All Press Releases
New Mexico History Museum | Aug 4, 2014
Begun in 1609, the Palace of the Governors remains the nation’s oldest continuously occupied government building. But before and especially after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and 1693 Reconquest, one of the most common complaints found in early descriptions of it came down to four important words: “In need of repair.” Over and over, the phrase crops up in the historical record. For the museum’s annual Santa Fe Fiesta Lecture, noted archaeologist Cordelia “Dedie” Thomas Snow pulls together the various descriptions of the Palace surrounding that phrase and, from them, imagines how the building looked and how Santa Feans lived.
“A Palace in Need of Repair: 1660-1720” is at 6 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 3, in the History Museum auditorium. Admission is $5 at the door; free to members of the Palace Guard, the museum’s friends’ group. (To join the Palace Guard, call the Museum of New Mexico Foundation at 982-6366, ext. 100.)
New Mexico History Museum | Aug 4, 2014
Hunting for cochineal red in the Segesser Hides. Did Sister Blandina create a miracle in the Photo Archives? Where did the town of Watrous get its name? Learn about that and more in the August-September 2014 issue of The Museum Times, a publication of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors. Give it a read by clicking here (or log onto http://media.newmexicoculture.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=328) then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the page.
New Mexico History Museum | Jul 22, 2014
Now landing in subscribers’ mailboxes, the September 2014 issue of True West magazine names the New Mexico History Museum as the nation’s best Western museum, “in recognition of their superior exhibitions and ability to reach all generations through their creativity in interpreting the West while fulfilling their institution’s mission.” The honor follows the announcement that the museum won a national Award of Merit for Leadership in History from the American Association of State and Local History for its 2013–14 exhibit, Cowboys Real and Imagined.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 24, 2014
From printing with a medieval-style to great music and the movie Tattoo Nation, the exhibit Painting the Divine: Images of Mary in the New World (opening June 29) comes with a host of special events.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 23, 2014
Mix together experts on a legendary outlaw, a hotel magnate, and a Territorial governor, and top it with ice-cold beer. Those folks and more will speak in the second half of the 2014 Brainpower & Brownbags Lecture Series. Organized by Tomas Jaehn of the museum’s Fray Angélico Chávez History Library at the New Mexico History Museum, the monthly lectures are free and open to the public (and, yes, you can bring a lunch). Each lecture begins at noon in the Meem Community Room; enter through the museum’s Washington Avenue doors. Seating is limited.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 19, 2014
The American Association for State and Local History will bestow an Award of Merit for Leadership in History on the New Mexico History Museum in honor of the excellence achieved by Cowboys Real and Imagined. The award recognizes the 2013-2014 exhibition, its public programs, and the publication of Jack Thorp’s Songs of the Cowboys by the Press at the Palace of the Governors.
“The staff of the museum brought intelligence, inventiveness and a lot of hard work to Cowboys,” said interim Director Jon Hunner. “This award is shared by the entire staff, our generous donors and the many visitors who enjoyed our hospitality—especially the ones who `cowboyed up’ and practiced roping a dummy calf.”
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 6, 2014
Please note: Due to a private event in the History Museum, it will not be open for our usual Free Friday Night on June 6. The Palace of the Governors, however, will remain open for free from 5-8 pm. (Folks attending the Judy Chicago opening at the New Mexico Museum of Art who would like to tack on a visit to Donald Woodman’s exhibit at the History Museum will need to plan a return visit.) We apologize for the inconvenience.
New Mexico History Museum | Jun 4, 2014
Learn about our upcoming exhibit, Painting the Divine: Images of Mary in the New World. Meet an awesome volunteer. Sort through old newspaper photographs and find out just which wall almost fell down. It’s all in the June-July 2014 issue of The Museum Times, a publication of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors. Give it a read by clicking here (or log onto http://media.newmexicoculture.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=319) then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the page.
New Mexico History Museum | May 5, 2014
The New Mexico History Museum and Palace of the Governors National Historic Landmark, a division of the state of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is seeking an exceptional individual to fill the position of director. (For more information about the museum, see http://nmhistorymuseum.org/.) The New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors explores the Southwestern experiences of the American story. We fulfill our mission through diverse collections, inspired exhibitions, engaging public programs, award-winning publications and collaborative partnerships.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 29, 2014
Outside of cowboy boots and a pony, what does pretty much every five year old want on their birthday? A party! And that’s just what the New Mexico History Museum is throwing on May 25. With the help of volunteers, visitors and community partners, we’ve accomplished great things since opening in 2009. How better to say “thanks” than to invite everyone over for old-time games, a tea party, hands-on activities and more.
The first treat: Through the generosity of La Fonda on the Plaza, the day is free to everyone.
Join us from 1–4 pm on Sunday, May 25, for “Come Out and Play,” a free birthday party and the debut of a new front-window installation, Toys and Games: A New Mexico Childhood, featuring dolls, toys, skates, sleds and more from the museum’s collections.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 24, 2014
An ecclesiastical wave of 1960s-era urban renewal inspired mission churches throughout the Americas to undergo drastic renovations and, all too often, cast off centuries-old artwork. Charles W. Collier, a cultural attaché to Bolivia, and his wife, Nina Perera Collier, began purchasing and obtaining pieces that eventually formed the backbone of the International Institute of Iberian Colonial Art, once based at their Los Luceros estate in northern New Mexico. In 2005, with the promised construction of spacious galleries and a state-of-the-art collections vault, the Institute donated 70 paintings and three sculptures to the then-unbuilt New Mexico History Museum. When Painting the Divine: Images of Mary in the New World opens on June 29, 35 of these 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces will share one exhibition space for the first time ever.
New Mexico History Museum | Apr 1, 2014
Poetics of Light: Pinhole Photography, opening April 27, includes a year’s worth of lectures and hands-on workshops. Remember when you made pinhole cameras from oatmeal boxes in grade school? Relive those days—and bring the family.
New Mexico History Museum | Mar 31, 2014
Meet our new interim director, learn about the human-sized camera obscura we’re building, get a glimpse of a recently conserved 18th-century painting. It’s all in the April-May 2014 issue of The Museum Times, a publication of the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors. Give it a read by clicking here (or log onto http://media.newmexicoculture.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=313) then tap on "download PDF" at the bottom of the page.
New Mexico Museum of Art | Mar 28, 2014
(Santa Fe, March 28, 2014)—Southwestern Allure:The Art of the Santa Fe Art Colony explores the development of Santa Fe as a haven for artists beginning in the early 20th century through the late 1930s.
The exhibition opens at the New Mexico Museum of Art April 25, 2014 and is on view through July 27, 2014.
Southwestern Allure celebrates the dynamic art scene that developed here in Santa Fe in the early 20th century as part of the explosion of artistic activity taking place in Northern New Mexico. The origins of the New Mexico Museum of Art and these early 20th century art colonies are inextricably linked.
Museum of International Folk Art | Mar 6, 2014
One of the most far-reaching exhibits of New Mexico animal wood carvings, Wooden Menagerie: Made in New Mexico, debuts at the Museum of International Folk Art on April 6, 2014 with 107 artworks made by such masters as Felipe Archuleta, Patrociñio Barela, and José Dolores López. The exhibition runs through February 15, 2015.
Museum of International Folk Art | Mar 6, 2014
Visitors to the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) have a unique opportunity to help develop an exhibit on the timely topic of immigration. Work in Progress: Folk Artists on Immigration, a new participatory exhibit lab exploring issues of immigration, home, and belonging, is now under way in the Museum’s Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience.
Work in Progress: Folk Artists on Immigration is the prototype for a more “official” iteration of the exhibition, which will open with a convening of local and international folk artists at MOIFA, in conjunction with the 11th annual International Folk Art Market, in July 2014.
New Mexico Museum of Art | Feb 27, 2014
Focus on Photography is a year-long series of exhibitions opening March 7, 2014 at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Three simultaneous exhibitions kick off the series: the solo show Beneath our Feet: Photographs by Joan Myers; the group show of landscape photographs titled Grounded; and the Photo Lab, an evolving interactive space exploring photographic processes and ideas.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 26, 2014
Ever wonder why there’s an obelisk in the middle of the Santa Fe Plaza? Have you noticed the gargoyles on top of the Catron Building? Where was the gambling hall? Which tucked-away building held a Manhattan Project secret?
Learn all that and more when the Historical Downtown Walking Tours led by museum-trained guides resume on April 14 through Oct. 11.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 21, 2014
Dr. Jon Hunner, a history professor at New Mexico State University, will serve as interim director at the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors, starting in early May after the spring semester. Hunner will be on loan from NMSU through December 2014. Dr. Frances Levine, the museum’s current director, is taking over leadership of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. Her last day is Sunday, March 16, the closing day of the exhibition Cowboys Real and Imagined.
“We are grateful to Governor Garrey Carruthers and New Mexico State University for their generosity in sharing Dr. Hunner, who has shown lifelong dedication to public history and a commitment to education,” said Veronica N. Gonzales, Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. “The Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents has already formalized the search committee and a national search will be conducted.”
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 5, 2014
Drought has descended on the Southwest for the last several years, leaving most of New Mexico’s agricultural land in conditions that demand new ways of thinking. Ranches have traditionally been one of the state’s largest industries, and that rainless sky means tough choices for people who juggle land management and environmental change. Many of them are adapting successfully, though, by reevaluating land use in creative ways. Their efforts help keep the legacy of the cowboy alive.
As part of the ongoing exhibit, Cowboys Real and Imagined, join us for a panel discussion on “Ranching in the 22nd Century: How We Get from Here to There,” at 2 pm on Sunday, March 2, in the History Museum auditorium. Moderated by Courtney White, founder and creative director of the Quivira Coalition, panelists will address the issues facing ranchers in the current drought and the prospect of ranching in the future with a deeper understanding of environmental conditions.
New Mexico History Museum | Feb 4, 2014
Historical Downtown Walking Tours resume April 14 .... An invitation to join the ranks of tour guides
The Historical Downtown Walking Tours led by museum-trained guides have grown into a popular pastime among locals and tourists alike. This year’s tours will run from April 14 through Oct. 11. To boost the ranks of volunteer guides, the New Mexico History Museum and Los Compadres del Palacio, a support group of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, are inaugurating a special recruitment and training opportunity, with a kickoff event on Tuesday, March 4, at 9:30 am.
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture | Jan 31, 2014
The photo show Native American Portraits: Points of Inquiry, which debuted at the New Mexico History Museum, moves to a gallery roughly double the size at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture on February 16, 2014, where the exhibition will be enlarged with about 10 more photos for a total of more than 75 historic and contemporary Native American Portraits.
New Mexico Museum of Art | Jan 30, 2014
Gustave Baumann is one of New Mexico’s most treasured artists, known widely for his woodblock prints of Southwestern landscapes and traditions.
The New Mexico Museum of Art has a comprehensive collection of Gustave Baumann’s work which includes prints, drawings, paintings, studies, furniture, and the eclectic menagerie of marionettes used to entertain generations of New Mexicans both young and old. Spotlight on Gustave Baumann opens February 1, 2014.
New Mexico Museum of Art | Jan 29, 2014
Artists as diverse as E. Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, T.C. Cannon, Agnes Martin, Maria Martinez and Georgia O’Keeffe share the museum’s Clarke Gallery for New Mexico Art Tells New Mexico History. This exhibition, culled from the New Mexico Museum of Art’s collection, tells the many stories which make up New Mexico through the eyes of some of this state’s most respected artists. The exhibition opens at the New Mexico Museum of Art on February 1, 2014.
El Palacio Magazine | Jan 29, 2014
El Palacio magazine celebrated its centennial in November 2013, joining a small but august group of publications in print still today; Scientific American (1845), Harper’s (1850), The Atlantic (1857), and National Geographic (1899). Setting El Palacio apart is its distinction of being the oldest museum magazine of its kind in the United States, first published by the Museum of New Mexico in November 1913.
The magazine’s name refers to the Museum of New Mexico’s first home, the Palace of the Governors, where it was established with the School of American Archaeology (later the School of American Research) alongside the already existing Historical Society of New Mexico.
Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner | Jan 27, 2014
On view now at Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site is a collection of Diné saddle blankets. The exhibition, They Wove for Horses: Diné Saddle Blankets, originated at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The exhibition will be on view through 2014.
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 27, 2014
Tom Leech, director of the Palace Press, and Arlyn Nathan, a book designer and typography instructor at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, have won the 14th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design from the University of Texas at El Paso’s Friends of the Library. The award recognizes Jack Thorp’s Songs of the Cowboys, published in 2012.
Leech, along with J.B. Bryan, also won honorable mention for the design of Margaret Wood’s memoir, O’Keeffe Stories. In his announcement letter, Robert Stakes, director of the UTEP Library, said “it is the first time a single Press was selected as both the winner and as honorable mention in the same year.”
New Mexico History Museum | Jan 21, 2014
Dr. Frances Levine, who became director of the Palace of the Governors in 2002 and led construction of the New Mexico History Museum into a world-class institution, has been named president and CEO of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. She will remain at the New Mexico History Museum until March 15 and start her new job on April 15.
“Everything I have done with the help of our staff, donors and volunteers has prepared me for this next set of responsibilities and challenges,” Levine said. “It’s not a coincidence that I would be traveling to a museum that shares so much of our Mexican period and territorial period history. This new position will also introduce me to another perspective on the American story. I look forward to learning about the diverse cultures and historical experiences brought together here at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and made St. Louis a dynamic American city."
El Palacio Magazine | Jan 17, 2014
El Palacio magazine celebrated its centennial in November 2013, joining a small but august group of publications in print still today; Scientific American (1845), Harper’s (1850), The Atlantic (1857), and National Geographic (1899). Setting El Palacio apart is its distinction of being the oldest museum magazine of its kind in the United States, first published by the Museum of New Mexico in November 1913.
New Mexico Museum of Art | Jan 15, 2014
Marking both her seventy-fifth birthday and three decades of living and working in New Mexico, Local Color: Judy Chicago in New Mexico 1984-2014 opens at the New Mexico Museum of Art June 6, 2014 and runs through October 12, 2014.
The exhibition will focus on both large-scale public projects and smaller-scale personal artworks and will be among the first to focus on recent works by Judy Chicago.
