Rachel Concho (born 1936) is a Native American artist and potter of the

Acoma Pueblo Acoma Pueblo ( , ) is a Native American pueblo approximately west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. Four communities make up the village of Acoma Pueblo: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, Anzac, and McCartys. These communities ...

. She is best known for her painted seed jars: small circular pots, nearly closed except for a small hole at the top, used for storing seeds from one harvest for planting in the next. She draws inspiration from ancient designs of the Acoma Pueblo including from shards associated with the Mimbres culture, which flourished in what is now

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

from about 200 CE to the Spanish conquests of the sixteenth century. Concho has won many prizes for her work, including "Best in Show" at the

Santa Fe Indian Market The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for ...

of 2000. Her seed jars have entered the permanent collections of several museums, including the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Family, career, and accolades

Rachel Concho's family belongs to the Roadrunner Clan of the Acoma Pueblo. Her mother, Santana Cerno, taught her the art of pottery. Her brother, Joseph Cerno, and her daughter-in-law, Carolyn Lewis-Concho, are also artists. While most of Concho's designs follow traditional patterns, she has also created designs that are not in the Acoma tradition, including one based on spiders. In the book ''Southwestern Pottery: Anasazi to Zuni'', Allan Hayes and John Blom included Rachel Concho among the "stars and superstars" of late twentieth-century Acoma ceramicists, and featured her seed jars as examples of work by "members of the elite corps" of this artistic community.

Collections

Her works have entered the permanent collections of several museums. These include the Smithsonian

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, in

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; the Grice Collection of Native American Art of the

Mint Museum The Mint Museum, also referred to as The Mint Museums, is a cultural institution comprising two museums, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, together these two locations have hundreds of collecti ...

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; and the

Krannert Art Museum The Krannert Art Museum (KAM) is a fine art museum located at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, United States. It has of space devoted to all periods of art, dating from ancient Egypt to contemporary photography ...

of the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Concho, Rachel 1936 births Living people American potters Ceramists from New Mexico American women potters Pueblo potters 20th-century American women artists Native American women potters 21st-century American women artists 20th-century American ceramists 21st-century American ceramists People from Acoma Pueblo 20th-century Native American artists 21st-century Native American artists 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women