Authors Janet Chapman and Karen Barrie received the Evans Biography Award from Utah State University’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies for their book Kenneth Milton Chapman: A Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists (University of New Mexico Press). Established in 1983, the $10,000 Evans Biography Award recognizes outstanding research and writing of a biography of a person who lived in or had significant influence on the Mormon West or who was part of Mormonism’s pre-Utah history.
When Chapman arrived in New Mexico in 1899, the 23-year-old supported himself by selling watercolors to tourists discovering the Southwest on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. The young artist settled easily into southwestern life and over the course of nearly 70 years became an advocate for Indian arts and an expert in its history and cultural influences, as well as a major authority in regional anthropology.
A leading force in the revitalization of Pueblo pottery in the 1920s, Chapman’s efforts led to the first Indian Fair (now Indian Market) in Santa Fe and the creation of the Indian Arts Fund. He was a founding staff member for Santa Fe’s Museum of New Mexico, the School of American Research and the Laboratory of Anthropology. He also served as the first professor of Indian arts at the University of New Mexico.
Drawing on his unpublished memoirs and correspondence, interviews with his family and colleagues, and previous histories of the Southwest at the turn of the century, Chapman and Barrie created the first-ever biography to document K. M. Chapman’s ancestry and his life from early childhood in Indiana to his adult life in New Mexico. Their book explores Chapman’s Midwestern upbringing, his artistic development, and his role in the burgeoning field of Southwestern anthropology and the preservation of ancient Puebloan pottery.
Eight distinguished reviewers selected the book from a field of 10 nominees, making the point that the book was a significant contribution to western history. Evans jurors stated that they were “impressed by the authors’ skill in explaining K.M. Chapman’s complex milieu” and praised Chapman and Barrie for “constructing a book with a clear narrative flow.”
Janet Chapman of Tijeras, N.M., and Karen Barrie of Wilmette, Ill., are freelance writers and members of the extended Chapman family. They began their collaboration a century after K.M. Chapman’s arrival in New Mexico in response to public interest spurred by their New Mexico Magazine article “Kenneth Chapman: Curator’s Passion Brings Pueblo Art to Santa Fe.”
An awards ceremony will be held on the Utah State University Campus in Logan, Utah, along with booksignings and classroom appearances by the authors. For more information call (435) 797-0299 or visit: Mountain West Center.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at May 26, 2009 02:54 PM