Indian Craft Shop Closure Leaves Complicated Legacy

 

A pendant by Choctaw artist George “Shukata” Willis, whose work has been presented in the Indian Craft Shop since the 1990s (all photos courtesy Susan Pourian unless otherwise noted)

WASHINGTON, DC — The Indian Craft Shop, which has presented the handmade arts and crafts of federally recognized American Indians since 1938, closed on June 6. Located just blocks from the White House, it has had a historic presence in the main hallway of the massive Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building for 87 years. The Shop also had a mission informed by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, which was established by Congress in 1935 to promote Native American and Alaska Native arts through economic enterprises.

“It hasn’t just been a space to sell, it’s been a place to educate. It’s a space that touches people with American Indian art,” Susan Pourian, director of the Indian Craft Shop, told Hyperallergic.

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