The Adams State University Luther Bean Museum continues its lecture series in recognition of the Colorado/America 150/250 Celebration. The lecture, “A Family Weaving Legacy,” by Chris Medina, begins at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, in McDaniel Hall 101. The lecture is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
Medina, a 2012 graduate from Adams State, is the oldest grandson of the late Eppie Archuleta, a nationally-recognized weaver from the San Luis Valley. The family weaving tradition first gained fame through Augeda Martinez, mother to Eppie Archuleta. Over the last six generations of weavers, including four current artists, family members have created Rio Grande, rag-rug, pictorial, and other weaving design styles.
Surrounded by the art of weaving, Medina grew up helping his mother create smaller items for an allowance. As an adult, he built the San Luis Valley Wool Mill, owned by his grandmother, where he learned from a master wool-maker how to operate the extensive machinery. Recently, Medina began weaving his own designs.
The event also celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. The late Augeda Martinez, could trace her ancestors to the Navajo Nation through her paternal grandmother, that was the start of the weaving tradition. Her daughter, Eppie Archuleta, who passed in 2014, sold weavings across the globe. In 1985, Archuleta was the first Hispanic woman to receive the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award; received the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Master Award from the Spanish Colonial Arts Society; and in 1998 Adams State presented her with an honorary doctorate. Archuleta and Martinez were featured in the January 1991 National Geographic magazine.
Norma Medina received the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Master Award from the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. Using plants and natural products, like Navajo/cota tea leaves, to dye much of her wool, brings out Medina’s outstanding pictorials and traditional patterns. In 1994, she was commissioned by the St. Peter Catholic Church, in Greeley, Colo., to create a series of weavings of the Stations of the Cross. Norma Medina won first place at the 2019 Traditional Spanish Market for her Blue Dazzler.
