOIFA on April 5.

 

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Your generosity enables the museum to continue offering these impactful exhibitions and programs. To learn more about giving options, please contact Laura Sullivan at laura@museumfoundation.org or call 505.216.0829.

Thank you for your continued support of MOIFA!