Annual Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture

The Oldest Hopi Art Show in the World

MNA’s Hopi festival was started by Museum founders Harold and Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton in an effort to encourage the survival of Hopi arts and crafts. The festival is now a tradition of Hopi families. Many of today’s artisans remember when they were children and assisted their parents at the Hopi festival. Now Hopis of all ages gather at this unique venue, not only to sell their wares, but also to have the chance to get to know the public better. More than 55 booths brim with fine arts and crafts. Visitors gain insight from carvers, painters, jewelers, potters, quilters, and basket and textile weavers against a backdrop of cultural presentations, storytelling, music, and dancing. Take a taste of Hopi bread or piki baked in outside ovens. Watch Hopi pottery being shaped, painted and traditionally fired. Walk the Museum’s Rio de Flag Nature Trail with a Hopi medicine woman. And take part in insightful discussions about the Hopi values of humility, cooperation, respect, balance, and earth stewardship.

The Hopi are descendants of the ancient Puebloan people whose cultural history is documented throughout the Four Corners region for thousands of years. The Hopi villages are located on mesas in northeastern Arizona. Traditionally Hopi are dryland farmers who specialize in the cultivation of corn, beans, and squash. One purpose of Hopi religious ceremonies is to attract rain and snow to the mesas for the benefit of farming and all life forms. Hopi blue corn is adapted to the arid climate and plays an integral part in Hopi ceremonial life.