From the Museum of International Folk Art in Sante Fe, “Extraordinary how a small glass bead from the island of Murano (Venice, Italy) or the mountains of Bohemia (Czech Republic) can travel around the world, entering into the cultural life of people far distant. Glass beads are the ultimate migrants.  Where they start out is seldom where they end up.  No matter where they originate, the locale that uses them makes them into something specific to their own world view.”

The exhibition is about the worldwide destination of beads, what the end piece of beadwork reveals about its creator. Included also are beads of metal, shell, stone, and more. The majority of the work is from the 19th and 20th centuries, with some modern creations as well, including the Teri Greeves work above that I selected from the press release. The representational use of beads is broad, including the African continent (Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa), Borneo, Burma, India, Native North America, and Latin America (Mexico, Bolivia to Ecuador).

“Beadwork Adorns the World” opened April 22, and is on display until February 3, 2019.