DY Begay (Diné, b. 1953) creates unique artworks that bridge her traditional Diné upbringing and experimental fiber art practice. Through her embrace of color, passion for design, and innovative handling of fiber, Begay creates art that expresses a non-Western way of being to a contemporary audience. Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay is the first retrospective of Begay’s career, showcasing 48 of her most remarkable tapestries.

Fellow fiber artists Velma Kee Craig (Diné) and Helena Hernmarck join Begay to discuss Indigenous weaving traditions and the diversity of textile arts. The conversation will be moderated by museum curator Cécile R. Ganteaume.

Watch the conversation LIVE on the museum’s YouTube channel.

Velma Kee Craig (Diné) is Assistant Curator at the Heard Museum and a textile artist who teaches Diné weaving workshops across Phoenix. She has co-curated multiple Heard Museum exhibitions, including Substance of Stars, Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles and Toward the Morning Sun: Navajo Pictorial Textiles from the Jean-Paul and Rebecca Valette Collection.

Helena Hernmarck was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1941. Her mentors were three Swedish pioneers of the modern movement in textiles: Alice Lund, Edna Martin, and Astrid Sampe. After graduating from art school in Stockholm in 1963, she moved her studio to Canada and later to England before settling in the United States in the mid-1970s. Hernmarck now maintains an active studio in Connecticut, USA. She has supported Swedish textile arts throughout her career, collaborating with Swedish spinners, dyers, and weavers on each major commission. Her closest collaborators have been Wålstedts Textilverkstad, a spinning and dying mill in Dala-Floda, Sweden, and Alice Lund Textilier, a weaving atelier in Borlänge, Sweden.

Sublime Light: Tapestry Art of DY Begay is on view at our Washington, DC museum from September 20, 2024 through July 13, 2025. The exhibition’s companion book will be available for purchase in the Roanoke Museum Store located on Level 2.

Image: DY Begay (Diné, b. 1953) weaving a private commission in her studio as she typically does with the morning light behind her. Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2023

Major support provided by Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support provided by Ameriprise Financial. Additional support provided by The Coby Foundation, Ltd. and Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. Federal support provided by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.