KEYNOTE PRESENTATION ~ Friday March 23, 2007 ~ 7:00 P.M.

 

Margaret Roach Wheeler

presents

A HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICAN COSTUMES

 

The runway presentation of Wheeler’s garments will be accompanied by historical facts and images of the actual costumes of the different tribes, these comparisons will help you understand the influences of European clothing style on the Native Americans. Wheeler takes the influences one step farther in her imaginative adaptations. The presentation is a very educational and entertaining event.

 

  

Margaret Roach Wheeler The spirit of her great-great-great-great grandmother Mahota flows through the contemporary Native American designs woven by Margaret Roach Wheeler, a Native American of Chickasaw-Choctaw descent. Wheeler has merged her fine arts education with her Native American heritage to weave contemporary garments based on American Indian costumes. She has also created “the Mahotans” an imaginary tribe of totemic structures and spirit figures, where each member is adorned in handwoven robes.

 

Wheeler’s weavings have been shown in museums throughout the United States and in HGA’s “Convergence”: fashion shows. She has received considerable recognition for her work. Recently her work has been chosen to be exhibited in ‘Changing Hands II’ at the Museum of Art and Design in New York September 2005-January 2006; the exhibit will tour the United States through 2008. Wheeler lectures and teaches workshops and seminars on Native American fibers and her unique style of weaving.

Web site: http://www.ozarkartistscolony.com/Wheeler/