"There are two lessons here about art and human nature," says Jim Blair when asked what he's learned from Meso-American art.
"One, we don't know a culture that tried to live without art. Art is innate to human nature. Great art began as soon as the human being painted on caves.
FAQ
Jim and Nancy Blair
Meso-American Art Exhibit
WHEN — Debuted March 20
WHERE — Museum of Native American History in Bentonville
COST — Free
INFO — 273-2456
FYI
Tipi Talks
With John Two-Hawks
WHAT — A monthly gathering exploring Native American culture & history with Grammy nominee John Two-Hawks
WHEN — 5:30 p.m. Saturday; again April 18, May 30 & June 13
WHERE — Museum of Native American History in Bentonville
COST — Free
INFO — monah.us or johntwohawks.com
"Two, if a civilization ends ... one of the few things they leave behind that enriches is art. If our civilization collapses, through the layers of time, pieces of art will survive."
But Blair did not set out to collect the Meso-American art he has now donated to the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville. As he tells the story, it was the 1960s, and Blair, then of the law firm Blair Cypert Waters & Roy in Springdale and later general counsel for Tyson Foods, got paid for some litigation in artifacts instead of cash.
He fell in love, he says, and started avidly adding to the collection.
When the worth of the pieces totaled more than $1 million, Blair and his wife, Nancy Horton Blair, decided it needed a permanent home. Blair's daughter-in-law, Missy Kincaid, suggested the Museum of Native American History.
"I had no idea how magnificent the museum is," Jim Blair says. "Everything is well displayed. I was totally blown away by it. I thought, 'Gee ... this is a place that can absorb my collection and deal with it.'"
David Bogle, the museum's founder, was thrilled -- of course.
"It fills a gap we had in Pre-Columbian history," he says simply. The collection, which captures the stories of the Maya, Aztec and Inca people, among others, "is a fantastic addition to our museum."
Bogle's interest was born when he was a youngster, he says, "when Boy Scouts was the most important thing in my life." Through scouting, he learned Native American "history and lore" to add to what he knew of his Cherokee heritage.
"It was kind of one of those snowballs," he says. "The more it rolls, the bigger it gets."
Bogle purchased his first collection of arrowheads from his Cub Scout master -- but that was only 10 or 12 years ago, he says. MONAH opened in 2006.
The museum now covers the story of the Native American peoples from the Paleo Period -- complete with the skeleton of a woolly mammoth -- to the historic period from 1650 to 1900.
"When David Bogle gave us a tour of MONAH, we saw everything in the museum was extremely well displayed ... from the gorgeous war bonnets I fell in love with to the medicine trunk with the contents owned by Moses Decorah, a Winnebago medicine man who traveled with the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show in the late 1800s," Nancy Blair remembers, "and I thought, what a jewel this museum is. More people should know about it."
More, of course, will, thanks to the Blairs' 150-piece addition to the collection, which ranges from vessels showing slaves in submissive positions to the playful Colima dogs. About 60 pieces are currently on display.
"A lot of the time there is no written language left behind," Jim Blair says. But "there seems to be a voice through time telling a story of some kind. There is a strong mystical quality once I came to connect with it."
NAN What's Up on 03/27/2015