2023 was the fortieth year Toh-Atin Gallery has been located in our building on Ninth Street in Durango. It seems like it was just a few years ago that we moved into our new space!
Before that, we operated galleries at the Tamarron Resort, north of Durango, in the old First National Bank Building, and in the Old Pepsi Cola Building, where the current post office now sits.
Much has changed over the years, but our main reason for coming to work every day is still to connect people with Native and Southwestern art and to provide an opportunity for the artists we work with to make a living.
It’s an exciting and fun business, mainly because the artists we work with are our friends, many of them for decades. We look forward to seeing them and hearing about their families; they feel the same way. Unlike most art galleries, we do not have any contracts with the people we work with. My father always believed that if you treat people fairly, there is no need for anything but a handshake. It has worked well.
President Gerald Ford with Artists
This year has been filled with highs and lows. Our mother, Mary Jane, passed at 97 this spring, and we miss her presence. But a high that came with that was seeing the hundreds of people who attended her memorial service at Fort Lewis College, including dozens of artists she had known for many years. So many kind cards and notes from our long-time gallery friends near and far warmed our hearts. Thank you.
Mary Jane Clark
This year we re-started our weaving shows for the University of Utah Museum of Natural History and the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History.
Our winter clothing drive to support Native people was a huge success, filling two large trailers with material to donate at different locations across the Navajo Reservation. Thank you to Judy Campbell-Clancy for all of her help with this project!
The firewood effort was successful this fall with help from the people at Durango Ridge, including Brian Lockwood and Nancy Thale, who donated a large quantity of oak and pine to the project, and Wendt Bryan, who trucked it to our splitting area. Howard and Judy Rowe at Forest Lakes harvested a trailer full of wool and enlisted the help of their neighbors, Pat and Vickie Ferguson, and our associate, Rob Hunt, who helped to split it.
Howard Rowe and Friends Delivering Firewood to the Reservation
One of the most rewarding fall nights was when the temperature dropped, and several families we know were out of firewood. The tribe had not shown up with their annual distribution of coal. Antonia, Howard, and I loaded a trailer and headed out, unloading the last part of the trailer after dark! We got lost without the help of the familiar landscape, but everyone was warm that night!
That is the other great thing about this business—you never know what will happen the next day!
But we know that none of what we do would be possible without the artists and wonderful customers who have supported us for these many years. We cannot say thank you enough!
To those of you who follow our newsletters and share them with your friends, we want you to know that you carried us through the pandemic and made it possible for us to continue to support many families. Thank you!
We would not be here without our wonderful work family at the Gallery. Patty, Rob, Linda, Julie, AJ, Paulita and our amazing bookkeeper, Nancy, keep this ship righted and moving forward.
We are excited about moving into 2024! When you look at the world, there are a lot of crazy things going on. Years ago, I read a series of books by John Jakes about the history of the United States told through the eyes of different generations of the same family. A big takeaway from that experience was that this country has faced at least one major crisis in every generation, and we always seem to pull through them to a better place. I believe that we are on that road.
Bertha Harvey with her American Flag Weaving
We wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
Jackson and Antonia Clark
