MOIFA Educators Engaging Community

Educators at MOIFA, Museum of International Folk Art have been hard at work providing programming for schools and rural communities through a variety of programs. Their partnership with Cooking with Kids has reached 4,300 children in Santa Fe and Española Public Schools by training 15 educators in the program, who have focused on making sailors' valentines while the Cuban beans and rice recipe is cooking.

The Wonders on Wheels (WoW) Van through the Department of Cultural Affairs has been traveling across the state with a mobile version of the Música Buena exhibition that is still on display in the Hispanic Heritage Wing in the Museum. Since March 2020, the WoW Van traveling exhibit has reached over 1,200 adults and 3,500 children through mostly virtual programs for schools and libraries. Over this past pandemic year, 1,600 activity kits were also sent out to schools and libraries across the state. MOIFA also reached more than 4,400 people statewide through a collaborative virtual concert series.

MOIFA continues to build museum-school partnerships with local and regional schools, including Mandela International Magnet School and El Camino Real Academy, by offering bilingual programs relating to international folk art themes and visiting artists’ residencies, including New Mexican santero Arthur Lopez. Over this past fall, they have also developed a new partnership with San Juan Elementary School outside Española with local Santa Fe artist Moira Garcia, focused on contemporary Mexican art and culture through the lens of the ancient Tonalpohualli Mesoamerican Calendar and the bookmaking traditions associated with painted books.

These programs are generously funded this year by Patricia Arscott La Farge Foundation for Folk Art, the International Folk Art Foundation, Bank of America, as well as other individual donors.

Images courtesy of Museum of International Folk Art Market: Sailors' Valentine image, Cooking with Kids Training, WoW Van and Moira Garcia.

This content was written by Laura Sullivan Director of Leadership Giving in MNMF’s February 2022 Trustee Email.