The Sonoran Peoples' Tapestry Project is a multicultural collaborative art project that seeks to express both the cultures and environments of the Sonoran Desert Bioregion.

The vision for this project arose during the planning stages of the 1995 conference "A Celebration of Desert Cultures," convened by The International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) in Caborca, Sonora, Mexico. Its purpose was to promote a greater understanding of both the cultural and the biological diversity of the Sonoran Desert Bioregion, an area that extends from southern Arizona to the northern gulf of the Sea of Cortez, including U.S., Mexican, and Native American communities.

The question we posed ourselves was this: How can we employ the arts to encourage cross-cultural awareness and understanding among the diverse ethnic groups that live in the western Sonoran Desert. The answer was this: By employing the weaving techniques of Ann Keuper.

By using gut to incorporate objects not traditionally thought of as weavable (rocks, shells, feathers), Keuper was able to respond to the challenge of combining a limitless diversity of materials. As an artistic metaphor, her weaving expresses the notions of community, cooperation, strength, innovation, and diversity.

As a collaborative venture, conference goers were asked to contribute for inclusion in the tapestry objects that represented their homes or ways of life in the desert. The intentions were both to explore a variety of perspectives on what it means to be a desert dweller and to foster a sense of individual participation in the creation of a greater whole. The resulting piece was to be symbolic of the ISDA's effort to define and preserve the cultural and natural integrity of the region. That this idea was enthusiastically embraced by all in attendance reinforced the notion that a shared desire for expression and appreciation of different values and belief systems does exist.

The vast array of materials and accompanying stories that were received inspired another aspect of the collaboration: the drawings of Matilda Essig. While the tapestry integrates many pieces into a whole, the drawings focus on the individual character and history of each contribution. Larger than life and with extensive detail, these images are intended to encourage the viewer to explore the tapestry's beauty and diversity on an intimate scale.

In the final phase of this project, the tapestry and drawings will travel throughout the bioregion to locations from whence came it's ingredients, where it will continue to weave the dialogue of cultural and environmental appreciation of our home in the desert.