MOIFA | February 2025

A Legacy is a Vision Made Real

Entry to Multiple Visions exhibition. Photo by Tira Howard

Tutto il mondo è paese (All the world is hometown)

—Italian proverb that inspired Alexander Girard’s worldview

 

February is For the Love of Girard Month at the museum in honor of Alexander Girard’s vision for global understanding through the world’s folk arts. In 2022, MOIFA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Girard Foundation Collection and Archives coming to MOIFA by launching a campaign to raise funds for the Girard Legacy Endowment Fund.

The Girard Legacy Endowment Fund presents the opportunity to preserve and showcase Alexander Girard’s life-changing gifts of art, imagination and scholarship. This important endowment initiative meets the moment of the 40th anniversary of Multiple Visions: A Common Bond exhibition, highlighting the museum’s past accomplishments and securing its future.

Our $5 million goal includes $1.5 million in cash to be used for immediate impact and an additional $3.5 million in planned gifts. By contributing cash or naming the museum in your will or estate plan, you will connect more visitors from around the world to the artistic legacy of Girard and accomplish the following:

· Build capacity to share and expand Girard’s legacy

· Steward Girard’s vision through Multiple Visions and the Girard Foundation Collection and Archive

· Engage diverse audiences with folk art as an “experiential window on the world”

With your philanthropic support, Girard’s creative vision will continue to inspire and endure for generations to come. Click here to learn more.

 

Staff Picks: Favorites from the Collection on View at the Governor’s Gallery

San Lazaro (Saint Lazarus), Luis Rodriguez Ricardo, 2014. Oil paint on canvas, 43 5/16 × 56 13/16 × 1 in. Santiago de Cuba

On view at the Governor’s Gallery from January 13 to April 25, this exhibition presents a selection of objects from the popular exhibition that was on display at the museum in 2024. There will be a reception hosted by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation with refreshments provided by the Museum of New Mexico Women’s Board for legislators and their staff on Tuesday, January 28 from 3 to 5 p.m. Please stop by to see the exhibition, located on the 4th floor of the Roundhouse.

The exhibition features objects from 9 countries including Cuba, Mexico, United States, Peru, Japan, India, Indonesia, Ghana and Australia representing 11 known and a few unknown artists. All the objects were

selected by members of the museum staff and representatives of the International Folk Art Foundation and Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

Highlighting the diversity of the museum’s 163,000-object collection that represents folk traditions from more than 100 countries, the staff chose works that have personal connections and special resonance.

 

Donor Appreciation Reception

On December 11, 2024, the MOIFA Advancement Committee planned and hosted a Donor Appreciation Reception that was attended by close to 80 donors. Representatives from the Vanuatu Cultural Center presented a demonstration of sand drawings that will be a focus for an upcoming exhibition in the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience in June 2025, Stories in the Sand: Culture and “Kastom” in Vanuatu. Click here to view images from the event.

Support MOIFA

Your generosity enables the museum to continue offering these impactful exhibitions and programs. To learn more about giving options, please contact Laura Sullivan at laura@museumfoundation.org or call 505.216.0829.

Thank you for your continued support of MOIFA!