♪♪ Laura: The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe opened in 1953.

It is full of marvelous miniature imagined worlds.

The term folk art in many people's minds is kind of a diminishment, and that's not at all how we feel about it.

It's masterful work by people who excel in their craft.

In 1982, we opened the exhibition "Multiple Visions: A Common Bond," which is a show with over 10,000 objects all gifted to the museum by Alexander Girard.

Charlene: Alexander Girard grew up in Italy, outside of Florence in a villa, and in 1932, he had come to the United States, and he was wandering around, he told me, in Greenwich Village, and he suddenly saw this spatter-painted clay bank from Mexico.

It transformed his life actually.

It just made him realize he had to have more of this, and he had to understand what were the motivations and meaning of folk art.

Laura: He was a very well-known mid-century designer.

He became the head of the textile division at Herman Miller, the furniture company.

He injected color and pattern and texture, bringing a little more joy to modern design.

He could do his job anywhere, so in 1953, he and his wife Susan moved to Santa Fe, but they had already started their voracious collecting of both toys and folk art, which ultimately reached 106,000 objects.

♪♪ Charlene: In October of 1978, many, many beer boxes that looked like this arrived here at the museum.

This was box 3,837.

Plus hundreds of crates for the larger items, and those were all stored in the auditorium.

I was the curatorial coordinator, and as we were unpacking this collection, a lot of which he hadn't seen since he packed it, the joy that Mr. Girard felt was palpable.

He was just having the greatest time.

It took over two years, with the help of cultural advisors, 30 volunteers, and the entire staff to build this installation.

♪♪ Laura: Alexander Girard designed and curated.

He had a hand in placing every object.

He created what he called sets.

They're kind of these villages in miniature.

This is the 40th anniversary of the collection being on display exactly as he created it.

So this set is a miniature representation of an actual town in Mexico called Acatlán de Osorio.

♪♪ Miniatures are a really popular and rich tradition in Mexico.

Alexander Girard would buy lots of these ceramic figures, and then he would animate the whole set by having them interact with each other.

Charlene: He would layer and layer.

He would add more things to the back.

He would--you know, he just-- he definitely had a vision in his mind.

He often referred to these figurative ceramics as people because they were people who were inhabiting this scene.

The "Puebla Kitchen" set represents miniatures of all different types that are made in Mexico, and so you've got the straw work, metalwork, and ceramic dishes that are so tiny you can't imagine how the person made them.

Charlene: He told me that he was in a small Mexican village and he discovered these clay cacti.

He said, "I want more of these," so he returned and he said, "No, I mean, I really want more of these."

The fields stopped being plowed.

I mean, the whole village was put to work making cacti for this American folk art collector.

Laura: Whereas many of the villages that Girard created in multiple visions were specific to a country or a culture, this one, "The Grand Canal," also known as "The Harbor Scene," is really kind of a mash-up.

So we've got European and Asian towns on either side of the harbor.

The waterway is actually created out of shower glass, and there are in this set both toys and folk art mixed together.

Charlene: Mr. Girard did not drive, so every morning, I would pick him up after breakfast and then also drive him home after his afternoon work.

One day, he said to me, "Would you mind taking me to Kmart?"

Ha!

And I thought, "OK." And he made a beeline right to the toy department.

He bought a ape.

Then he went to the pet department and bought a cage into which he placed the ape.

I just realized this is a man who is so visual, he has no blinders on.

Laura: The "Circus" set is mostly manufactured toys and antique ones.

Alexander Girard designed the exhibition to be an experience of discovery.

There's no object labels.

He didn't want labels.

He wanted people to bring their own interpretation to it.

♪♪ Charlene: Mr. Girard grew up in an Italian villa, and this is an autobiographical set.

There are pieces that were made by his brother, actually a well-known Italian ceramic artist, and then within the house, some beautiful watercolors by his good friend Georgia O'Keeffe.

♪♪ Laura: This set is known as "Christening."

It is this gathering of people to witness this momentous occasion.

The space looks much deeper than it actually is because Girard used diminishing-sized figures as you went back.

Charlene: I think it does express in a beautiful way his vision for the whole gallery, which is to evoke common humanity.

Laura: And his guiding principle was an Italian saying, "Tutto il mondo e paese," which to him meant "All the world is hometown."

Charlene: It was part of his plan to stop visitors in their tracks and, you know, make them really look... but he also said time and time again to me, "We want to have so much stuff in here that people will always have a reason to come back."

I do want to say, after 40 years, I still find things in this gallery that I hadn't noticed before.

♪♪