Stories in the Sand: Storytelling, Objects, and kastom in Vanuatu In July 2025, the Gallery of Conscience will showcase an exhibition about Vanuatu, a South Pacific nation, marking MOIFA’s first exhibition about Oceania since 1960. The exhibition will highlight sand–drawing stories, a tradition where storytellers create illustrations in sand, ash, or soil while narrating or singing stories. These stories are usually about folklore, historic events, and kastom (traditional knowledge). The project is a collaboration between the Museum of International Folk Art and the Vanuatu Cultural Center and National Museum. In addition to the exhibition, the project involves research on MOIFA’s collection from Vanuatu. This July, three members of the Vanuatu team will be on-site to work with MOIFA staff on the exhibition and in collections. By collaborating with Indigenous cultural experts, we aim to improve our collections records and deepen our understanding of these items and produce an engaging and exciting exhibition. Museum guide Edgar Hinge performs a sand-drawing story at the Vanuatu Cultural Center and National Museum, Port Vila, Vanuatu. 2023. Photo by Felicia Katz-Harris Sand-drawing story by Edgar Hinge at the Vanuatu Cultural Center and National Museum, Port Vila, Vanuatu. 2023. Photo by Felicia Katz-Harris Curator Kaitip Kami in collections storage at the Vanuatu Cultural Center and national Museum, Port Vila, Vanuatu, 2023. Photo by Felicia Katz-Harris. Nobuhle Maphumulo: Weaving Zulu Heritage and Empowerment Through Telephone Wire Art Nobuhle Maphumulo is an inspiring young artist from Siyanda, South Africa, whose work will be featured at this year’s 20th anniversary International Folk Art Market in the Railyard as well as in the upcoming exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art, iNgqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa opening November 17. Born into a lineage of skilled weavers, Nobuhle learned the craft from her grandmother, Zodwa, and her mother, Ntombifuthi. She began weaving at the age of 15, inspired by her family’s legacy. Nobuhle’s ‘izimbenge’ beer pot covers and larger baskets blend traditional Zulu grass basket techniques with colorful plastic-coated telephone wire, creating intricate designs over days or weeks of meticulous work. Her motifs, inspired by Zulu beadwork as well as popular culture, convey messages of cultural pride and contemporary life. Telephone wire art not only preserves Zulu traditions but also empowers marginalized women in Siyanda by providing critical economic opportunities. Nobuhle’s creations celebrate and sustain the cultural heritage and dynamism of the Zulu people. Her work, along with that of many other telephone wire artists from South Africa, will be featured in the museum’s exhibition, iNgqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings. This first major exhibition of telephone wire art in any North American museum showcases the evolution and significance of wire weaving from historical to contemporary contexts, highlighting the artists’ experiences through videos and interviews. The exhibition features a significant collection generously assembled and donated by David Arment and Jim Rimelspach, the David Arment Southern African Collection. Guest curator Dr. Elizabeth Perrill, one of the world’s foremost experts on Zulu ceramics, brings over 15 years of experience collaborating with artists in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and 25 years of engaged research in Southern Africa. You can see and purchase Nobuhle’s art and the work of other traditional and contemporary folk artists at the 20th anniversary International Folk Art Market this year at the Santa Fe Railyard on July 12-14. Click here to read more. Photo courtesy of the artist/ International Folk Art Market. The International Folk Art Market was founded 20 years ago by the museum’s Director Emeritus, Charlene Cerny; folk art entrepreneur Judy Espinar; Tom Aageson, former President/CEO of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation; and philanthropist and former Foundation and Market trustee Charmay Allred as a program of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation. The Market is now its own independent non-profit organization and the museum continues to enjoy a mutually-beneficial and growing partnership. Your support helps make these impactful exhibitions and programs possible. Please click here or contact Laura Sullivan at [email protected] or by phone at 505.216.0829 to get more information or to make a gift using stock, your individual retirement account (IRA), a donor advised fund (DAF) or other tax-advantaged me

We are excited to welcome some beautiful new additions from Mexico to the Shops this month. Following a buying trip to Tlaquepaque in February, our orders of ceramics, glassware, and more are now available at the Lynn Godfrey Brown Shop at the Museum of International Folk Art and the Spiegelberg Shop at the New Mexico History Museum, as well as shopmuseum.org. The Lynn Godfrey Brown Shop at the Museum of International Folk Art will feature a small collection of pieces from master ceramicist José Luis Cortéz Hernández. Cortéz specializes in barro bruñido, an ancient Mexican pottery technique meaning “burnished clay”. This labor-intensive style of pottery is only made by a few artisans in Tonalá. He is a remarkable representation of the continuity and reinvention of the tradition. Luis was awarded with the “Premio Angel Carranza” award in 2013, also known as the “Premio Nacional de la Ceramica de Tlaquepaque” and was awarded to him by President Enrique Peña Nieto. Despite not being born in Tonalá and not being from an artisan family, Luis persevered to become a Master Artisan in the Burnished Clay technique, not only Tonalá, but throughout the whole of Mexico. We had the pleasure of visiting his home studio and selecting this collection of 12 items to feature in the store. Luis and Irma Cortéz in their home studio in Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico. In addition to Cortéz’s work, the Shops will feature other treasures from Mexico. From Guadalajara is high fire ceramic tableware with hand-painted details and finishes. From Tonalá is colorful blown functional glassware. From Puebla is whimsical and playful polychrome painted clay sculptures celebrating the Day of the Dead. In addition to these treasures are tin and other crafts from Michoacan, Guanajuato, and San Miguel de Allende. Be sure to stop in soon to see the full collection before it’s gone! Selection of clay crafts from Saul Montesinos Gonzalez from Puebla.

Mark White, Executive Director or the New Mexico Museum of Art, gave a heartfelt tribute to the Baumann family, including Jane and Ann Baumann and the Baumann Trust thanking them for legacy gifts that continue to enrich our lives and will do so for the lives of others far into the future. The event was intended to honor Legacy Society members who have included the Foundation and the institutions we support in their estate plans by providing a preview of the Baumann Retrospective exhibition planned for summer 2025. Legacy Society members viewing more of the Baumann Collection in the collections storage area with Christian Waguespack, Head of Curatorial Affairs. Photo by Cousineau Studios. Christian Waguespack, Head of Curatorial Affairs, led small groups for an exclusive tour in the collections storage area to show them select items from the Baumann collection – a true cultural treasure for our museums and the general public. Michael Ogg viewing artworks in the collections storage areas. Photo by Cousineau Studios. Jamie Clements thanked our current Legacy Society members for their invaluable support and for including the Foundation and/or the museums in their estate plans. He emphasized how their dedication helps us preserve and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of New Mexico. We were also grateful to those who shared stories and inspirations that led them to include the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and the museums in our system in their legacy plans. Roz Doherty commented, “I’ve always considered the museums to be my second home.” We hope that all of our Trustees and Circles members feel the same way and that the museums are here for you and for generations to come. If you would like more information about how to include the Foundation or the cultural institutions we support in your estate plans, please contact Laura Sullivan, Director of Leadership Giving and Planned Giving, at 505.216.0829 or [email protected]. You may also click here for a free estate planning guide for ideas to get started or to refresh your current plan.

Sign up for the event here! About the Artist: “I work both in the studio and en plein air, often painting scenes of urban life, cafes, architecture and landscapes. I enjoy the challenge of painting from life, observing the changing light, colors, and shapes. Painting with both brush and palette knife, I prefer the latter for its versatility and spontaneity. I use the palette knife to apply thick layers of paint, creating rich impasto effects that enhance the sense of movement and depth. I also use the palette knife to scrape, blend, and draw with the paint, creating interesting marks and edges.” Visit Michele Byrne Fine Art for more information: michelebyrne.com Ticket options are for 1-day or 2-day participation. Make sure to check the correct box at check out! 30% of all proceeds will be donated to The Museum of New Mexico Foundation, specifically to support Los Luceros Historic Site exhibitions and educational programming. If you have any questions about registration, please contact Asya G. Beardsley, [email protected].

New Mexico History Museum Invites People to Share Their Memories of Notable NM Restaurants The New Mexico History Museum (NMHM) is asking people with stories about notable New Mexico restaurants to give them a call. Selected stories will become part of a new exhibition showcasing historic or iconic eateries across New Mexico. The exhibition will share firsthand accounts of memorable meals in places as varied as family-owned cafés and 1960s drive-ins to high end landmarks and everybody’s favorite hole-in-the-wall. Stories will be collected by voicemail recordings. This project is part of a multi-year initiative at NMHM which will explore the influences that shaped the state’s diverse food heritage. It aims to foster a deeper appreciation of the people, technology, ingredients, and cultural influences that contribute to a defining aspect of New Mexico’s food economy, history, and identity. “New Mexico’s food goes far beyond the sizzle of a chile pepper,” says NMHM Executive Director, Billy G. Garrett. “The food we prepare and share in New Mexico is the product of centuries of tradition, contributions from people all along the farm to table continuum, continuous innovation, and a belief in the enduring value of family and community.” The inaugural exhibit, co-curated by Chef Johnny Vee is entitled, Forks in the Road: Notable New Mexico Restaurants. Scheduled to open in the summer of 2024, this immersive exhibit will combine photography, historic objects, soundtracks, video, and built-in displays to recreate the sights and sounds of eating out. Special programming will include tastings and presentations by food experts. Social media links will allow everyone to share their impressions and memories in real time. To share a story, people can call (623) 335-BITE (2483) and follow the instructions when prompted. Callers will be asked to provide their first name, the name of the restaurant they are going to talk about, the city or community where the restaurant is or was located, the approximate date of their memory, and then what they remember. Recordings will be limited to 3 minutes and participation is voluntary. By calling and leaving a message, people consent to the use of their recording in the Forks in the Road exhibit or other programming by NMHM. All recordings will remain anonymous and there is no guarantee that a recording will be selected. Recorded stories may be transcribed and edited by the Museum for a variety of uses in future exhibitions, research, publications, and online venues. For more information visit https://tinyurl.com/NMHM-Restaurants.

Line by Line Richard Hogan, Bosque #5 (detail), 1982, pastel on paper, 26 1/4 x 19 1/8 in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of Gifford and Joann Phillips, 1991 (1991.45.1). © Richard Hogan. Photo by Kevin Beltran. Line by Line surveys a century of innovative, energetic, and intriguing approaches to one of art’s most ancient and foundational elements: line. The exhibition, opening in two sections, explores the language of line in work by more than seventy artists working from the 1920s to now. Spanning a range of mediums – including painting, weaving, prints, photography, and sculpture – the art is organized into evocative categories, such as “A Line Alone,” “Land Lines,” and “Unaligned.” Visitors can immerse themselves in the extraordinary variety of linework, from pieces featuring a single line to those with grids, scrawls, stripes, and swirls. The first section of the exhibition opens on July 6, 2024, with the second section opening on October 5, both on view through March 9, 2025. https://www.nmartmuseum.org/exhitions/line-by-line/ Saints & Santos: Picturing the Holy in New Spain Cristóbal de Villalpando, The Mystic Marriage of St. Rose of Lima, ca. 1700, oil on canvas, 93 ¾ x 63 3/8 inches (238.125 x 160.9725 cm). Gift of Robert K. and Gene O. Woolf, Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California Santa Barbara, 1986.411. Saints & Santos: Picturing the Holy in New Spain speaks to the importance of saints in New Spain, a viceroyalty that was part of the Spanish Empire from 1521-1821 and included modern-day Mexico, Central America, and the US Southwest. In the late sixteenth century, Rome’s attempts to manage sanctity as an official process had a profound impact throughout Spain and the Spanish viceroyalties. Saintly devotions traveled to Mexico, and circulated within the vast territory, transforming in the process. This show examines those devotions and transformations, and explores the region’s attempts to propagate its own holy figures. Drawing on public and private collections from Mexico and the United States, the exhibition attends to the role of images in the construction of the holy: not only were paintings, sculptures, and engravings routinely used to propagate, celebrate, resuscitate, and venerate saintly figures, they were often employed in official beatification and canonization proceedings. The relationship between sanctity and the pictorial is a long and revered tradition that continues in the work of New Mexico’s santero artists today. A lavishly illustrated catalogue and a scholarly symposium will accompany the exhibition in Santa Fe. https://www.nmartmuseum.org/events/saints-santos-community-day/ https://www.nmartmuseum.org/exhitions/saints-santos-picturing-the-holy-in-new-spain/

Hopefully you received a copy of the Digging Deeper Into New Mexico Archaeology booklet that was recently mailed. Inside is a fascinating look into some of the research areas of the Office of Archaeological Studies (OAS). The booklet is a part of our annual appeal for research donations. Private contributions fuel the innovations and research progress housed at the OAS. If you would like to make a contribution to support their great work, click here. The Office of Archaeological Studies is looking forward to a busy summer in 2024. OAS archaeologists have been busy completing field projects. They completed monitoring of the installation of new historic markers along the Santa Fe River for the New Mexico Department of Transportation and they are currently completing surveys across New Mexico for the State Land Office. OAS has been contracted by a local Pueblo for a large excavation project that is expected to start in July. Their scientists in the analytical laboratories have been busy as well. The archaeomagnetic lab recently completed a study for the National Park Service. Progress continues on developing the procedures for the Super Critical Fluid process in the Carbon 14 lab. If you would like to learn more about what is happening at the archaeology office, feel free to reach out so I can help schedule a tour.

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) is pleased to announce Elisa Phelps has been named Head of Curatorial Affairs. Phelps brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in Native American art and culture, and her leadership is set to enhance the museum’s mission of preserving and celebrating the diverse cultural heritage of Native American communities. In her new role Phelps will oversee the museum’s curatorial department, leading efforts to expand and diversify MIAC’s programming, develop new exhibitions, and engage with Native American communities to ensure their voices are represented and honored in the museum’s programming. Phelps is originally from Houston, Texas, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Southwest Studies focusing on Anthropology from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, England. Phelps considers herself extremely fortunate to have been able to spend her career working in museums, most recently as Vice President and Chief Curatorial Officer at the Eiteljorg Museum, in Indianapolis, where she oversaw the curatorial, collections, and exhibition teams. Phelps served as project director for the 2022 reinstallation of the Eiteljorg’s 12,500 square foot core Native American galleries Expressions of Life: Native Art in North America. Phelps will be busy preparing for the upcoming opening of the JoAnn and Bob Balzer Native Market & Contemporary Art Gallery exhibition opening featuring a selection of contemporary market art pieces. Save the date – MNMF plans to co-host a great opening event the evening of Thursday, August 15! In other news, the Education department is excited to launch a free Summer Native Dance Series. Dance performance are at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in the Milner Plaza Performance Circle each first Sunday, and will include Tesuque Pueblo Dance Group, the Third Annual Nakota LaRance Youth Hoop Dance Championship, the Oak Canyon Dancers (Pueblo of Jemez), White Mountain Apache Crown Dancers and more. To stay up to date with MIAC’s event, click here to join their monthly newsletter.

At the time of writing for this newsletter, the general membership program had $12,000 more to go to reach its fiscal-year-end goal of $900,000. June is our second busiest month after December and I am confident we’ll exceed goal. I will provide an update in the August newsletter with official membership results. I encourage you to stop by the shops at Vladem Contemporary and the New Mexico History Museum to see our new member kiosks. Here members can join, renew, check their membership status and send a customer service inquiry. Another exciting tech development related to the kiosks is that the web forms are now integrated with our database expediting the membership process, allowing members to receive confirmation and digital cards within 24 hours. Be on the lookout for kiosks in the coming year at the Folk Art Museum, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the New Mexico Museum of Art. Another development in the tech side of membership is beginning July 1, the front desk teams at our four museums will begin to scan membership barcodes. This information on member visits will provide helpful information to know which museums members visit and how often. As one fiscal year comes to an end another one begins. We are planning our next member events, the next one will be a two-museum collaboration between the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Palace of the Governors on their complementary exhibitions on Zozobra in hon of Old Man Gloom’s 100th birthday. Last month we had two fabulous member preview celebrations for Off Center at the New Mexico Museum of Art Valdem Contemporary. Check our Flickr page for photos, coming soon. We look forward to seeing you in the museums this summer!

A new Office of Archaeological Studies (OAS) research booklet will be delivered to your doorstep soon. The brochure highlights a few of the OAS’s current research programs and future goals, such as innovations in their radiocarbon sampling laboratory; renovations and updates to the archaeomagnetic laboratory; and continuing archaeological fieldwork and research that is uncovering new clues about New Mexico’s past. Donations help the Office of Archaeological Studies to invest in more opportunities for their staff to collaborate with leading scientists, develop internships and invest in updates for the analytic equipment. Each spring the Museum of New Mexico Foundation launches a campaign to help raise funds to support the incredible research housed at the State archaeology office. I hope you will consider making a donation of support this summer. In other news, the Friends of Archaeology hosted a wonderful event at San Cristobal Basin in early May. Six full tours explored the rock art on the state lands, guided by expert archaeologists. The Office of Archeological Studies has recently held a number of fascinating Brown Bag lectures. The latest lecture by Executive Director Dr. John Taylor-Montoya titled It’s a Hard-Rock Life: Women and Children at Historic Mines in Southern New Mexico, was recorded and is now on the Friends of Archaeology’s YouTube channel. Click here to watch this Brown Bag lecture and others. The Friends of Archaeology also recently nominated the Singleton Family of San Cristobal Ranch for a Historic Preservation Award, which as approved by the State Historic Preservation Division. The Singleton family has been incredibly generous to the group over the years, allowing access to special archaeological sites for research and group tours. We are thrilled that the family is being recognized by the State for their work to conserve, protect and share areas of archaeological significance. If you know of private lands with fascinating archaeological histories that would be good for tours, please let the Friends group know at [email protected].