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The Art of the Exhibit
Santa Fe, NM, May 21, 2009 – Deciding which stories among centuries of stories to tell in the New Mexico History Museum took years of discussions with staff and historians and statewide meetings with people from every corner of the state. Deciding how to tell them took the expertise of Gallagher & Associates. Since 2004, the Bethesda, Md.-based design services firm has worked with Museum staff to create the exhibits that enhance the Telling New Mexico: Stories From Then and Now core exhibition. The Museum, at 113 Lincoln Avenue on the Santa Fe Plaza, opens at noon on Sunday, May 24. Blending treasured artifacts with archival photographs, manuscripts, audio, video, interactives, graphics and replica artifacts that visitors can actually touch, the firm aimed for an environment that sets people into various time periods, face to face with people both famous and everyday who lived the stories they tell. “It’s about the people, it’s not about the stuff,” said Patrick Gallagher, president. “We have interesting artifacts, but it’s not about the collection, it’s about the people. Without them, there’s no history. “Today, museums have to tell stories not just one way, but three or four different ways because people learn so differently. We asked ourselves, `What can we employ to put people in the places we’re talking about?’ Sometimes it’s theatrical. Sometimes, it’s environmental. And, yes, people still do read in museums.” Telling New Mexico is designed as a timeline of the cultures that met – and sometimes clashed – from the 1500s into the present-day. Or, as Gallagher puts it: “You go into the exhibition with the voice of the past. You leave with the voice of the future.” Gallagher & Associates, known for its work on the Jamestown Settlement, the Smithsonian’s Sant Ocean Hall, and the International Spy Museum, intends for History Museum visitors to slowly wend their way through the three floors of the exhibition, touching hand-troweled adobe walls, stopping to watch a short film, paging through a book, and hearing stories of yesterday. The immersive environment includes a variety of perspectives, revealing how different cultures viewed the events that shaped what New Mexico became. “The opportunity to work with Patrick Gallagher and his team of designers, Sujit Tolat and Gretchen Coss, was a great opportunity to reach for the stars,” said Dr. Frances Levine, director of the History Museum. “The Gallagher team and the Museum staff were able collaborators in the conceptualization and execution of the core exhibition. “Gallagher’s team taught us new ways to interpret our own past. They have such broad experience as designers of historical exhibitions and knew how to reach the multiple learning styles and intergenerational visitor groups that we want to reach in the New Mexico History Museum. Our team was strengthened by the experience of working with the Gallagher team. And visitors will be enriched by the experiences they find here.” The New Mexico History Museum, www.nmhistorymuseum.org, combines the nation’s newest museum with the nation’s oldest government building, the Palace of the Governors. Add yourself to the mix. Join us for two free days of admission and family events on Sunday and Monday. New Mexico History Museum For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. The New Mexico Rail Runner will operate its Saturday schedule (http://www.nmrailrunner.com/schedule.asp) on May 24 and 25 to accommodate opening-weekend visitors. In addition, all four of the state’s Santa Fe-based museums will have free admission on both days: the Museum of Art (http://www.nmartmuseum.org/); the Museum of International Folk Art (http://www.internationalfolkart.org/); and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (http://www.indianartsandculture.org/). Previous releases: Join the Stampede! New Mexico History Museum’s Grand Opening Riding the Rails… in Style Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason |
Yearly Archives: 2009
A Flight of Hand-Crafted Arrows Enlivens Museum’s Pueblo Revolt Display
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A Flight of Hand-Crafted Arrows
Santa Fe, NM, May 18, 2009 – It took more than a review of the facts for the New Mexico History Museum to tell the story of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. It also took the patient efforts of volunteers who created an awe-inspiring exhibition within the Museum, opening May 24 at 113 Lincoln Avenue on the Santa Fe Plaza. About 20 volunteers and staff from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Friends of Archaeology and the state’s Office of Archaeological Studies helped craft 300 replica arrows that dangle in a mass from the ceiling via nearly invisible fishing line. Pointed toward a mock-up of a burned and crumbling building (in real life, the Palace of the Governors), the arrows symbolize the drama and tension that pierced the battle between Native Americans, Spanish soldiers and settlers during the Revolt. The reaction of visitors who enter the exhibit is near-universal: They tilt their heads back, look up and say, “Wow!” “We want this Museum to expand people’s understanding of New Mexico history, but we also want to do so in a way that engages their emotions,” said Dr. Frances Levine, director of the New Mexico History Museum. “These volunteers understood that, and their commitment to step forward and contribute their talents makes this an exhibit people will talk about for years to come.” The arrows were made in the styles and with the raw materials that were current during the 17th century. The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge allowed the collection of cane and willow shaft materials, and various turkey ranchers and hunters provided feathers for the fletchings. Most of the stone arrow points were crafted by Tommy Heflin, a skilled flintknapper from Portales, N.M., while others were donated by archaeologists throughout the state who make stone points in their spare time. Metal points were crafted by Gary Williams, a Corrales, N.M., blacksmith, and Dave Brewer, one of the Santa Fe volunteers. In addition to the Friends of Archaeology, several artists and religious leaders from New Mexico’s 19 pueblos provided handmade arrows, further enhancing the exhibit’s powerful message and authentic materials. “When we first heard about the vision of the exhibit designers, we knew that we wanted to be involved in some way” said Eric Blinman, director of the Office of Archaeological Studies. “First it was the challenge, excitement, and gratification of learning how to make high-quality arrows that would really fly. Then it was the challenge of designing and executing their flight within the museum display.” The New Mexico History Museum gives visitors the chance to explore the rich history of the Southwest in comfort and style. Define your own place in history. Get into it! Join us at the New Mexico History Museum’s grand opening – and keep coming back for changing exhibits and special events. New Mexico History Museum For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. The New Mexico Rail Runner will operate its Saturday schedule (http://www.nmrailrunner.com/schedule.asp) on May 24 and 25 to accommodate opening-weekend visitors. In addition, all four of the state’s Santa Fe-based museums will have free admission on both days: the Museum of Art (http://www.nmartmuseum.org/); the Museum of International Folk Art (http://www.internationalfolkart.org/); and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (http://www.indianartsandculture.org/). Previous releases: Riding the Rails… in Style Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason |
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High-Tech Techniques Bring New Mexico’s Past to Life
Santa Fe, NM, May 15, 2009 – Hands-on history. That’s one of the many ways the New Mexico History Museum (http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/), opening May 24, puts visitors into the sights, sounds and actual feel of its stories. How? Meet Second Story Interactive Studio (http://www.secondstory.com/). The Portland, Ore., firm, recipient of numerous accolades for installations at the Library of Congress, Bank of America, and Grammy Museum, has built a number of touch-screen interactive exhibits for the History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue, on the Santa Fe Plaza. Zoom in to observe details of the treasured Segesser Hides. Dig for nuances in bilingual versions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Watch the state’s boundaries grow, shrink and change over time. “People learn best by employing all of their senses and by assembling knowledge from different formats,” said Dr. Frances Levine, director of the New Mexico History Museum. “For historians, that means exploring the artifacts held in museum collections, as well as the oral histories, the diaries, the maps, the paintings and the photographs of the people who lived that history. “As teachers, it also means using all the tools available to us to touch our visitors’ minds and connect to experiences that make history tangible.” From the casual visitor to the serious scholar, the New Mexico History Museum aims not to state “what happened,” but to instead offer a variety of viewpoints presented in a variety of ways. Reach out and touch these parts of history:
High-tech interactives are the vanguard of museums these days, but so is the ability to stop and ponder, to leaf through an album of historic photos, to sit on the Museum’s second-story terrace and let the stories of New Mexico’s centuries sink in. We’ll pace you through the journey with a mix of the two. Get into it! Come be a part of history in the making. Opening weekend features two free days of family events at the History Museum, as well as free admission to the three other state museums in Santa Fe – Museum of Art, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Museum of International Folk Art. The New Mexico Rail Runner will be operating both May 24 and 25 in honor of the grand opening. New Mexico History Museum For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. The New Mexico Rail Runner will operate its Saturday schedule (http://www.nmrailrunner.com/schedule.asp) on May 24 and 25 to accommodate opening-weekend visitors. In addition, all four of the state’s Santa Fe-based museums will have free admission on both days: the Museum of Art (http://www.nmartmuseum.org/); the Museum of International Folk Art (http://www.internationalfolkart.org/); and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (http://www.indianartsandculture.org/). Previous releases: Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason |
Riding the Rails… in Style
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Riding the Rails … In Style Welcome to the latest installment of our media-release series, “Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now.” See the links below for previous releases, along with information about obtaining photographs to accompany your coverage.
Santa Fe – With the completion of the trans-continental railroad in 1869, many Americans set out to discover the “Wild West” for themselves. What they found held a few discouragements. The long, dusty ride across the country had little to offer in the way of lodging, and the food often consisted of little more than rancid meat, cold beans and week-old coffee. Enter Fred Harvey. A British-born entrepreneur, Harvey saw the potential in turning Western exploration into a pleasure trip. The New Mexico History Museum, www.nmhistorymuseum.org, is opening May 24, 2009, at 113 Lincoln Avenue on the historic Santa Fe Plaza. The museum explores more than 400 years of the American West, including how the public’s romantic notions of “the frontier” were fueled through the cultural tourism led by Fred Harvey and his Harvey Houses. Harvey, a onetime freight clerk for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, had worked in a number of cafes in New York, and had even owned a restaurant in New Orleans as a young man. He saw the need for quality food and lodging on his many travels with the railroad, and recognized the profit potential of offering a higher standard of dining. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy ignored his offers, so he turned to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, which agreed to partner with him. Thanks to Harvey’s strict standards of quality and service, his first restaurant in Topeka, Kansas, was so successful that the Santa Fe Railway encouraged him to open more. The railway offered Harvey employees free travel, carried the supplies for his restaurants in their refrigerated cars for free, and effectively gave him a blank-check to open as many dining establishments as he was able. In just eleven years, Harvey had opened 24 Harvey Houses between Topeka and San Bernardino, California, creating the first restaurant chain in the United States. In 1883, during one of his “surprise inspections,” Harvey fired every waiter at the Harvey House in Raton, New Mexico, for inadequate service. At the advice of his newly hired manager, Harvey turned to local women to replace his waiters. These new waitresses, “Harvey Girls,” became so popular with the local community and passengers that Harvey followed suit in all of his restaurants. Issuing advertisements across the country that, according to some accounts, called for “young women 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent,” Harvey was able to build a professional and respected workforce that not only set a new standard for equality in the work place, but also branded the Harvey Houses as decent and respectable dining establishments. Tourists began to travel the West in droves, and young women came from other states for the opportunity to see the West while earning a living. Although the Santa Fe Railway offered Pullman cars for passengers who wanted to sleep, many preferred to stay at the numerous Harvey Hotels that sprung up along the tracks. In 1901, Fred Harvey hired Mary Colter, a graduate of the California School of Design, to work as an interior designer and architect. Colter designed a number of hotels for Harvey, most notably the El Navajo in Gallup, New Mexico, but she is mostly remembered for her incorporation of Indian art and design into the hotels. (Colter is also famed for designing the Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, along with Hermit’s Rest and Bright Angel Lodge on the rim.) The Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was home to the Harvey Indian House, a gift shop that sold local Indian crafts like pottery, blankets and jewelry. Native artisans were often present in the Indian House, allowing tourists to watch the craftsmen work. This inclusion of Native American craftsmen marked the first real appearance of cultural tourism in the United States. In 1911, a writer for the Albuquerque Morning Journal dubbed Harvey “the Napoleon of hotel managers,” and wrote:
In 1926, the Harvey Company expanded its involvement in cultural tourism by adding “Indian Detours” to the list of services offered. These two- to three-day tours would frequently start from Gallup, Santa Fe, Albuquerque or Las Vegas, New Mexico, and took tourists to remote pueblos via “Indian Detours” buses. The tours were guided by young, educated women called Couriers, who worked closely with the cowboy-dressed drivers to make sure passengers had an enjoyable trip, despite the often questionable condition of the roads. The tours gave visitors to the Southwest a hands-on opportunity to experience the lives of the Pueblo people native to New Mexico, and greatly increased the trade and popularity of Native American arts and crafts. (In a similar vein, the New Mexico History Museum’s Native American Artisans Program lets visitors to the Palace of the Governors interact with artisans who display and sell their wares under the Palace’s outdoor portal – one of the most popular features of the state’s 100-year-old museum system.) Today, Harvey Houses and Hotels are virtually extinct, but the legacy of cultural tourism inaugurated by Fred Harvey continues. Like the Harvey Hotels, the New Mexico History Museum gives modern-day visitors the chance to explore the rich history of the Southwest in comfort and style. Define your own place in history. Get into it! Join us at the New Mexico History Museum’s grand opening – and keep coming back for changing exhibits and special events. New Mexico History Museum For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. Previous releases: Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason |
Duty, Honor, Sacrifice: New Mexico Veterans answered the Nation’s call
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Duty, Sacrifice, Honor Welcome to the latest installment of our media-release series, “Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now.” See the links below for previous releases, along with information about obtaining photographs to accompany your coverage. For generations, New Mexico’s men and women have heard the nation’s call to service and answered it with courage, sacrifice and honor. Their stories – including those of the Buffalo Soldiers, Indian Code Talkers and Bataan Death March survivors – are among the many told by the New Mexico History Museum, opening May 24, 2009, at 113 Lincoln Avenue on the historic Santa Fe Plaza. More than four centuries of stories fill the Museum’s 96,000 square feet – a testament to the roles New Mexico has played and continues to play in how the American West evolved. In the realm of military service, the museum’s artifacts include chain mail worn by Spanish soldiers during the entrada of the late 1500s. The museum also tells of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, when Native American tribes banded together to drive Spanish colonists back to Mexico. These accounts, and those that followed, create a picture of a state that grew from discord, difficulties and treaties into one of the nation’s most honored and turned-to sources of service in times of war and peace. Among those accounts:
These stories represent more than New Mexico’s contributions; they belong to the entire nation. From its earliest days, through World Wars, Vietnam and today’s Mideast conflicts, New Mexicans have charted a legacy of honor and distinction. Nearly 200,000 U.S. veterans live in New Mexico. Of those, 16,149 are women, 9,970 are Native American, and four can say they served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Gulf War. During WWII, New Mexico lost more lives, per capita, than any other state. Three Medal of Honor recipients currently live in the state. The New Mexico History Museum, www.nmhistorymuseum.org/, is proud to help tell these stories in interactive, multimedia exhibits that allow visitors to experience the adventure and gather information to frame their own point of view. Define your place in history by understanding those who came before. Get into it! Join us at the New Mexico History Museum, opening Memorial Day weekend 2009. New Mexico History Museum For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. Previous releases: Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason |
Join the Stampede!
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Join the Stampede
After 20 years in the planning – not to mention centuries in the making – New Mexico’s newest museum opens its doors to the public at noon on Sunday, May 24, 2009. It wouldn’t be a Santa Fe event without a Santa Fe-style party, and we’re pulling out the stops. With events and entertainment at the Museum, in the Palace of the Governors’ shady courtyard and on the Santa Fe Plaza, there’s a little something for everyone. Lowriders, Mariachi music, flamenco dancing, Celtic pipers, Native American drummers, and Chautauqua performers are just part of what you’ll find, along with a free Ice Cream Social 1-4pm Monday, May 25, in the Palace Courtyard. All of it’s in honor of the New Mexico History Museum, http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/, the state’s newest museum, which includes interactive multimedia displays, hands-on exhibits, and vivid stories of real New Mexicans. As a 96,000-square-foot extension of the 400 year-old Palace of the Governors – the oldest continually occupied government building in the US – the New Mexico History Museum anchors itself on the historic Santa Fe Plaza and offers a sampling of the people and the legends to be found throughout the state. Get into it! Come be a part of history in the making! Schedule of events: Sunday, May 24, 2009 12-6pm: 12-1pm: 1-3 pm: 3-6 pm: 3-4 pm: 3-5:30 pm: 4-4:30 pm: 4:30-5 pm: 5-6pm: 6-6:30pm: Monday, May 25: 10am: 11am: 11:30am: 12-5pm: Throughout the Plaza, characters from the past, dressed in the costumes of their time, reappear, ready to tell their stories, answer questions and pose for pictures. 12-4pm: The Santa Fe Vintage Car Club roars into the Plaza to display shining examples of the vehicles that once carried Americans across the Southwest. 1-2:30pm: Members of Sociedad Folklorica join members of New Mexico’s tribes and pueblos to model historical clothing, complementing the Museum’s premiere rotating exhibition, “Fashioning New Mexico.” Come to the Museum’s upstairs Gathering Space to enjoy the show. 1-4 pm: The Route 66 Ice Cream Parlor sets up shop in the Palace Courtyard, offering free scoops served by members of Kenpo 5.0 Team Silva. Live music and historical photo boards to pose yourself into (bring a camera!). Team Silva – professional cage-fighter Paul Silva and his father/mentor/cornerman Gilbert H. Silva – along with fighting colleagues Paul Tapia, Tony Potter, Ricky Salas and Leroy Ortega, are taking off the gloves and picking up the scoops as part of their shared goal with the Museum to promote family, values, self-realization and nurturing for the next generation. 2:30-4 pm: Telling New Mexico, the book accompanying the Museum’s core exhibition, will be unveiled at a book signing and panel discussion among authors who contributed to the collection of historical essays. Enjoy your first event in the Museum’s brand-new auditorium and get a copy of what’s sure to become a must-have historical resource. New Mexico History Museum For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. Previous releases: Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason
Saturday, May 23rd Sunday, May 24 Noon – 6pm Noon – 6:00 pm Noon-1pm 1-3pm 3-6pm 3-4pm 3-5:30pm 4-4:30pm 4:30-5pm 5-6pm 6-6:30pm Monday, May 25 10am 11am 11:30am Noon-5pm Noon-4pm 1-4pm 1-2:30pm 2:30-4pm: |
Four centuries of history remembered in annual event
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Four Centuries of History Welcome to the latest installment of our media-release series, “Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now.” See the links below for previous releases, along with information about obtaining photographs to accompany your coverage.
Every year in Santa Fe, on the weekend after Labor Day, the city comes alive with the sounds of the past. Mariachis perform on the Plaza, and the cries of “Que Vivá!” ring out. The Fiestas de Santa Fe have been celebrated every autumn for 297 years to commemorate the Spanish reconquest of the City of Holy Faith in 1692. The stories behind the founding of Santa Fe, the Pueblo Revolt, and the Spanish reoccupation are just a shadow of the vibrant cultural history you’ll discover at the New Mexico History Museum, www.nmhistorymuseum.org, scheduled to open May 24, 2009. In 1680, just 70 years after the founding of Santa Fe by Don Pedro de Peralta, the Pueblo peoples of New Mexico rose up under a religious leader called Po’Pay. After a six-day siege of Santa Fe, the Pueblo peoples managed to drive the Spanish colonists back to El Paso del Norte, in present-day Juarez, Mexico. Twelve years later, the Viceroy of New Spain appointed Don Diego de Vargas as Governor-in-exile of New Mexico. Vargas set forth with a small band of soldiers and colonists to re-settle Santa Fe. In September 1692, Vargas accomplished this feat without bloodshed. Vargas returned to Mexico to recruit more colonists, and when he returned the following winter, the Pueblo peoples denied him reentry to the city. He then set up an altar for La Conquistadora, a 29-inch-tall statue of carved wood that had originally been brought to Santa Fe in 1625 and had returned with Vargas to Santa Fe. Vargas implored the Virgin Mary to intercede on behalf of the colonists, and before the end of December that year, he had gained re-entry to the city. Crediting La Conquistadora with his success, Vargas was said to have vowed to restore the statue to her throne in the local church, which had been destroyed by fire in 1680. He was unable to accomplish this during his lifetime. Eight years after Vargas’ death, Governor Marquez de la Peñuela signed the 1712 Proclamation, which established the first Fiesta de Santa Fe. The first Fiesta called for Mass, vespers, and a sermon, which began the religious tone of the Fiestas that continues today. There are, however, a number of non-religious traditions that have accumulated over the years. In 1924, local artist Will Shuster Jr. conceived and created the effigy of “Zozobra,” an old Spanish term that Vargas had used to describe “the adversities and perils of that government of New Mexico.” Today, locals are asked to write down their troubles on slips of paper weeks before Fiestas begin. The slips of paper are then stuffed into a 50-foot mannequin made of timber, muslin, and paper mache – Zozobra, or “Old Man Gloom.” The Kiwanis Club sponsors the annual event at Fort Marcy Park, complete with fire-dancers, fireworks, live music, and of course, the angry, deep-throated voice of Zozobra over the loudspeakers. It is said that all the troubles of the previous year go up in smoke with the burning of Zozobra. Following the burning of Zozobra, the three-day celebration of the Fiestas continue with the selection of a “Don” (Vargas) and a “Queen,” mariachi music on the Plaza, a number of dances and balls, the always charming Desfile de los Niños (a children’s pet parade), the Desfile de la Fiesta (also known as the historical/hysterical parade), a historical fashion show, Mariachi Mass, and a candlelight procession to the Cross of the Martyrs atop a hill overlooking downtown Santa Fe. The Fiestas de Santa Fe are a vibrant and living example of the cultures that have clashed and blended for over 400 years to make the people of New Mexico who they are today. The New Mexico History Museum explores not only the lives of conquistadors like Vargas, but also of Po’pay and the Pueblo peoples, Santa Fe Trail riders and fur-trappers, railroad men and cowboys of the 1800s, veterans of WWII, the scientists who built the bomb and the counterculture movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Define your own place in history: Get into it! This all-encompassing, family-oriented, 96,000-square-foot annex to the 400-year-old Palace of the Governors uses interactive multi-media displays in conjunction with images and artifacts to tell the stories of real New Mexicans – the people who are the West. For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. Previous releases: The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: Media Contacts: Rachel Mason |
Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art
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Where ancient artifacts meet cutting-edge art Welcome to the latest installment of our media-release series, “Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now.” See the links below for previous releases, along with information about obtaining photographs to accompany your coverage.
Santa Fe, NM – A 20-foot metal sculpture crawls along an exterior wall, mimicking the life-giving Rio Grande. Inside, a magical mix of sculpted resin and strategic spotlights turns apparently mundane objects into an amazing array of shadows. Cutting-edge contemporary art in the nation’s newest history museum? It could only happen in New Mexico, where artistic traditions have had millennia to grow deep roots and produce the sweetest of fruit. Besides honoring more than 400 years of cultural interactions, the New Mexico History Museum, opening May 24, is delighted to include works by Kumi Yamashita and Paula Castillo in its permanent collection and on public display. Their intriguing creations come courtesy of the 1% for the Arts initiative, also called the Art in Public Places Program. The artists began installing their works this week and are available for interviews and photographs. Started in 1986 as a way to keep the arts alive and present, the Art in Public Places Program requires a 1 percent set-aside in every public building budget of more than $100,000 for cities, counties and the state. The money is used to acquire public art to display in, on, or around the building. At a time when public funding for cultural endeavors is at risk, the program provides a stream of revenue that helps enrich our citizens’ lives while supporting artists and craftspeople. It echoes the WPA initiatives of the Depression era, when artists’ and craftspeople’s paintings, furniture and architecture achieved a pinnacle that stands today. The New Mexico History Museum is proud to continue in that tradition by working with artists who are crafting their own interpretations of what it means to be in New Mexico. Kumi Yamashita works heavily with light and shadow in ways that defy description. (A video of her displaying a few of her pieces on a Japanese TV show, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulzyrV8IjE0, has been a regular You Tube sensation.) She’s crafting two pieces for the Museum’s second-floor interior:
“One of the issues I focus on is the boundary we create within ourselves by categorizing the world,” Yamashita says. “Through my work, I wish to remind ourselves of how we preconceive what is around and inside us. Knowledge, ideas, and values are too often accepted without questioning. Can we find a way to evaporate ourselves from a pond and condensate over an ocean? Can we see a common thread that connects all things?” Yamashita has been a visiting artist and guest lecturer at universities and academies in the United States, Turkey, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Japan, and has received residencies such as the Roswell Artist in Residence Program, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, the Millay Colony, the Aomori International Art Center and the Border Art Residency in New Mexico. Her work is on permanent display in public spaces in Seattle, Osaka, Hokkaido, and Tokyo and is a part of museum collections in Boise, Idaho and Shimane. Paula Castillo is a well-known, native New Mexican artist, based in Cordova. She frequently works with discarded pieces from industrial metal fabrication processes and is preparing four works for the Museum’s exterior:
Collectively, the pieces reference mountains, trees, rivers and homes – a simple yet profound way to understand the connection between the natural world and the cultural history of New Mexico. Castillo says she intends to introduce visitors to the always contingent, personal and human-scaled history of New Mexico. “For me, form is complex and adaptable with all of its hundreds of fluid and solid systems: regional watersheds, train sounds, star flows, off the interstate, waving at someone,” she says. ”Like hydrogen attaching to oxygen in a flowing hexagonal movement or a group of people laughing at an absent minded gesture, I see form as alive and emerging from itself in an easy flash.” Using art to help tell the story of the people who were and are the fabric of New Mexico was only natural. Dr. Frances Levine, director of the New Mexico History Museum, notes that art has been, and continues to be, a vital part of the state’s culture. “Artistic expression has played an important role in New Mexico’s culture from its earliest days,” Dr. Levine says. “From Native American pottery and weavings through Spanish devotional objects of colonial life, to the Taos Artists and WPA craftspeople. Our collections at the New Mexico History Museum celebrate those traditions, and their roots continue to bear fruit today. The works of Paula and Kumi help us connect the Museum to this longer artistic history. We are pleased that these works relate to our history and to the present.” Loie Fecteau, executive director of New Mexico Arts, the agency that oversees the 1 Percent for the Arts program, calls public art “the most democratic of all the art forms because it really does belong to all of us.” “New Mexico has long been recognized as having one of the strongest and most innovative public art programs in the country, which I think is really fitting given the historical importance of the arts in our state and the way the arts are treasured and embedded in our many diverse cultures,” Fecteau says. “Our Legislature is really to be commended for having the foresight to create our state 1 percent for public art program more than 40 years ago,” Fecteau said. Fecteau notes that the program has placed more than 2,200 pieces across New Mexico in each of the state’s 33 counties. Art is a subjective media; it allows the viewer to take what they will from it, to draw their own conclusions. In the same way, the New Mexico History Museum sets out to allow visitors the opportunity to decide for themselves what “really” happened. Create your own place in history. Get into it! Join us at the grand opening of the New Mexico History Museum, www.nmhistorymuseum.org/, on May 24, 2009. For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only. Previous releases: The Tales that Made the American West New Mexico History Museum’s Core Exhibits Telling the People’s Stories: A Message from the Director Creating a Place for Our Past, by Dr. Frances Levine, El Palacio, Summer 2006 Other Sites: For media inquiries, please contact: Rachel Mason |
“Fashioning New Mexico”
“Fashioning New Mexico”
New museum’s premiere exhibition reveals
the history of the clothes we wore
Welcome to the latest installment of our media-release series, “Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now.” See the links below for previous releases, along with information about obtaining photographs to accompany your coverage.
 Flamenco Dress
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Santa Fe – Life’s passages carry layers of meaning and memory – the foods we eat, the songs we sing, the clothes we wear. The ways in which our predecessors chose to clothe themselves – for a baptism, a prom, a war, or an opera opening – have been collected by the New Mexico History Museum for 100 years. As part of the Museum’s grand opening May 24, many of those outfits are, shall we say, coming out of the closet.
Fashioning New Mexico, the premiere exhibition in the Museum’s Changing Gallery, explores what our clothes say about us and what they mean to us. Some of the celebratory events depicted in it are singular to New Mexico, such as fiestas and Native American ceremonies. Others are the classic passages that form the basis of our lives and of the tales we have told since the earliest campfire was lit: a child’s birth, coming of age, marriage, anniversaries, ascents to power and going to war.
The Museum’s collection of nearly 4,000 costumes and accessories, with many pieces dating from the 1830s to the 1970s, has long lacked the space it takes for a proper exhibit. The opening of the Museum’s second-floor, 5,700-square-foot Changing Gallery finally makes it possible.
To senior curator Louise Stiver, it’s both a celebration and a swan song, as she unveils her final exhibition.
“This is the first time for the Museum to focus on our collection of costumes and accessories,” she said. “A number of the items in the collection represent celebrations that occurred here in New Mexico – from weddings to going to the opera to entering military service. There’s a little bit of everything for people to see.”
But, she cautions, “this is not a fashion show.”
“Rather, it will focus on how people fashioned their lives. Some clothing might stand alone, while others will be part of a vignette that might include furniture, portraits, weaponry, accessories, historical documents and other props to tell the story.”
Other features include a high-seated “penny farthing” bicycle, and interactive features where a visitor can practice tying a corset, using the secret language of fans or virtually “trying on” some of the outfits in the exhibit. Student-interns from New Mexico Highlands University are preparing a station that uses computerized images on a mirror that let visitors virtually “try on” some of the outfits in the exhibition.
What’s coming out of the closet? Plenty – about 350 items, including a dozen 19th– and 20th-century wedding gowns, flapper dresses, flamenco outfits, WWI uniforms, inaugural ballgowns and an assortment of underwear through the centuries. Thirty of the Museum’s classic fans will reveal a time when delicate painting and embroidery turned a utilitarian item into art.
Donors through the years have included the heirs of the Harroun, Manderfield and Armijo families of Santa Fe, the McMillans of Socorro, the Jaramillos from northern New Mexico, and the McDonalds of Carrizozo, to name a few.
The pieces cover modern history as well, including a turquoise outfit recalling the grandeur of Dangerous Liaisons-era France. The outfit, worn by Santa Fe artist Paul Stephen Valdez to the Equality New Mexico Gala in 2008, was loaned by him for this special exhibition.
Conservator Rebecca Tinkham has worked on every costume in the exhibition, painstakingly repairing the rips and frays of time, a task that prior to now also made displaying the items problematic. With the Museum’s climate-controlled galleries, fragile fabrics can withstand the rigors of exhibition.
Besides mending seams, Tinkham has found herself working on corsets, hoops, bustles, pantaloons and petticoats.
“These days, the clothes fit the body,” she said. “But for a good part of history, the body was made to fit the clothes with bustles, hoops, metal bust improvers.”
One of the things that most impressed her about the collection was how well New Mexicans dressed.
“A lot of the clothes are just so pretty to look at,” Tinkham said. “There were a lot of people in New Mexico who did dress to style. They were definitely stylish for the period.”
Those period-specific styles are also revealed in the Museum’s archival photos accompanying the exhibit, which buttress the notion of these being the clothes New Mexicans lived, worked and played in.
As they have for the last century, the collection of artifacts and photographs detailing our stylish ways would have continued. But without the new exhibition gallery, the wait to see them would have been even longer.
“The New Mexico History Museum opens a new chapter in the life of the Palace of the Governors,” Stiver said. “This new gallery allows us to expand our Museum’s mission and display exceptional examples from the Palace’s collections never before seen by the public.”
The New Mexico History Museum includes interactive multimedia displays, hands-on exhibits, and vivid stories of real New Mexicans. As a 96,000-square-foot extension of the Palace of the Governors – itself a story of New Mexico’s past and present in a 400-year-old building – the New Mexico History Museum anchors itself in the historic Santa Fe Plaza and offers a sampling of the people and the legends to be found throughout the state. Get into it – define your place in history and in fashion.
For more information about the New Mexico History Museum, including a selection of user-ready high-resolution photographs, log onto http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/nmhm. More than 8,000 additional, high-resolution photographs illustrating the history of New Mexico are available by keyword search at www.palaceofthegovernors.org (click on “Photo Archives” then on “Digitized Collections”). Most requests for scans from this site can be delivered the same day, and usage is free for publicity purposes only.
Grand Opening: May 24, 2009!
Some people say that “history is written by the winners.” The New Mexico History Museum, opening May 24, 2009, sets out to challenge that notion by taking a new approach, engaging visitors in the craft of history. Rather than staidly reporting what “happened,” the New Mexico History Museum presents a theatrical environment and the powerful stories of the many cultures that have called the Land of Enchantment home. Sometimes those cultures blended. Sometimes they clashed. Always, they added new stitches to a tapestry of life that’s among the oldest in the nation. Whether those stitches were for good or ill is up to visitors to decide. The museum allows them to reach their own conclusions about what “really” happened.
Kit Carson