LSU Textile & Costume Museum Features Trajé, Maya Textile Artistry

BATON ROUGE, LA, June 15, 2021 – The Trajé, Maya Textile Artistry Exhibit is scheduled to debut in the newly renovated LSU Textile & Costume Museum located in the Human Ecology Building on LSU’s main campus on Sunday, August 29. The gallery will be open from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. for the event and admission is free to the public.

The exhibition features the recently acquired Travis Doering Collection of textiles and related artifacts from 40 Mayan villages in the Guatemala highlands. It is curated by Dr. Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, Professor Emerita, and Ms. Alexandra Forestier, Graduate Assistant.

Additional public lectures will take place in both Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters while the Trajé exhibition is open to the public. The museum is open during LSU business hours, Monday through Friday 8:00 to 4:30 p.m., and on the first Sunday of the month from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Trajé, or traditional dress, has deep cultural significance to the Maya people. The tradition of weaving and symbolism has been passed from mothers to daughters for hundreds of years and supports the legacy of craftsmanship that defines the Guatemalan Maya culture.

Traditional dress is primarily still worn by women. It includes colorful backstrap loom-woven huipiles (blouses), cortes (skirts), cintas (headdresses), rebozzos (shawls), and fajas (belts), examples of these items are on exhibit in the gallery.

Accompanying the textile exhibition are photographs by Connie Frissbee Houda, a humanitarian photojournalist from New York known for depicting the spirit and sacredness of the Mayan people and their surroundings. Houda will be present at the exhibition to discuss her perspective on the nobleness of the Maya people in her photographs.

Dr. Travis Doering, co-director of the digital heritage and humanities collections at the University of South Florida, will present a lecture titled “Woven Voices: A Journey into Maya Textiles and Cultural Heritage” at 2:30 p.m.

The LSU Textile & Costume Museum gallery is in the back wing of the Human Ecology building located on the LSU Campus at the corner of Tower and South Campus Drives. Access to the museum gallery and parking can be found off of South Campus Drive.

For more information on the exhibition and gallery opening, contact Erica Woolard, Department of Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising, at 225-578-2448 or by email at ericaw1@lsu.edu.