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Upcoming events:

Frontera Madrehood

Reading of Frontera Madre(hood)
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
5:30 PM
The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall

Professors Dr. Cynthia Bejarano and Dr. Maria Cristina Morales read a chapter of their book, Frontera Madre(hood) followed by a discussion and audience Q& A.

Thirty contributors discuss their lived experiences, research, or community work challenging multiple layers of oppression, including militarization of the border, border security propaganda, feminicides, drug war and colonial violence, grieving and loss of a child, challenges and forms of resistance by Indigenous mothers, working mothers in maquiladoras, queer mothering, academia and motherhood, and institutional barriers by government systems to access affordable health care and environmental justice. Fronter Madre(hood) encapsulates how mothering is shaped by the geopolitics of border zones, which also transcends biological, sociological, or cultural and gendered tropes regarding ideas of motherhood, who can mother, and what mothering personifies.

For more information, click here

Nightmare at the Museum

Nightmare at the Museums
October 30, 2025
6:00- 9:00 PM
Tickets are $13; children under 8 are free.

Join us for a spooktacular evening for ghouls and goblins for all ages! Activities include eerie objects from the NMSU Library Special Collections & Archives, bugs and bug crafts from the Arthropod Museum, creepy critters from the Vertebrate Museum, fossils and fossil activities from the Zuhl Museum, flashlight tours of anthropology exhibitions in the University Museum, exquisite corpse drawings in the UAM, and much more!

All proceeds go towards the NMSU Museums and Collections. Click here to buy your tickets.

Fiesta dia de muertos

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS: A Celebration of Art and Ancestors
Saturday, November 1, 2025
1:00 – 3:00 PM
Location: 646 N. Mesquite St., Las Cruces, NM
🎟️ Proceeds benefit UAM exhibitions and programs

Join the University Art Museum (UAM) and the UAM Advisory Council on Día de los Muertos for a special fundraising event honoring creativity, community, and those who came before us.

Hosted by UAM Advisory Council Member José Guerrero, this festive afternoon will feature a coffee pop-up, a curated charcuterie spread, and refreshing drinks, all set within José’s beautifully transformed, fall-inspired courtyard. Guests will also experience the installation of a stunning handmade Papel Picado sculpture created by the artist himself.

As José reflects, “Día de los Muertos is a day of altars honoring those who have come before us, and the museum is kind of like an altar for presenting creativity and artistic practices of those who inspire us.” This gathering celebrates the lineage of artmaking and the ancestors—familial, cultural, and artistic—who continue to inspire the work we do today.

Come raise a glass, honor the creative spirit, and support the UAM’s mission to sustain art for generations to come.

For More information click here

Creative Ozone Reading

Creative Ozone: The Artists of Westbeth Reading and Discussion
Thursday, November 6, 2025
5:30 PM
The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall

Dr. Miriam Chaiken launches her book Creative Ozone: The Artsists of Westbeth, a captivating portrait of the legendary artists’ residence that shaped contemporary art, activism, and New York’s cultural landscape for over fifty years.

Join us at the University Art Museum for a reading and dicussion with author Dr. Miriam Chaiken. Copies of Creative Ozone: The Artsists of Westbeth will be available for purchase.

For more information, click here

OutsmART Maggie Ceramics

OustmART: Clay Day with Maggie Day
Saturday, November 8, 2025
1 PM
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (106) in Devasthali Hall
Register here: https://www.jotform.com/build/252736352570155l

Inspired by Jennifer Ling Datchuk's ceramic artworks, participants will create their own fan frames to decorate with narrative scenes. Using clay, cookie cutters, and underglazes, participants will decorate their fan frames to create colorful, narrative scenes. Their clay artworks will be fired in the kiln by artist Maggie Day to be picked up the following week. This workshop is free and open to all ages. All supplies and materials will be provided by the art museum. This workshop is limited to 20 participants; please follow the link to register and secure your spot.  
Maggie Day is a ceramic based multimedia installation artist from Las Cruces, New Mexico. Day received her Bachelors in Fine Art From New Mexico State University in 2017 and her Master’s in Fine Art in 2021. She is currently teaching ceramics at NMSU and El Paso Community College. 


For more information, click here

Previous Events:

Artist Talk and Nail Salon with Jennifer Ling Datchuk & Marlene Tafoya

Artist Talk and Nail Salon with Jennifer Ling Datchuk & Marlene Tafoya 
Thursday, October 9, 2025 
Art Talk: 5:30-6:30 PM
Salon Style by Marlene Tafoya 5-5:30 PM and 6:30-7 PM 
Join online: https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/83125890899

The UAM Contemporary Gallery becomes a nail salon for one evening as artists Jennifer Ling Datchuk and Marlene Tafoya speak on the intersections of their artwork, manicures, and invisible cost of labor. In this salon-inspired setting, both Datchuk and Tafoya will receive manicures from a local manicurist while engaging in conversation. Before and after the artist talk, audiences are invited to explore the exhibition Jennifer Ling Datchuk: RIPENING and participate in Tafoya's “Salon Style”, a pop-up installation featuring manicure stations. At these stations, the audience is encouraged to sit down and do their own manicures using nail polish and supplies provided by the UAM. This program is organized in conjunction with Jennifer Ling Datchuk: RIPENING, on display in the UAM from September 19, 2025 - March 7, 2026.

For more information click here

Artist Walk-through Jennifer Ling Datchuk

Artist and Curator Walkthrough
Saturday, September 20, 2025 
12 PM

Join artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk and UAM Director Marisa Sage as they guide audiences through Jennifer Ling Datchuk: RIPENING and discuss the process of creating and curating the exhibition. 

sneak peek

Student Sneak Peek
Thursday, Septermber 4, 2025
5 PM

NMSU Students are invited to join us at the UAM for pizza, a museum merch raffle, and a behind-the-scenes look into upcoming fall exhibits.

OutsmART: Cartoneria

OutsmART: Cartonería
Saturday, July 26, 2025     
1-2 PM            
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)
  
Inspired by the work of artist Justin Favela, participants will explore paper crafts like collage and cartonería (piñata-making) to create their own landscapes with scissors, glue, and tissue paper. This free workshop is open to all ages and all supplies will be provided. Justin Favela's work is on display at the UAM in "CRUCES: New Acquisitions from the NMSU Permanent Art Collection" until August 20, 2025.

Learn more here.

OutsmART: Film Stills

OutsmART: Self-titled Film Stills
Saturday, June 21
Wednesday, July 2
Saturday, July 19
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)

Who do you want to be when you grow up? The UAM invites you to join one of our series of workshops where students will engage in conversations about self-representation and envisioning their futures. Inspired by Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills on display in Warhol & Friends, participants in the workshops will have the opportunity to study the work of Cindy Sherman, learn photography basics, use props and costumes to create a scene that reflect their aspirations for the future. Some props and costumes will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own items. After the workshop, everyone will receive a physical print of their image.

Local artist Marcus Xavier Chormicle will lead the workshop, teaching students about the work of Cindy Sherman and helping photograph each scene. Each workshop has a capacity of 20 participants, please register to secure your spot. Follow the links to register for June 21, July 2, or July 19.


This program is made possible with generous support provided by Art Bridges. Learn more here.

Neo Noir at the Rio Grande poster

Neo Noir at the Rio Grande
April 10, May 23, July 11, July 19
6:00pm

In conjunction with the University Art Museum’s (UAM) exhibition Warhol & Friends, the museum is excited to present a free series of classic films at the Rio Grande Theater and the UAM. Films include Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard, and Mildred Pierce, which will be screened at the Rio Grande Theater on April 10, May 23, and July 11, respectively. The series will conclude with a special screening of Gilda at the University Art Museum on July 19, coinciding with the exhibition's closing reception. All screenings will take place at 6:00 PM and are free and open to the public. This program is made possible with generous support provided by Art Bridges. 

Warhol & Friends engages with the diverse legacies of the Pop Art movement throughout its historical period and contemporary visual culture. The exhibition highlights significant artworks such as Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills, where the artist photographs herself not as the subject of portraiture but as a stock character in a hypothetical black-and-white Hollywood movie.

For more information on films and Art Bridges, click here.

Feminist Border Arts and Film poster

Feminist Border Arts Film Festival (FBAFF)
June 6-7, 2025

"The 10th annual Feminist Border Arts Film Festival (FBAFF) returns to Las Cruces, along with the second iteration of the Zine Festival, from June 6-7, 2025 at the University Art Museum (UAM) in Devasthali Hall.

The Film Festival will span across two days, from June 6-7 with screenings and programs running from 11 am-8 pm on both Friday and Saturday. Returning for its second year, the Zine Fest will be on Saturday, June 7, from 11 am-5 pm. Zines are available for purchase with most exhibitors accepting cash, Venmo, or PayPal. A comic workshop will take place on Saturday, June 7 at 1pm. Admission for all events is free and open to the public.

For more information on the 2025 FBAFF, click here

OutsmART: Self Help

OutsmART: Self Help Comics with Nicole J. Georges and Stef Choi
Saturday, June 7, 1-2 PM
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)

Comics can be a supportive space to process and hold big feelings. Develop a self care practice through comics and grounding worksheets with graphic memoirist Nicole J. Georges and illustrator Stef Choi. In this workshop you will learn how to create your own mindful comics and will be provided with a framework for incorporating this practice into your daily life. No drawing experience required.

jewelery making event

OutsmART: Pewter Sand Casting
Saturday, May 3, 2025; 1-2:30 PM     
Location: Meta'l Studio
3206 Harrelson St, Las Cruces, NM 88005

Join us at Meta'l Studio to follow along with artist Johanna Typaldos to learn basic sand casting techniques and create your own keepsake pewter castings inspired by her artwork seen in Stone, Glass, Light, Silk: 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition. Using glass gemstones and casting sand, participants will create molds of their small sculptures. Johanna will safely pour melted pewter into the molds as participants watch their sculptures take shape.

Casting materials and glass gemstones will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring their own costume jewelry or small items that they would like to press into casting sand or incorporate into their pewter casting. Items incorporated into pewter casting cannot be made of plastic or wood.

This workshop is best suited for ages 13 and up. Registration is required and spots are limited to 12 participants. Registration will open April 19, 2025. The form will close once the workshop is full. Email egflynn@nmsu.edu to be added to a waitlist.

Register here: https://form.jotform.com/250936356997071

 

Maggie Dethloff events

Visiting Curator: Lecture and Portfolio Review with Maggie Dethloff

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills In Context: Appropriation in Photography and Film
April 29, 2025; 5:30-6:30 PM
The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall and online via Zoom

In conjunction with the UAM's exhibition Warhol & Friends Dr. Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center, will speak on Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, looking backwards and forwards in time to contextualize Sherman’s breakout series within histories of appropriation in photography and film. Drawing connections between Sherman’s work and Andy Warhol’s prolific photographic output, the Lumiére Brothers’ actualité films, and the work of artists using strategies of appropriation today, Dethloff will discuss how such artworks gesture to the very nature of photography, film, and even reality itself.

Portfolio Review
April 28, 2025, 3:30-5 PM
Room 224 in Devasthali Hall
Share your portfolio and meet with Dr. Maggie Dethloff, Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center. Dethloff will be available for one-on-one sessions, offering insight and feedback on student portfolios.

Students, please sign up to secure your session: https://form.jotform.com/250995854114060

Bio:
Dr. Maggie Dethloff is the Assistant Curator of Photography and New Media at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. Her curatorial work is invested in exploring lens- and screen-based artistic processes from historical and theoretical perspectives, engaging in interdisciplinary research to consider the potential, and potential limitations, of photographic and time-based mediums to respond to contemporary issues. Prior to working at the Cantor, Dethloff held curatorial roles at Langson Institute and Museum of California Art at the University of California, Irvine, and the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. She is the author of PHOTOdocument: Twentieth-Century American Photography and Found Text.

 

Sol Lewitt Public Art and Collabration

OutsmART: Stamp and Squish Monoprints
April 26, 2025; 1-2 PM
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)
Join us for a sensory arts workshop where participants can experiment to create their own monoprints. A monoprint is a form of printmaking where paint or inks are transferred onto paper, creating a unique image. Using paints, plastic wrap, and paper, participants will learn the basics of printmaking as we stamp, squish, and move paint to create a one-of-a-kind monoprint.

 

Sol Lewitt Public Art and Collabration

The Intersectionality Between Fiction and Nonfiction: Storytelling for the Screen and Page
April 23, 2025
Keynote Speech at 5:30 PM
Reception at 6:30 PM
The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall
Research and Creativity Week (RCW) 2025 celebrates the research and creativity at NMSU with a week full of talks, performances, and exhibits. All events are free and in-person on the NMSU Las Cruces campus. This year’s theme, Ascent to R1, highlights what it will mean for NMSU to thrive as an R1 institution. NMSU achieved this prestigious Carnegie research classification in 2025.

RCW's Keynote Speaker, Ramona Emerson, will speak at the University Art Museum in Devasthali Hall on Wednesday, April 23 at 5:30 PM followed by a reception at 6:30 PM.

Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She has a bachelor’s in Media Arts from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. As a police department photographer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she spent 16 years documenting crime scenes before becoming a novelist. She is an Emmy nominee, a Sundance Native Lab Fellow, a Time-Warner Storyteller Fellow, a Tribeca All-Access Grantee and a WGBH Producer Fellow.

 

OutsmART: storytelling at the Museum

Storytelling at the Museum
February 12, March 5, April 9
10:30-11 AM

The University Art Museum invites toddlers and preschool aged children with their families to join us for a series of monthly read-aloud storytelling sessions inspired by our current exhibitions. Immerse yourself in the museum’s artwork while listening to stories that explore colors, emotions, and the unique beauty of the Southwest.
In Spring of 2025, Storytelling in the Museum will take place February 12, March 5, and April 9 from 10:30 to 11:00 am. This program is free and open to the public.

Sol Lewitt Public Art and Collabration

OutsmART: Draw like Sol LeWitt
March 29, 2025; 1-2 PM
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)

Sol LeWitt, a pioneer in the conceptual art movement, said “each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently.” For many of his public artworks LeWitt provided written instructions, then collaborated with other artists to produce the work as they followed his written instructions. In this workshop, participants will learn about the Sol LeWitt artworks that are part of the UAM's Permanent Art Collection. Participants will then create their own artworks using paper, makers, crayons, and pencils based on a set of instructions inspired from LeWitt's collaborative artworks. Just like LeWitt would have passed his own ideas and concepts to his team, each artist will receive the same instructions and materials, but each artwork will be unique

 

Sol Lewitt Public Art and Collabration

Sol LeWitt in New Mexico: Public Art and Collaboration at NMSU
March 6, 2025
The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall and via Zoom
Watch online here: https://nmsu.zoom.us/s/85358638430

Between 1981 and 1982, New Mexico State University invited the artist Sol LeWitt, a leading figure in the development of Minimalism and Conceptual Art, to conceive and construct a large-scale sculpture as part of a dual effort to expand building projects and fund public art on campus. Delving into the University Art Museum archives, Dr. Jess Ziegenfuss discusses the process and making of the artwork titled A Square, A Circle* (1982), located in the McFie Circle Desert Sculpture Garden, and the institutional background leading up to its creation. The history of this campus collaboration demonstrates the power of public art to engage and impact communities both past and present.

Dr. Jess Ziegenfuss is Assistant Professor of Art History at Texas A&M International University and curator of Warhol & Friends. Her scholarship focuses on modern and contemporary art, visual studies, and critical theory. She is particularly interested in political ecology, environmental aesthetics, materiality, scale and spatiality, process-based art, and site-specificity.

*Full title, Sol LeWitt: A Square within Which Are Horizontal Parallel Lines, Outside the Square, Vertical Parallel lines; A Circle within Which Are Parallel Lines, Outside the Circle Are Horizontal Parallel Lines.

OutsmART: tissue paper collages

OutsmART: Tissue Paper Collages
January 25, 2025; 1-2 PM
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)

Join us for a collage workshop open to all ages inspired by the exhibition Carlos Rosales-Silva: Border Destroyer. Led by artist and museum educator Eva Gabriella Flynn, participants will get a crash course in color theory and have a quick tour of Silva's monumental mural Border Destroyer before creating their own colorful collages. Using scissors, transparent tissue paper, and glue we will layer our cut shapes together to create collaged textured, landscapes inspired by the imagery in Carlos Rosales-Silva: Border Destroyer.

OutsmART: storytelling at the Museum

Storytelling at the Museum
2nd Wednesday of every month; beginning October 9, 2024
10:30 AM
University Art Museum

The University Art Museum invites toddlers and preschool aged children with their families to join us for a series of read-aloud storytelling sessions inspired by the museum's current exhibitions. Immerse yourself in the museum’s artwork while listening to stories that explore colors, emotions, and the unique beauty of the Southwest.
Beginning on October 9, 2024, Storytelling in the Museum will take place on the second Wednesday of each month from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. Fall dates include:

October 9
November 13
December 11

This program is free and open to the public.

For more information on the books click here

Tuana Cole with Annie Pennies

Brushstrokes and Soundwaves
Saturday, December 7, 2024; 1-2 pm

Welcome to Brushstrokes and Soundwaves! Artist Tauna Cole and musician Annie Pennies have collaborated to bring music and art together for an immersive experience. Follow along to a guided watercolor painting session by Tauna while Annie performs her sound bath, creating a range of sounds and tones with a variety of instruments. Interpret the sounds through colors, shapes, and movement--creating compositions that don’t require experience, only listening with your body and mind.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own mats.

Red Reminds me flyer

Red Reminds Me…
Tuesday, December 3, 4 pm

The NMSU Art Museum is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2024 by presenting Red Reminds Me…, a program of seven videos reflecting the emotional spectrum of living with HIV today.

In solidarity with A Day Without Art on December 1, please join us on Tuesday, December 3 at 4 PM at the University Art Museum for the free screenings of 7 short films, introduced by Dr. Laura Williams and Dr. Catherine Jonet.

Click here for more information on each film.

Murals 101

Murals 101
Thursday, November 14, 5:30-6:30 pm
Devasthali Hall Bleachers

What does it take to paint on a monumental scale? Join us at The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall on November 14 at 5:30 p.m. to learn from muralists and arts administrators as they share their experiences in creating murals and public artworks. Carlos Rosales-Silva, Norma Chairez, and Ceci Vasconcellos will discuss the steps involved—from proposals to completion—and elaborate on the cultural significance that murals bring to communities.

Click here for more information on each panelist.

coffee and crafts

Coffee and Crafts
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 12-2 pm
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Take a mental health break at the University Art Museum! Join us for a relaxing session where you can make a friendship bracelet and learn about available resources at NMSU.
Drop by anytime from 12–2 pm to visit our craft stations or come from 12–1 pm to learn about the resources at the Aggie Wellness Center.

Legacies Talk

Legacies of Pop: Roundtable with Dr. Jess Ziegenfuss, Carolyn Salas, and Carlos Rosales-Silva
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 5:30-6:30 PM
Online via Zoom. Register here: https://nmsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U5d_JzKLRuiPXnZgm7cctA

Join us for a virtual roundtable with Warhol & Friends curator Dr. Jess Ziegenfuss. Dr. Ziegenfuss will lead a conversation with artists Carolyn Salas and Carlos Rosales-Silva, delving into their artwork within the context of Pop Art and its influence on contemporary artists. This virtual roundtable is organized in conjunction with three UAM exhibitions—Warhol & Friends, Carolyn Salas: Night Vision, and Carlos Rosales-Silva: Border Destroyer. In this discussion, Dr. Ziegenfuss, Salas, and Rosales-Silva will explore the enduring impact of Pop Art in today's art world and the common threads that connect these three exhibitions.

Dr. Ziegenfuss is assistant professor of art history at Texas A&M International University. Her scholarship focuses on modern and contemporary art, visual studies, and critical theory, with specific interests in political ecology, environmental aesthetics, materiality, scale and spatiality, process-based art, and site-specificity. She is also an art critic and independent curator who has conducted virtual and in-person exhibition projects in association with collections of photography, art, and ephemera. She holds a Ph.D in Visual Studies from the University of California, Irvine.
Carolyn Salas received her BFA in sculpture from the College of Santa Fe and MFA from Hunter College. She is a Chashama Studio Space recipient and an Elizabeth Foundation Studio Program/Space awardee. She is represented by Mrs. Gallery in New York and has exhibited her work across the US.
Carlos Rosales-Silva, received his Masters in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts and is currently represented by both Sargent's Daughters in Los Angeles and New York City, and Ruiz-Healy Art gallery in Texas. He has exhibited extensively in the United States and Mexico, with recent shows at NYU, Texas Tech, Penn State, and Beverlys, in NYC. Most recently, he completed a residency at the Bemis Center in Omaha, NE, after previous residencies at Abrons Art Center, Residency Unlimited in NY, and Artpace in San Antonio, Texas.

Click here for more information on each panelist

OutsmART: Screen printing with Depress Press

OutsmART: Screen printing with Depress Press
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 1-3 PM
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106)

Located in Mesilla Park, NM, Depress Press is a commercial print shop firmly rooted in the music community and lowbrow art world. Founded by printers and graphic artists Anne Q. and Matt Garza, Depress Press prints for anybody and everybody, but often collaborates with local artists. In this process-based workshop, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at screen printing and gain hands-on experience in the craft. Participants will leave the workshop with wearables to show off and monoprints (a one-of-a-kind print that can't be duplicated) to hang on your walls. This printing method embraces mistakes and encourages participants to make their own choices!

This workshop is limited to 20 participants. This form will open on September 10, 2024 at 5PM. Please follow the link to register. The form will close once the workshop is full. https://form.jotform.com/242464561367057

To learn more about Depress Press, please visit their Instagram @depress_press. See the artwork of Anne Q. at @unviral.value and Matt Garza at @matthewbgarza.

Table Top Sculptures

OutsmART: Tabletop Sculptures
Saturday, October 26, 2024, 1-2 PM
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106) in Devasthali Hall

To prepare for her exhibition Night Vision in the University Art Museum, artist Carolyn Salas created foam board maquettes to plan out her large-scale immersive sculptures. Join us for this workshop where we will take inspiration from her artwork to create our own tabletop sculptures. We will tour the exhibition and study the fabrication methods used to create the pieces. With our new understanding of sculpture techniques, we’ll use foam core boards, scissors, and paint to create our own interlocking and freestanding sculptures inspired by the artwork in Carolyn Salas: Night Vision. This program is free and open to the public.

poetry workshop of kid writing on paper

Poetry Workshop
Tuesday, October 22, 2024, 5:30-6:30pm
Location: Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106) in Devasthali Hall

Workshop your writing and explore the elements of poetry with Professor Figueroa and our community of local writers. Figueroa is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at New Mexico State University. He specializes in Mexican literature and creative writing. He has published two poetry books in Mexico and one in the United States. He has also published poetry in Spanish and English in multiple journals and magazines in both countries, including Latin American Literature Today. His drama La breve jornada [The Brief Day] was staged at Mexico's National University's theatre. A native of Mexico City, he enjoys riding the subway while writing stories about the people around him.

Loteria Game Night poster

Artist Talk with Carlos Rosales-Silva
Thursday, October 15, 2024, 5:30-6:30 pm
Devasthali Hall Bleachers via Zoom
Register for Zoom link here: https://nmsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_z5iAuk9NRp2LyzsW0l4OSQ

Exhibiting artist Carlos Rosales-Silva will share insights into the research behind his artistic processes. Born on the border of the United States and Mexico in El Paso, Texas, Rosales-Silva's studio practice examines the vernacular culture of the American Southwest, the Western canon of art history, and the political and cultural connections and disparities between them.

Rosales-Silva has exhibited extensively across the United States and Mexico. He has participated in artist residencies at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska (2024), Abrons Art Center in New York, NY (2021), Residency Unlimited in New York, NY (2020), Artpace in San Antonio, Texas (2018), and Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY (2017). Recent group exhibitions include shows at the Latinx Project at NYU, Texas Tech University, Penn State University, Beverlys in New York, NY, and North Loop Gallery in Williamstown, MA. In 2023, Sargent's Daughters presented his solo exhibition titled Border Logic at their Los Angeles gallery and featured a solo booth at the Armory Show in New York City.

Rosales-Silva holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and is represented by Sargent's Daughters in Los Angeles and New York City and by Ruiz-Healy Art in Texas. He currently resides and works in New York, NY.

Loteria Game Night poster

Loteria Game Night
Saturday, June 22, 5:00-6:30 pm
Saturday, July 13, 5:00-6:30 pm

Artist Blanca Martinez hosts a series of game nights playing Loteria, inspired by her work in Making as Knowing · When I was Here,Thinking of There. 

Game boards are available for 25 players–please arrive early to secure your spot.

Loteria Game Night poster

2024 Feminist Border Arts Film Festival & Zine Fest
Friday June 28-29, 2024, 9am-6pm
The Bleachers, Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (room 106), and room 129

The Feminist Border Arts Film Festival celebrates the power of cinema as a creative tool to reflect upon urgent social issues and thought-provoking representations of identity and difference. The festival defines “feminist border arts” as a practice that challenges the limits of conventional representation through telling stories from the edge; threshold visions from the margins that create new ways of seeing, that visualize underrepresented ways of knowing. Selected films revive the promise of cinema, the possibility of film, video arts, and new media to open minds, create new vistas, and challenge dehumanizing forms of representation.

Now in its ninth year, the FBAFF offers two days of films, zines, a workshop, and panels. Join us for the 2024 Feminist Border Arts Film and Zine Festival, during international Pride weekend, June 28 and 29, 2024. Admission is Free and Open to the Public.

The 2024 FBAFF is sponsored by NMSU Gender & Sexuality Studies, University Art Museum, College of Arts & Sciences, Office for Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity, NMSU Global Campus, Research, Creativity, and Strategic Initiatives, Department of English, and Doña Ana Community College.

Click here for more information on the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival

Outsmarts paper zoetropes

OutsmART: Paper Zoetropes
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 1-2 pm
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

In collaboration with the 2024 Feminist Border Film Festival, the UAM invites you to make your own moving picture.

During the workshop, participants will learn about the history of early filmmaking and make a zoetrope. First invented in 1867, zoetropes are spinning cylinders used to create animations and are often still used today in films and video games. Participants will follow a template guiding them to construct a zoetrope with their own off-screen animation with paper, pencil, and rubber bands.

Click here to learn more about the 2024 FBAFF and see their full schedule of events from June 28-29.

Outsmarts Pots & plants

OutsmART: Pots and Plants with Karly Jean Kainz and Blanca Martinez
Day 1: Saturday, June 1, 1:00-3:00 pm
Day 2: Saturday, June 8, 1:00-3:00 pm

Over the course of this two-part workshop participants will decorate their own planter, create a macrame hanger, and repot a houseplant into their handmade planters. Materials are limited and this workshop has a capacity of 20 people.

Registration for this workshop will open May 18, 2024. Please sign up here to secure your spot: https://form.jotform.com/241056210591043

Day 1:
Saturday, June 1, 1:00-3:00 pm
Ceramics Studio, (RM 122) in Devasthali Hall
Using underglazes in a variety of colors, participants will decorate clay planters and trays made by Karly Jean. After the workshop, Karly Jean will fire the planters and trays so that they are ready for part two!

Day 2:
Saturday, June 8, 1:00-3:00 pm
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room, (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall
With the planters and trays glazed and fired, Blanca Martinez will teach participants how to make their own macrame plant hanger, a skill she learned from her grandfather. Once finished, participants will choose from a variety of houseplants to take home in their planters and learn about proper plant care.

flyer of the event

Artist Walkthrough with Karly Jean Kainz and Blanca Martinez
Saturday, May 25th
1:00-2:00 pm

Join artists Karly Jean Kainz and Blanca Martinez for a walkthrough of their MFA thesis exhibition Making as Knowing · When I was Here,Thinking of There. Museum Education and Outreach Coordinator Eva Gabriella Flynn will lead the open discussion as Kainz and Martinez offer insight into their artworks.

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Coffee and Crafts

Wednesday, May 1 12-2pm
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Destress and refuel as you prepare for finals week! Take a study break at our craft stations where you can color and create friendship bracelets. Coffee, light refreshments, and supplies will be provided. Drop in anytime from 12-2pm.

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OutsmART: Spring Skies Painting Workshop
Saturday, April 27; 1-2:30 pm
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Create a painting inspired by the skies of New Mexico. Local artist and educator, Eva Gabriella Flynn, will introduce basic painting techniques with acrylic and tempera paints for participants to create their own painting on a shaped wooden panel. This workshop is free and open to the public. Materials are limited to 25 participants. Register here or use the QR code to secure your spot.

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Poetry Workshop with Rodrigo Figueroa
Tuesday, April 16; 5:30-6:30pm
Sandy Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Back by popular demand! The UAM proudly hosts a Poetry Workshop with Rodrigo Figueroa. Participants will explore methods and prompts to write their own poetry. Rodrigo Figueroa is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at New Mexico State University. He specializes in Mexican literature and creative writing. He has published two poetry books in Mexico and one in the United States. He has also published poetry in Spanish and English in multiple journals and magazines in both countries, including Latin American Literature Today. His drama La breve jornada [The Brief Day] was staged at Mexico's National University's theatre. A native of Mexico City, he enjoys riding the subway while writing stories about the people around him.

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“Juan Quezada: Pioneer Potter of Mata Ortiz” Documentary Screening
Friday, April 5, 2024, 6-7:45 pm
Rio Grande Theater:
211 N Main St, Las Cruces, NM 88001

Join the University Art Museum for free screenings of “Juan Quezada: Pioneer Potter of Mata Ortiz'' by Dina Perlasca  and “The Renaissance of Mata Ortiz” by Scott Peterson at the Rio Grande Theater, April 5, 2024 at 6pm, presented in conjunction with the UAM’s newest exhibition Mata Ortiz: Highlights from the Lysbeth Warren Anderson Collection. Both films feature testimonials from Juan Quezada and offer insight into the history and legacy of Mata Ortiz pottery.

For more information on the films click here. 

 

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Live Performance by latenightloki
Friday, March 22; 5:30-7:30pm
The Bleachers

Musical performer and a self proclaimed "desert dwellin' smoov operator" latenightloki joins us for the opening receptions of Mata Ortiz: Highlights from the Lysbeth Warren Anderson Collection and 2024 Juried Student Show. Latenightloki will be performing in The Bleachers and sharing smooth grooves, vinyl choppin', and pad beatin. Listen to more of his music here.

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OutsmART: Pinch Pot Workshop
Saturday, March 23, 2024; 1-2:30 pm
Ceramics Studio, room 122 in Devasthali Hall

Taking inspiration from the Mata Ortiz pottery in the museum’s collection, participants will learn from Maggie Day, NMSU professor and ceramic artist, to learn introductory techniques and create their own pinch pots with clay. Pottery will be fired for participants to pick up in Devasthali Hall at a later date, when participants can then take home their finished glazed ceramic pieces.

Maggie Day is a ceramic based multimedia installation artist from Las Cruces, New Mexico. Day received her Bachelors in Fine Art From New Mexico State University in 2017 and her Master’s in Fine Art in 2021. She is currently teaching ceramics at NMSU and Dona Ana Community College as well as teaching STEAM in the Las Cruces Public School for Cruces Creatives.

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OutsmART: Zine Workshop with Esperanza Luz
Saturday, March 2, 2024; 1-2:30 pm
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Zines, short for “magazines,” are self-published literary/art booklets that offer a powerful way to directly share our ideas with the world around us. In conjunction with Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding, please join us for a free zine workshop led by Esperanza Luz. Participants will learn how to make their own 8-fold or pamphlet stitch zine, have a chance to explore the exhibit, and learn a bit about the history of zines. 

Esperanza is a writer, geographer and zine lover from Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is passionate about learning slow crafts, land-based practices, thinking with place, and experimental cartographies. She's been making zines since she was a teenager and sees them as awesome tools of expressive empowerment and reflection. A New Zine Atlas of Las Cruces and mini-pop up zine library will be available at the event. 

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Storytelling Across Text & Image: A Workshop with Radius Books
Tuesday, February 27; 1 PM
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Art and photo book publisher Radius Books, in conjunction with the NMSU Art Museum, invite students to a playful hands-on workshop inspired by the work of keynote speaker Celia Alvarez Munoz. Together we will view Muñoz's distinctive artists' books, now on display in Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding. Students will then experiment with crafting their own short "text-and-image" narratives using found images, collage, short text, and index cards. Combining elements of creative writing and visual art, participants will engage with a central thread of Muñoz's practice—storytelling—to create their own pocket artists' books. This workshop is open to anyone from across the NMSU campus; previous studio art experience is not required. Facilitated by Kiera O'Brien, Radius Books Community Outreach & Education Coordinator. 

 
Capacity: 15-20 students max. Please use this link to register for the workshop.

Research and Creativity Week 2024
February 26, 2024; 6–7pm
ASNMSU Center for the Arts
1000 E University Ave, Las Cruces, NM 88003

Renowned artist Celia Álvarez Muñoz returns to the NMSU campus to discuss her current exhibition at the University Art Museum. She will speak about the necessity for goal-making, the importance of not discounting serendipity, and enjoying the journey. Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding spans forty years and features over thirty-five artworks—highlighting the artist’s playful, witty style–frequently drawing inspiration from her lived experience as a resident of the United States-Mexico borderlands. Celia Álvarez Muñoz’ visit for 2024 Research and Creativity Week is in collaboration with the Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series sponsored by the NMSU Department of Art and funded by the Lilian Steinman Visiting Artist Fund.

Celia Álvarez Muñoz was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1937. When her father deployed during World War II, her mother, aunt, and maternal grandmother raised her–a dynamic that has influenced her work throughout her career. She studied at Texas Western University (now University of Texas) in El Paso, taking mostly commercial art classes. After teaching art for many years to children, in 1977, at the age of forty, she enrolled in graduate school at University of North Texas (NTSU). There she began work on her seminal series Enlightenment, exploring her personal memories of life on the U.S.-Mexico border in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Álvarez Muñoz has exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally, crossing boundaries and territories to share the narratives of the borderland.

Reception: 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. at the UAM
1308 E. University Ave., Las Cruces, New Mexico, 88003

Following the keynote address, join us at the museum for a reception with live music and light refreshments.

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chaos theory: Performance by Rhonda Taylor
Saturday, February 24, 2024; 7:30-8:30 pm
UAM Contemporary Gallery

Rhonda Taylor performs tracks from her new album chaos theory alongside Shawn Marquez and Josh Carter in the UAM Contemporary Gallery. Learn more and listen to the album on Bandcamp. Album cover by Chris and Steph Preciado-Shelton

Click here for more information on the performing musicians. 

 

madan sara

Madan Sara Film Screening and virtual Q&A with Director Etant Dupain and Producer Lu Childs
Thursday, February 15, 2024; 5-6:30 pm
The Bleachers at the UAM

Public Zoom Link for Q&A starting at approximately 5:50 pm MST:

https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/86962071591

Join the UAM in a screening of Etant Dupain’s award-winning documentary Madan Sara. After the screening, Director Etant Dupain and Producer Lu Childs will answer questions from the audience in a virtual Q&A.

The women known as madan sara in Haiti work tirelessly to buy, distribute, and sell food and other essentials in markets throughout the country. Despite the obstacles faced by the women working in a sector that lacks investment, infrastructure and state assistance, the madan sara continue to be one of the most critical parts of the Haitian economy and culture. The film Madan Sara tells the stories of these indefatigable women who work at the margins to make Haiti’s economy run. In the face of  intense hardship and social stigma, the madan sara put their children through school, house their families, and ensure a better life for generations to come. This film amplifies the calls of the madan sara as they speak directly to the audience to share their dreams for a more just Haiti. 

Watch the trailer for the film here: https://www.madansarafilm.com/

Etant Dupain is a journalist, filmmaker, and community organizer. For over a decade, he has worked as a producer on documentaries and for international news media outlets including Al Jazeera, TeleSur, BBC, CNN, Netflix, PBS, and Vice. Etant founded an alternative media project in Haiti to enable citizen journalists to provide access to information in Haitian Creole for and about internally-displaced people, aid accountability, and politics. His film Madan Sara is inspired by the strength of his mother and the women known as the madan sara who make Haiti’s economy run. 

Lu Childs is the Co-owner of Street Team Productions and the Co-Executive Producer of Madan Sara. As a New York City native, he along with his friends decided to create a company that would make content that appealed to their demographic. Street Team is a New York City based company that creates entertainment content for different platforms. They are currently working on a documentary about Haiti titled Haiti 1974, about the journey of the 1974 Haiti World Cup team.

For the love of art poster with various artworks

For the Love of Art Month: Exhibition and Collections Tour
Saturday, February 10, 2024; 1-2pm

University Art Museum
 
In collaboration with ArtForms Artists Association of New Mexico, the UAM is celebrating For the Love of Art Month with a special tour of current exhibits and a behind-the-scenes peak into the museum's collection. Join us on Saturday, February 10 at 1pm! Please email egflynn@nmsu.edu to register.
 
Every year, ArtForms members organize and promote For the Love of Art Month with programming throughout all of February that celebrates artists in the Las Cruces community. For more information and a full calendar of events, please visit https://www.artformsnm.org/

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Poetry Workshop with Professor Rodrigo Figueroa
Thursday, February 1, 2024;  5pm-6:30pm
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

In conjunction with Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding, please join us for a free poetry workshop led by published poet and professor Rodrigo Figueroa. Inspired by the use of text and imagery in Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding, Professor Figueroa will lead participants through prompts generated from the text in Munoz's artwork. Figueroa is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at New Mexico State University. He specializes in Mexican literature and creative writing. He has published two poetry books in Mexico and one in the United States. He has also published poetry in Spanish and English in multiple journals and magazines in both countries, including Latin American Literature Today. His drama La breve jornada [The Brief Day] was staged at Mexico's National University's theatre. A native of Mexico City, he enjoys riding the subway while writing stories about the people around him.

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Aesthetics of Identity: Artists and Curators Panel Discussion
Tuesday, January 30, 2024;  5:30-7pm
The Bleachers at Devasthali Hall

Audiences unable to attend in person can join via Zoom: https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/81160542651

Join artists, curators, and educators, Bella Maria Varela, Hazel Batrezchavez, andPico del Hierro-Villa in an open discussion moderated by Eva Gabriella Flynn as they reflect on the influences of their work and the intersections of nuanced identity on the US/Mexico border.

For more information on the panelists: Click Here

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OutsmART: Bookmaking & Storytelling
November 4, November 18, December 2

NMSU Art Museum invites you to participate in a series of bookmaking workshops related to the current exhibition Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding and its accompanying publication. Participants will tour the exhibit, learn introductory bookmaking techniques from regional artists, and use these new skills to create books for their own artwork and storytelling. Participation in all workshops is not required, but encouraged as some skills will build on the first initial workshop. Our third workshop on December 2 will be offered in Spanish. These workshops run in collaboration with Celia Álvarez Muñoz’s retrospective exhibition, Breaking the Binding, and participants can choose to exhibit their books with the University Art Museum in the Mullenix Gallery, alongside Celia’s murals as part of a growing collection of stories from our shared communities. All ages and experience levels are encouraged to attend.

An open book

OutsmART: Creacion de libros y historias con Iris Diaz
Wednesday, December 2, 2023; 1pm- 3pm
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

This iteration of Bookmaking and Storytelling workshop will be in Spanish, with El Paso/Juarez artist Iris Diaz.

Los participantes se inspirarán en la exposición de Celia Álvarez Muñoz para ilustrar sus propias historias. Este taller pedirá a los participantes que crear personajes e ilustran su historia en las páginas de sus libros hecho a mano. Trabajaremos con materiales artesanales, usando marcadores y lápices para ilustrar nuestras historias. Este taller se realiza en conjunto con la exhibición Celia Alvarez: Breaking the Binding y los participantes pueden optar por exhibir sus libros en la galería Mullenix junto con el trabajo de Celia Alvarez Muñoz.

Participants will take inspiration from Celia Alvarez Munoz’s exhibition to illustrate stories of travel, migration, and crossing. This workshop will ask participants to create a character and illustrate their story across the pages of their handmade book. We will be working with craft materials, using markers and pencils to illustrate our stories. These workshops are in conjunction with Celia Alvarez: Breaking the Binding and participants can choose to exhibit their books in the Mullenix gallery alongside Celia Alvarez Munoz’s work.

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OutsmART: Bookmaking Basics with Maeve Leslie
Saturday, November 18, 2023; 1pm- 3pm
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

In the second part of our Bookmaking and Storytelling workshops, students will tour Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding and learn introductory bookmaking techniques from Denver artist Maeve Leslie to create artist books that break the boundaries of traditional book formats. Participants will use craft materials to cut, paste, and color their artist books with hard covers. Afterwards, participants can choose to exhibit their finished book in the museum’s Mullenix Bridge Gallery, or take their personalized artist book home to share.  Maeve Leslie is a Filipina-American artist and the daughter of an immigrant. Her current work revolves around both her and her mother’s journey in America and explores these topics through bookmaking, papermaking, and fiber arts.

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OutsmART: Bookmaking & Storytelling: Accordion Books
Saturday, November 04, 2023; 10am- 2pm
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

In this workshop, students will learn basic a book-making technique to create accordion-fold books that tell stories of their choosing. Working with craft materials, markers, pencils, and crayons, students will create and decorate their accordion books with stories of their choosing. Participants can choose to exhibit their finished artist book in the museum’s Mullenix Bridge Gallery, exhibited alongside Celia Alvarez Munoz’s murals in Breaking the Binding.

Oxymodern (Aztec Calendar) by Einar and Jamex de la Torre, 2002 (Courtesy of the Cheech Marin Collection and Riverside Art Museum), blown-glass, mixed-media wall installation, 120x120x12 in

Opening Weekend Events in Collaboration with UTEP's Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts
Thursday, October 19th 2023, 5:00-7:30pm
Friday, October 20th 2023, 11:00am - 3:00pm

The Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts will open Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers on Thursday, October 19th, 5:00-7:30 pm., and Mi Casa Gallery in San Elizario, TX on Saturday, October 21st 11:00 am- 3:00 pm, which will be the future home of The Gaspar Enriquez Cultural Center.

Click here to see the full weekend schedule including gallery walkthroughs, screening and opening receptions: https://www.utep.edu/rubin/exhibitions/future/collidoscope-de-la-torre-brothers.html

Image Credit:Oxymodern (Aztec Calendar) by Einar and Jamex de la Torre, 2002 (Courtesy of the Cheech Marin Collection and Riverside Art Museum), blown-glass, mixed-media wall installation, 120x120x12 in

Oxymodern (Aztec Calendar) by Einar and Jamex de la Torre, 2002 (Courtesy of the Cheech Marin Collection and Riverside Art Museum), blown-glass, mixed-media wall installation, 120x120x12 in

Book Signing for Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding at Opening Reception
Friday, October 20th 2023, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

This Friday, October 20, 2023 the NMSU Art Museum will be holding the opening reception for Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding from 5:30-7:30 p.m..  During the opening, the museum will also be presenting a full-color publication that will be available for purchase at the reception on Friday and throughout the exhibition, from October 20, 2023- March 2, 2024.   

The publication is published by Santa Fe based non-profit art book publisher Radius Books.  As the first seminal publication devoted to the artist’s career, Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding will feature installation images of Muñoz’s photo and text-based pieces, book projects, and large-scale installations alongside unpublished archival materials and timelines. Both Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding exhibition and volume provide a critical perspective on an influential yet under-studied artist and contribute to the growing field of scholarship on contemporary Latinx and Conceptual art.

Álvarez Muñoz is originally from El Paso, TX, where her upbringing in the borderlands inspired many of the artworks featured in the publication and exhibition.  The University Art Museum (UAM) is proud to share this exhibition with the Las Cruces community, and excited for this publication to be a lasting record that Las Cruces audiences can keep. The publication can be purchased at the UAM with cash, card, or check.  The opening reception of Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding will feature live music and an opportunity to take home a signed copy of the publication by Álvarez Muñoz herself.

Radius Books is a Santa Fe-based nonprofit organization whose goal is to make a lasting creative impact through art books.  Since their founding in 2007, Radius has gifted over 80,000 thoughtfully crafted books to libraries, schools, and art programs across the US through their Donation Program.  For more information, visit their website radiusbooks.org. 

The exhibit Celia Álvarez Muñoz: Breaking the Binding is on view from October 20, 2023 through March 2, 2024. Join us for the public opening reception in the UAM on Friday, October 20, 2023, from 5:30-7:30pm, where audiences can purchase a signed copy of the exhibition’s accompanying publication.  Admission to all programming is free and open to the public. For more information and a detailed calendar with associated programs and dates please visit uam.nmsu.edu.

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Screening of Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1
Wednesday, September 13th 2023, 6:00-7:30pm
Rio Grande Theatre in downtown Las Cruces
211 N Main St, Las Cruces, NM 88001

Screened in conjunction with Cara Despain’s Specter and Branigan Cultural Center’s juried show Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing, the film Nuclear Savage (2011, 87 minutes) is an intimate ethnographic portrait of Pacific Islanders struggling for dignity and survival after decades of intentional radiation poisoning at the hands of the U.S. government. Radioactive coconuts, leaking nuclear waste repositories, and densely populated slums, were the result of 67 nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. government in the 1950s. Relying on declassified documents, devastating survivor testimony, and archival footage, documentary filmmaker and activist Adam Jonas Horowitz reveals how the U.S. government devastated an entire population to observe the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings with devastating results.

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Conversation with Karen Yank, Tonya Turner Carroll, and Marisa Sage
Thursday, August 31st, 5:30-7:30 pm
Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

UAM Director Marisa Sage spent an evening with Artist Karen Yank and Santa Fe’s Turner Carroll Gallery Co-Owner Tonya Turner Carroll. Sage, Turner Carroll, and Yank explored the themes of UAM’s current exhibition Agnes Martin and Karen Yank: Meditations on Mentor and Student on display in the Bunny Conlon Modern & Contemporary Art Gallery. Martin taught Yank how to focus her inspirations, create a strong artistic vision through meditation, and scale her mind's-eye sketches into large-scale artworks. Turner Carroll and Sage will discuss with Yank the practices she gained within her mentorship with Martin and how it has influenced Yank’s career.

For more information on the panelist click here

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Screening of The River that Harms and Under the Cloud with a Virtual Q&A by Pedro Reyes
Wednesday, August 30th 2023, 6:00-8:00pm
Rio Grande Theatre in downtown Las Cruces
211 N Main St, Las Cruces, NM 88001

Screened in conjunction with Cara Despain’s Specter and Branigan Cultural Center’s juried show Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing, filmmaker Colleen Keane’s The River That Harms and artist Pedro Reyes’s Under the Clouds consider the duration and devastation of uranium mining and nuclear waste on Indigenous territory in the U.S. After the screenings of these two films, the UAM will moderate a virtual Q&A with Pedro Reyes and Joanna Keane Lopez from the Rio Grande theater. Joanna Keane Lopez, the daughter of Colleen Keane, is a multidisciplinary artist who seeks to investigate the history and ongoing reality of land contamination, specifically that of nuclear colonialism that has shaped the landscape of the Southwestern United States and beyond.


For more information on the films click here

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Nuclear New Mexico, What’s Next? with Senator Jeff Steinborn
Thursday, August 17th 2023, 5:30-7:00pm
The Bleachers at the UAM

Check out the Instagram live broadcast

In conjunction with Cara Despain’s Specter and Branigan Cultural Center’s juried show Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing, Senator Jeff Steinborn will be sitting down with Alicia Inez Guzmán to discuss the past, present, and future of our Nuclear New Mexico. What are the consequences of past mining and nuclear development? How did we get here? and most importantly, where are we going? Please join us for a conversation between Steinborn and Guzmán which explores how nuclear development has shaped New Mexico and what can be done to improve our future.

State Senator Jeff Steinborn represents District 36 in Doña Ana County. He recently passed legislation banning the storage of high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico and accelerating the cleanup of abandoned uranium mine sites. He is the Vice-Chair of New Mexico’s Legislative Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee. Raised in the northern New Mexican village of Truchas, Alicia Inez Guzmán has written about histories of place, identity, and land use in New Mexico. She brings this knowledge to her current role at Searchlight, where she focuses on nuclear issues and the impacts of the nuclear industry. The former senior editor of New Mexico Magazine, Alicia holds a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester in New York.

Panel Discussion: Artists and Authors on Our Nuclear Legacy
Wednesday, July 19th 2023, 6:00-7:30pm
The Bleachers at the UAM

In conjunction with the exhibitions Cara Despain: Specter and The Branigan Cultural Center’s juried show Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing, join a panel of artists and authors who have influenced the conversation around nuclear weapons testing and production in the Southwest. Moderated by Alicia Inez Guzmán, artist Cara Despain joins authors Josh Wheeler and Myrriah Gómez to share everyday stories of life in a region deeply impacted by nuclear legacies and investigate the way artists and authors can bring awareness to those stories.

For more information on the panelist click here

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The Art of Icon Making: A 2-Day Workshop with Sara Edenburn Harper
July 7th - 8th, 2023; 9:00am-3:00pm each day
Limited space. Registration required. 

Highlighting the exhibition “Icons & Retablos: The Blessings of Christ on Home Altars” NMSU Art Museum is offering a 2-day iconography workshop with Iconographer Sara Edenburn Harper. Sara will lead us in painting an image of the face of Christ using egg tempera which we will prepare ourselves. She will also be demonstrating how to prepare an icon board using traditional materials. This workshop is free, and supplies will be provided. Beginners through advanced artists ages 12 and up are welcome. Space is limited and registration is required.

his workshop is full, please email artmuseum@nmsu.edu to be placed on our waitlist

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Artists Walkthroughs: Tilke Elkins, Karen Yank, and Cara Despain
Thursday, June 22nd 2023, 3-5pm
UAM Galleries
     Tilke Elkins from 3:00–3:30pm
     Karen Yank from 3:45–4:15pm
     Cara Despain from 4:30–5:00pm

Join artists Elkins, Yank, and Despain for a walkthrough of the UAM’s three new exhibitions prior to the opening reception. Curator Tilke Elkins will offer insight into the artwork and artists of Wild Pigment Project in the Mullennix Bridge Gallery. Sculptor Karen Yank will discuss her decades-long friendship with artist Agnes Martin and the importance of Martin’s role as an artistic mentor in Agnes Martin and Karen Yank: Meditations on Mentor and Student in the Bunny Conlon Modern & Contemporary Art Gallery. Artist Cara Despain will talk about her site-specific, research-based practice explored in Specter in the Contemporary Gallery. Please plan to stay for the opening reception from 5:30–7:30pm.

For more information on the artist click here

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Live Performance by A. Billi Free
Thursday, June 22nd 2023, 5:30-7:30pm 
The Bleachers at the UAM

Join us at the opening reception for three new exhibitions at the UAM and enjoy a live performance from local vocalist, DJ, beat producer and community organizer, A. Billi Free. Her sound is rooted in a fluid blend of Hip Hop, R&B, and electronic music. In 2022 she released "Holy Body Roll" a vocal album with producer The Lasso on the Mello Music Group label and completed two international cultural diplomacy arts residencies as site manager to Poland and Romania with the Next Level organization. When not traveling, she calls the frontier lands in the Southwest region of the United States her home and can be found performing, producing films and mentoring youth.

A. Billi Free will be performing by the Bleachers in Devasthali hall during the opening reception of Cara Despain: Specter, Agnes Martin & Karen Yank: Meditations on Mentor and Student, and Wild Pigment Project curated by Tilke Elkins.

Feminist Border Arts Film Festival

Feminist Border Arts Film Festival
June 28th, 2023; 10:00am - 8:00pm
Location: The Mullinex Bridge Gallery, rm 106 and The bleachers 

The Feminist Border Arts Film Festival celebrates the power of cinema as a creative tool to reflect upon urgent social issues and thought-provoking representations of identity and difference. The festival defines “feminist border arts” as a practice that challenges the limits of conventional representation through telling stories from the edge; threshold visions from the margins that create new ways of seeing, that visualize underrepresented ways of knowing. Selected films revive the promise of cinema, the possibility of film, video arts, and new media to open minds, create new vistas, and challenge dehumanizing forms of representation.

The festival emphasizes artistic vision in telling these stories through short film, including live-action narrative, documentary, essay film, video art, experimental film, new media, and animation. FBAFF showcases student, indie, and professional filmmakers, domestic and international. The festival specializes in films 15 minutes and under. 

FBAFF is a highly selective festival whose programming and curation are nationally and internationally recognized. Films bearing the FBA laurel appear in top film festivals like Cannes, TIFF, and Sundance.

The curated exhibition of films will be held on June 28th, 2023--in honor of the Stonewall Riots--at the University Art Museum on the campus of New Mexico State University. Free and Open to the Public. Save the date.

The 2023 NMSU Feminist Border Arts Film Festival is Sponsored by the academic unit for Gender & Sexuality Studies, the University Art Museum, the Department of English, and the Department of Art

Click here for more information 
Click here to listen to FBAFF featured on Puentes by Emily Guerra

Tilke Elkins

Workshop with Curator and Artist Tilke Elkins : Conversations with Wild Pigments 
Saturday, June 10th 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location: The Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

 

Join artist and Wild Pigment Project founding director Tilke Elkins to explore questions about the transformative powers of paint, ethical foraging, and creative purpose. How can wild pigments usher in change on personal, social and planetary levels? 

Paint-making through a deep relationship with place nourishes both the painter and the land. By intercepting materials as they travel through their life cycles and exploring opportunities for reciprocity — ways to give back to the land and its communities, both human and interspecies — artists can align their material practices with values of reverence for place. 

Engage the full sensorium through multiple paint-making demos and a chance to paint with wild pigments in this two-hour workshop.

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OutsmART: Nicho Making with Sara Edenburn Harper
May 27th, 2023; 1:00pm-2:30pm
Location: The Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in Devasthali Hall

Join local artist, Sara Edenburn Harper, as she shares with us about the traditional Mexican practice of retablos and the nichos made to protect and honor them. We’ll explore the Retablo’s currently on display at the NMSU Art Museum’s exhibition “Icons & Retablos: The Blessings of Christ on Home Altars” learning more about their traditional use in home altars. Participants will also get the chance to make their own decorated paper nicho to take home and share. All supplies for this project will be provided so just bring yourself and your friends!

outsmart Nature Walk with Ashley Diane Saldana

 

OutsmART: Nature Walk with Ashley Diane Saldana
April 29th, 2023; 10:00-11:30 am
Where: La Llorona Multi-Use Path Trailhead

Intersection of Calle del Norte and River Levee Rd, Las Cruces, NM 88005

In this workshop, artist Ashley Diane Saldana will take us on a nature walk and practice creative field writing and sketching. Walking in nature allows us to be more observant, curious and attuned to our senses while noticing the smaller details of the world around us. Saldana, will share more about her art making practice followed by a short, guided walk and journaling along the Rio Grande. (Sketchbooks and drawing materials will be provided but you are welcome to bring your own. Please bring water and wear comfortable shoes.)

Saldana’s work will be on display in the University Art Museum’s, “Echoes of an Empty Space: MFA Thesis Exhibition” from April 28th until May 20th. 

Read more about OutsmART events on our OutsmART page 

Echoes of an Empty Space Walkthrough with Artist

Echoes of an Empty Space Walkthrough with Artists
April 29th, 2023; 2:00pm-3:00pm

Join MFA candidates Ashley Diane Saldana, Yashoda Latkar, and Gus as they share the inspiration behind their thesis exhibition Echoes of an Empty Space. Each will take time to share about their individual work and the collaboration process it took to curate the joint exhibition.

Behind the Scenes pic with Gus

Behind the Scenes: Tips & Tricks for Everyday Drag
May 2nd, 2023; 5:30pm-7:00 pm
Location: Bleachers

Come by and enjoy a night of tips and tricks for getting into drag, whether for going to church or into the town. As RuPaul Charles says, "You are Born Naked, and the Rest is Drag." Artist Gus will provide makeup advice and a behind the scene glimpse of the process of creating their artwork; all while Gus paints their mug into drag. Come engage with the artist and simultaneously receive an intimate look into Gus' artistic processes.

Gus’ work will be on display in the University Art Museum’s, “Echoes of an Empty Space: MFA Thesis Exhibition” from April 28th until May 20th. 

Mapping the City Flyer

 

Mapping the City: A Zine Making Workshop
April 21st, 2023; 4:00-6:00pm
The Zane Bennett Collection Study Room (RM 106) in the University Art Museum

Join us at the NMSU Art Museum for a zine-making workshop titled Mapping the City. Zines, short for “magazines,” are self-published artistic and literary booklets that offer a powerful way to directly share our ideas with the world around us. Drop in any time during this event to engage with poetry and collage materials to create a collaborative zine together. We’ll explore ideas of identity and place in a city like Las Cruces and we’ll also have a pop-up mini library of local zines for inspiration.

This workshop is presented by the Critical Approaches to Place initiative. “Critical Approaches to Place: Teaching Narrative Mapping in Southern New Mexico” is a three-year curriculum development and public engagement project organized by collaborators from NMSU’s Geography and English departments.

Echoes of an Empty Space Walkthrough with Artist

Retablos and Icons: The Blessings of Jesus Christ on Home Altars with Dr. Elizabeth Zarur
April 11th, 2023; 5:30pm-6:30pm
In-Person: HSS Annex 101
Online: https://nmsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwsfuqrpjMoHdW31UPyvLKThaS7CK8PRvny

Dr. Elizabeth Zarur, guest curator for collaborative exhibitions between the Museum of Russian Icons and the University Art Museum at New Mexico State University, will be joining us to discuss Mexican retablos and Russian icons. She will talk about their styles, themes, materials, techniques, and iconographies. Dr. Zarur will share a brief history of icons, retablos, and the political situations in Russia and Mexico that led to the propagation of these religious objects in home altars. Her curated exhibition, Icons & Retablos: The Blessings of Christ on Home Altars in the Margie and Bobby Rankin Retablo Gallery will be open late for viewing prior to the presentation.

Click here for directions from the University Art Museum to HSS Annex

Radical Expansion SITE

Radical Expansion: A Civic Dialogue Through Art and Education
April 2nd, 2023; 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Location: SITE Santa Fe in-person & live-streamedRegister here

Join us for a panel discussion on the radical expansion of civic dialogue in contemporary art and community-based education, featuring Desierto Mountain Time partners and regional artists and educators Jamie Blosser, Bianca Castillero, Viola Arduini, Jessie Ryker-Crawford (White Earth Chippewa), PhD, and Daisy Quezada, moderated by Matthew Contos, SITE Santa Fe Director of Creativity and Learning.

More information at DesiertoMountainTime.org.

Virtual Studio Visit

Stop Motion Film Workshop
February 22nd, 2023; 6:00 - 7:30pm
Location: TBD

Video as Performance and the Performance of Video: How to Make Stop Motion Films on Your Phone

In this hands-on practicum, Peekaboo Pointe will demonstrate and model her art-making process for creating stop motion short films, a process she was introduced to during her MFA program in Interdisciplinary Arts and one she developed– often obsessively – during COVID. She began to question what happens to performance without an audience? How can video itself be a type of performance, and what does that mean for both the live and the mediatized? Her films, and her process for making them, begin to unravel strict divisions between live and digital, the body and mind, all the while offering a tongue-in-cheek stance that permeates her work as a performer and choreographer.

The workshop will include students taking their hand at creating their own stop-motion films, using found objects (to be provided) and the serendipity of incongruous juxtapositions. No prior experience or materials necessary, though students will be asked to download an app on their phone or device in advance of the workshop.

For more information about PEEKSHOW, contact lsally@nmsu.edu.

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PEEKSHOW
February 21, 2023; 6:00 -7:00pm
1308 E. University Ave., Las Cruces, New Mexico, 88003
Location: Bleachers

Stop-motion film showing with Artist Talk Back (Peekaboo Pointe & Dr. Lynn Sally) First come,  first served.

PEEKSHOW features the mind-blowing stop-motion short films of renowned performance artist Peekaboo Pointe (NYC). Her films are melancholy and campy, taking head-on issues such as the aging female body, what it means to be a performing artist in a digital age, and her own personal struggles with fertility. As a queer multi-disciplinary artist, Peekaboo Pointe’s work celebrates the unveiled female form as a site of agency and subjecthood. 

PEEKSHOW includes a talk back between the artist Peekaboo Pointe and scholar Dr. Lynn Sally, author of Neo-Burlesque: Striptease as Transformation, currently teaching “Performing Gender: Camp, Drag & Burlesque” at NMSU.. 

Virtual Studio Visit

Screening: “The Art of Un-War” a film by Maria Niro
February 2nd, 2023; 6:30 - 8:00pm
HJLC Building Room 125

Join us for a special screening for the new exhibition Ad Infinitum: Artists Against War and Imperialism NMSU Art Museum will be screening Maria Niro’s documentary “The Art of Un- War,” a tribute to Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko’s life, artistry, and passion for “Un-War.” Dr. Joanna Matuszak, NMSU’s Professor of Contemporary Art, will start the evening with an introduction of the documentary and the artist at the center of it.

See a trailer for more details: https://youtu.be/O25cnBmvXA0

Joanna Walkthrough event flyer

Exhibition Walk-through with Curator Dr. Joanna Matuszak
January 28th, 2023; 1:00pm - 1:45pm

Join Dr. Joanna Matuszak, visiting Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History in the NMSU Department of Art for a walk-through of her exhibition Ad Infinitum: Artists Against War and Imperialism, a curation of war-era posters and artworks from the NMSU Permanent Art Collection. Matuszak will share the implications of contemporary art’s criticism of war and describe in more detail the selections from the collection chosen for this exhibition.

Virtual Studio Visit

Exhibition Walk-through with Curator Leslie Moody Castro for NMSU students
January 19th, 2023; 5:00pm
January 20th, 2023; 4:30pm

Join our visiting curator, Leslie Moody Castro, for a walk-through of Together Through as Within. Moody Castro, independent curator, and writer, will share her inspiration for this experiential exhibition of the recent work from staff and faculty within the Department of Art at New Mexico State University.

This walkthrough is being provided for NMSU students, faculty, and staff. Students interested in more information on how they can get involved as voluntary docents for the run of the exhibition are strongly encouraged to attend.

Virtual Studio Visit

Place: Artists, Making, and Moving
Dec 6, 2022 06:00 PM PST, 7:00 PM MST
Digitally broadcasting from Stanford & New Mexico State University

Join MFA students from Stanford and New Mexico State University for a virtual studio visit with artists Krystal Ramirez in Stanford, CA and Justin Favela in Springdale, AK. Ramirez and Favela both have work in the exhibition Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium currently on view at the New Mexico State University Art Museum in Las Cruces. Both artists hail from Las Vegas, creating work that addresses where they come from, while living elsewhere. What does it mean to make work about a place you are no longer in, even if that move is temporary?

Justin Favela’s work draws from art history, popular culture and his Guatemalan/Mexican heritage. He is a Las Vegas native with a BFA in Studio Arts from University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) who works in the mediums of painting, sculpture, and performance.

Krystal Ramirez is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is centered around labor and the consumption of the brown body. She's a second-generation immigrant from the working-class landscape of Las Vegas, Nevada. She received a BFA in Photography from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 2009 and is currently an MFA candidate in Art Practice at Stanford University.

Image credits:
Image 1: Justin Favela, Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Mikayla Whitmore
Image 1: Krystal Ramirez, Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Mikayla Whitmore.

Outsmarts flyer

OutsmART Ex-Voto Collage Workshops
October 22, November 5, November 19, 2022

NMSU Art Museum invites students ages K-12 to participate in three art-making workshops related to the current exhibition, Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium. Students will learn about historic ex-votos, contemporary Latinx artists, and important themes of the exhibition. They will be invited to make personal ex-votos, learning to use collage skills and various techniques along the way. Participation in all three workshops is not required but recommended, since each workshop will build on the skills learned in the previous workshop. While classes will be geared towards K-12 participants, all ages and experience levels are encouraged to attend.  Parents and guardians are invited to attend.

VOCABULARY:

Ex-voto: A painting of spiritual images made to give thanks for a miracle received. Typically, they are narrative images that show the personal story of how the miracle happened.

Collage: a technique of making art where materials from different sources (magazine clippings, ribbons, paint, tissue paper, text, or photos) are glued together to create a new whole.
 
Read more about these three events on our OutsmART page 

Nazarin Movie and Discussion Flyer

Nazarin Movie and Discussion
November 17, 2022; 5:30pm

Screening of Luis Buñuel’s 1959 film Nazarín, followed by a discussion with Emmanuel Ramos-Barrajas of Borderless Cultures. Borderless Cultures is an ongoing collaboration with filmmakers and scholars to create opportunities for entertainment, education, and the critical dissection of the racialization of Latinx peoples in film.

Eric J Garcia Flyer

Artist talk with Eric J. Garcia, in partnership with NMSU’s Visiting Artist and Scholar Series Online/Offline 
November 7, 2022; 6:00pm "Artist Talk"
November 8, 2022 9am - 11:30am "Workshop"

Exhibition artist Eric J. Garcia will discuss research and new work from his time with the Roswell Artist-in-Residence program. He interrogates the language of the U.S. immigration system, specifically the term “alien,” and invading colonial powers to the Americas. The graphic style of his politically-charged work challenges viewers to question sources of power and the whitewashing of history.

The Visiting Artist and Scholars Committee​ is glad to announce that Eric J. Garcia will be holding a block printmaking workshop in conjunction with a Visiting Artist lecture.  The workshop will be held in Devasthali Hall on Tuesday, November 8, from 9-11:30 am.

Seats for this workshop are limited and go on a first-come, first serve basis; please RSVP here by filling out this google document, and you will be contacted shortly with more information:

https://forms.gle/at1HDanYLAyfbu2QA

In-person and online
October 27, 2022; 5:30pm
 
Panel: “Curatorial Practices in the Borderlands” with Kerry Doyle of the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP, Josie Lopez of Albuquerque Museum, Ed Gomez of Mexicali Biennial, Edgar Picazo editor-in-chief of Azul Arena, and Christian Diego Diego of Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez.
 
Moderated by Dr. Emmanuel Ortega, a prestigious panel of arts facilitators and curators will discuss their approaches to curating, exhibiting, and writing about the land and artistic practices specific to the borderland's region. 

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Walk-Through with Dr. Emmanuel Ortega
October 1, 2022; 1pm: 

Join exhibition curator Dr. Emmanuel Ortega, Marilynn Thoma Scholar and Assistant Professor in Art of the Spanish Americas at the University of Illinois at Chicago, for a walk-through of ContemporaryEx-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium. Ortega will discuss themes present in the NMSU retablo Collection, commissioning artists for this exhibition, and his collaborative curatorial approach.

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Performance by DJ Mira Mira
September 30, 2022; 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Join us for a performance by DJ Mira Mira. Mira Mira aka Xochi Solis (she/her) is a mixed media artist born and raised in Austin, TX. In addition to her studio practice, she spins records with the Austin chapter of Chulita Vinyl Club with a focus on the preservation and performance of Tejanx culture. Find more of her mixes at www.mixcloud.com/mira_mira or www.patreon.com/mira_mira

Virtual Lecture flyer

Virtual Lecture - Judy Chicago, Perspectives from Archives and Collections

Saturday May 7th, 1:00pm 

This lecture, which was presented by William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art will focus on the Nevada Museum of Art’s collection of Judy Chicago artworks, and the importance of institutional collections and archives for documenting and preserving artwork, resources, and historical information related to artists. 

William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada, has variously been called an art critic, science writer, and cultural geographer.  He has published sixteen books on cognition, art, and landscape and has researched and written books set in the Antarctic, the Arctic, the Himalaya, and the deserts of Chile, Australia, and the United States. His most recent book is Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments.

Outsmarts event Courtney flyer

OutsmART Event- Embroidering a Feminist History

Saturday May 7th, 1:00pm 

This OutsmART event will was led by Las Cruces-based embroidery artist, Bethany Meier from Queer and Crafty Creations. Meier will lead students through a workshop to create their own embroidery artwork that symbolizes and reflects on important women in their lives. This workshop included age-appropriate options for children, and will end with participants able to take their original artworks home with them! A digital version of the option will be available at the UAM’s website, and we encourage anyone who participates from home to post or send a photo of their artwork and tag the UAM. 

Bethany Meier-Evans is a local art vendor and the owner of Queer and Crafty Creations. She started embroidering as a pandemic hobby in the spring of 2020 and loved it so much that she has turned it into a successful small business! When Bethany is not making embroidered art or hanging out at local art shows, she enjoys spending time with her spouse and their pets! As someone who is passionate about women's rights, Bethany is excited to have an opportunity to connect women's history with her love of embroidery! You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy @QueerandCraftyCreations!

New Mexico Mountains

Panel Discussion- Critical Approaches to Place:
Thursday, January 20, 5:30PM

COLLAB SPACE, UAM, Devasthali Hall and on Zoom 
Panelists shared thoughts on Las Cruces and our region—its pasts, presents, and futures. The panel coincides with a Spring 2022 class co-taught by Dr. Kerry Banazek (NMSU English) and Dr. Eric Magrane (NMSU Geography) that examines sense of place, media, mapping, and representation. Both the class and panel are part of the NEH-sponsored Critical Approaches to Place project.

Nikesha Breeze Blackdom

Exhibition Opening Reception:
Contemporary Gallery & Bunny Conlon Gallery – Nikesha Breeze- Four Sites of Return: Ritual, Remembrance, Reparation and Reclamation

Mullennix Bridge Gallery– Remembered Landscapes: The Sacred Space of Home. Works by
Jackie Mitchell Edwards
University Art Museum, Devasthali Hall
Friday, January 21, 5:30-7:30PM

Stages of Tectonic Blackness: Blackdom live performance
University Art Museum, Devasthali Hall
January 21, 6:30PM

 Here is a link to the performance: Stages of Tectonic Blackness - Live Performance

Artist Exhibition Walkthrough W/Nikesha Breeze
University Art Museum, Devasthali Hall
January 22, 12:00PM

The Colored Museum performance still

The Colored Museum, A play written by George C. Wolfe
University Art Museum, Devasthali Hall
Fridays, February 4 , 11, 7:00PM

Performed and produced by The Be Group, The Colored Museum presents 11 humorous “exhibits” of African-American culture — from the depths of the Celebrity Slaveship to the spinning heights of Harlem.

Artist Talk: Sites of Resistance- Marie Alarcón, Nikesha Breeze, Nansi Guevara
Saturday, February 19, 1:00PM
Features artists who activate the intersections between diasporic communities, cultures and places to forge sites of resistance and sources of power. This panel is off-site and is part of Desierto Mountain Time. It will be located at Santa Fe Art Institute, 1600 St. Michaels Drive, Building #31 and online. 
Learn more about the panel here

Baton-Maisha-and-Henry-Walt-1996-A-History-of-Blackdom-N.M.-in-the-Context-of-the-African-American-Post-Civil-War-Colonization-Movement

Panel Discussion: Blackdom, New Mexico– Its History and Potential Futures
University Art Museum and on Zoom
Saturday, March 5, 2:00PM
This collaborative panel will explore the history of Blackdom, NM, the first and only all Black community in New Mexico, through the perspective of scholars, artists, and descendants of the founding 13 African American families of the town. The goal of this panel is to facilitate discussion of possibilities for lasting change in Southwest New Mexico for Black and brown people, and to make action steps towards gaining public and sustained access to the ruins of Blackdom, NM for future generations. The panel is presented by partnering organizations in Desierto Mountain Time (DesiertoMountainTime.org), a cross-border contemporary art collaboration. 
Learn more about the panel here

Children Outsmart Event

OutsmART Children’s Workshops:
OutsmART is a series of Saturday interactive art workshops exploring the power of art to impact children’s everyday lives. All ages and experience levels are encouraged to attend. Parents and guardians are invited to come to the classes. Each workshop is related to artwork exhibited in the University Art Museum. More information coming soon. 
Collage and Hand Tools Workshop W/Jackie Mitchell Edwards
Date: Saturday, February 5, 1:00PM
Community Performance Workshop W/Nikesha Breeze
Date: Saturday, February 12, 1:00PM
Theater Production workshop W/The Be Group
Date: Saturday, February 26, 1:00PM

Online Paper Plant Making Workshop with artist Justin Favela

The University Art Museum hosted a live virtual plant-making workshop with artist Justin Favela where he taught community members and children how to create piñata-style paper sculptures for a desert garden that will be integrated into the show. This interactive event was pre-recorded and posted on the UAM website for individuals to access after the workshop.
Read more about the workshop and follow along with the lesson here. 

Saint Joseph & The Laborers, Retablo Making Workshop
Taught by NMSU alumni: Karen Conley, in collaboration with the Dona Ana Arts Council
Watch and follow along here:

The University Art Museum hosted a live virtual retablo making workshop with artist Karen Conley where she taught community members and children how to make retablos for the museum’s, “Joseph’s Feast Day” event, a community-sourced collection of homemade altars built by confined families all over the world. Altars can include retablos, photographs, food offerings, rosaries, milagros or other materials that may connect to stories of surviving COVID-19, struggles with illness or hardship and other journeys associated with labor.

This live interactive event was recorded and posted on the UAM website for individuals to access after the workshop to help make their home alters and retablo. Read more about the workshop here.
Download lesson plan now. 

Labor 2020 website header

Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020
On view: February 28 – December 6, 2020
This exhibition features the work of artists Tracey Baran, María Berrío, Patty Chang, Lenka Clayton, Amy Cutler, Joey Fauerso, Tierney Gearon, Kate Gilmore, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Mary Kelly, Justine Kurland, Marilyn Minter, Laurel Nakadate, Hương Ngô & Hồng- Ân Trương, Yoko Ono, Catherine Opie, Laurie Simmons, Wendy Red Star, and Mickalene Thomas. 
Public Opening reception: Friday, February 28, 2020, 6:30-8:30 PM
Jessica Jackson Hutchins Site-Specific Performance: Friday, February 28, 2020, 7:15 PM

Labor Website header of a painting

Post Labor Events
February 28- March 30, 2020 
Read, view and watch all the events we had opening weekend and throughout the first two weeks of Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020 including: a curatorial Walkthrough with Marisa Sage and Joey Fauerso, an ARTIST/MOTHER Live Podcast: With Kaylan Buteyn, a Reading of the artist book by Lenka Clayton Mothers’ Days , and the Feminist Border Arts Film Festival. 
Click here for full details.

ALONETOGETHER Logo

ALONE/TOGETHER is a curated series of prerecorded online programs that took place on Saturdays during the Covid-19 pandemic. Created by the UAM in collaboration with artists and programming partners from Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020 (Labor), ALONE/TOGETHER was fully online, utilizing an array of social media and online apps the global community had become even more familiar with in this new world of social distancing. 

Many of these projects developed from existing programs that were slated to take place in the museum exhibition, including live performances, pre-recorded video, and experimental community programs led by artists in our community. Plans continue to evolve as our global situation does, and as we reopen to the pubic, we welcome you to read all about and watch all the programming that took place by clicking here.

Virtual Lecture flyer

Mama Create-Ups (Prerecorded and available online!)
The UAM transitioned many of our previously scheduled Mama Create-Ups to a new online format. The Mama Create-Ups series provided informational talks by local specialists on themes, such as lactation, FMLA, and carving out time for your passions, offering resources for mothers within the local community, as well as our expanded digital community. All events took place on Saturdays at 1PM MST using the digital platform Zoom, and they lasted approximately one hour. In connection with each of the digital Mama Create-Up events, the UAM presented a uniquely designed OutsmART children’s art workshop created by a local artist mom. The UAM’s OutsmART children’s workshops mission is to expose children in the southwest region to art through exploration and play. These events were designed to be done around the house, with common art supplies, and can still be completed by children by following the videos and PDFs provided. This art workshop’s goal is intended to provide mothers with some alone time, but the art projects can be completed at any time and in collaboration with your children! 

All the events and workshops were recorded and can be viewed below: 

Online Mama Create-Ups #1: Mama’s Leche: Michelle Hackney and New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force
Video of the event available now / Recorded live on June 20th.
OutsmART Children’s Program:  
“Wild Beasts” Project for the Fierce Mama’s & Babes Artist to know: Henri Matisse with Mama’s Leche Illustrator: Mia Ortiz-Gandara. Download the PDF here and create at anytime from home. 

Click here for more information regarding this event.

Online Mama Create-Ups #2: Carving Out Time For Your Art (Passions)
Artist/Mother Book-Heather Kirtland and Marissa Huber 
Video of event available now / Recorded live on July 11, 2020
OutsmART Children’s Program: Andy Warhol Animal Portraits a workshop by artist/mother Isadora Stowe. Watch online and create from home at anytime by clicking here. 

Click here for more information regarding this event.

Online Mama Create-Ups #3: The Facts About FMLA: Dulcinea Lara
Video of event available now / Recorded live on July 25, 2020 
OutsmART Children’s Program: Radial Patterns w/artist mother Zoe Spiliotis

Click here for more information regarding this event.

Online Mama Create-Ups #4: Doula, Midwife, and OBGYN Panel: Explore childbirth options in the time of COVID. 
With Ruth E. Romo, Bernadette Carrillo and Sabrina Paulos.
Video of event available now / Recorded live on Saturday, August 15, 2020
OutsmART Children’s Program: Stop Motion Animation, a workshop by artist/mother Sharbani Das Gupta
Register online here for the zoom workshop

Click here for more information regarding this event. 

More online Mama Create-Ups programming coming soon including: Fostering or Adopting in New Mexico, and a panel with a Doula, Midwife, and OBGYN exploring childbirth options in NM. Check back often for updates. 

Species-in-Peril social media

NMSU Art Museum joins over 14 institutions to host events about climate change
Artists from Las Cruces to Albuquerque hope to draw attention to a biological crisis happening along the Rio Grande with an exhibit titled “Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande.” Subhankar Banerjee, NMSU alumnus and University of New Mexico professor of art and ecology, co-curated the exhibit at 516 Arts, which reached out to enlist other institutions including the Albuquerque Museum, the Ruben Center for the Visual Arts, the New Mexico State University’s Art Museum and many others. The result is a series of local events in Las Cruces throughout October and November intended to bring recognition to issues of regional climate change. Events include a city proclamation, an extinct species workshop, a mural, a film screening and a lecture.
Learn more about Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande and the events around Las Cruces by clicking here. 

Border Zones and Liminal Bodies performance still

Border Zones and Liminal Bodies 
 This screening features short video art pieces by 12 U.S. and international artists that invite viewers to contemplate contemporary issues, such as migration and refugee crises, disability and the body in movement, feminicide in Ciudad Juárez, water insecurity, and other issues. This program is the first of two screening events for this year’s Feminist Border Arts Film Festival organized by Gender and Sexuality Studies/Interdisciplinary Studies Department in collaboration with the Creative Media Institute. 

ON VIEW: March 12, 2018, 10 AM – 6 PM.

Read more here for press and programming information. 

Kia-LaBeija Film still

In partnership with Visual AIDS, the University Art Gallery, Creative Media Institute and Gender and Sexuality Studies at New Mexico State University presents  ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS   for the 28th annual Day With(out) Art on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2017.

New Mexico State University:

Where: CMI Theatre:  2915 McFie Circle, NMSU, Las Cruces, 88003.

When: December 1, 6pm

What: Screening of   ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS   with introduction by Marisa Sage (University Art Gallery), Dr. M. Catherine Jonet (Gender and Sexuality Studies.), and Laura Anh Williams, Ph.D. (Gender and Sexuality Studies.). Co-presentation between the University Art Gallery, Department of Art, Creative Media Institute, and Gender and Sexuality Studies at New Mexico State University.

Read more about the event here.

Eric LoPresti

Artist Lecture:  Eric  LoPresti: Superbloom and Trinity Site Visit

Eric  LoPresti  was in Las Cruces October 8-10, 2017, as part of his visit to the Trinity Site on October 7, and in preparation for his Fall of 2018 exhibition,  Superbloom, in the University Art Gallery.
LoPresti’s is a NYC-based artist who grew up near the Hanford site, where the US manufactured plutonium for the Nagasaki atomic bomb. In  Superbloom, he explores this complex relationship through large paintings, a two-channel video and a sequence of performances incorporating local martial artists.

AlmostFamous_sale

Almost Famous Student Sale

Friday, April 28, 2017, 4:00-7:00 pm 

Lobby of the University Art Gallery

Sponsored by: The Friends of the University Art Gallery. 

During the opening reception for the MFA thesis show, Life As It Is: Yolanda Cooper and the 2017 Juried Student Show.

WE ARE ALMOST FAMOUS, BUY OUR ART WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!
All mediums will be represented, from painting, prints, photography, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, and mixed media. The money raised at the student sale will not only support the individual students, but also the NMSU Department of Art clubs which give students opportunities to go to conventions, symposia, and other enriching activities that supplement their education. A portion of the art sales will support the Williams Hall Renovation Project and will be matched by Ammu and Rama Devasthali. In addition, the funds from any Friends of the University Art Gallery memberships purchased during the sale will go towards the William Hall Renovation Project. So, not only are you supporting the student artists, you are supporting the NMSU Department of Art clubs, as well as the future generations of art students at NMSU.

Friend of University Art Gallery Logo  The sale is sponsored by the Friends of the University Art Gallery.

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The 2nd Annual Valentine’s Party…Masquerade!

Thursday, February 9, 2017, 6-8 p.m. at the University Art Gallery

Enjoy a night of revelry while supporting the arts!

Suggested Donation: Friend Membership ($25/year)

Click here for the Facebook event page! 

Click here for event images. 

Cranbrook flyer

Welcome Back Mixer & Closing Reception for Cranbrook

Presented by: UAG

August 25, 2016, 5-7 PM

University Art Gallery

Film Camera Icon

Fallen Stars Movie Series

co-sponsored by the NMSU CMI Department

A new movie series in the UAG honoring four recently deceased actors/filmmakers

Click here for more info!

Stuckel Exchanges

Lecture/Outing with artist Katy Stuckel: Consumption Byproducts as Materials

Friday, April 22 at 10am

Read about this event here!

lea in front of audience

“Making Collaborative Art” with guest artist Lea WiseSurguy-Sophiliazo

April 1, 2016 from 12-1:30pm in the UAG

At this event, WiseSurguy-Sophiliazo will give a lecture about collaborative art followed by a collaborative workshop resulting in a performance! Click here to view photos from the lecture. 

IHeartArt Facebook Flyer

I ♥ Art Valentine’s Party 2016

February 11, 7-9pm,  University Art Gallery

Friends of the University Art Gallery (UAG) invite art lovers/all current UAG members in the Southern New Mexico and Western Texas communities to “Be   Our Valentine” at the first annual I ♥ Art Valentine’s Party on Thursday, February 11, 2016, from 7-9 p.m. at the University Art Gallery. You must RSVP by February 8th!

Click here for party photos!

Brenda Perry Panel

Panel: Relational Sustainability–Explorations into water preservation, conservation, and water remediation ideas.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

12-1pm,  University Art Gallery

As an associated program with our exhibition, Water! What is it good for?, exhibiting artists Bethany Taylor and Brenda Perry will present a panel discussion focused on environmental issues.  This event is free and open to the public.

Click here to view photos from the lecture. 

Flyer

2016-17 Banner Project: Inspired by GEOMAGIC: Art, Science, and the Zuhl Collection

The University Art Gallery invited artists of all levels, ages, and locations to submit digital files of original works for consideration for our Biannual Banner Project.

The call for this Banner Project asked artists to submit works that dealt with themes surrounding the Anthropocene age and the natural environment. The project’s objective was to create an outdoor gallery experience that complemented the Zuhl Collection specimens and contemporary artworks featured in the GEOMAGIC exhibition. Check out the banners below and on the exterior walls of the Department of Art / D.W. Williams Hall building on the NMSU Main Campus

Us and Mexico Border

Saturday, October 3

Panel: Borderlands as Negotiated through the Arts

A scholarly panel focused on the topic of: visual and performance arts as creative catalysts that spark critical conversations among audiences about the complex, global issues of border governance.

University Art Gallery, 2pm

4.SurfaceTension Hebron

Thursday, October 1

Artist Lecture: Terri Warpinski

University Art Gallery, 6-7pm

Image of Invite a friend invitation

Saturday, September 26, 2015

“Become a Friend” Membership Party

University Art Gallery, 4-7pm

Learn more here!

photo of the art piece with lots of things hanging on a wall

Friday, September 4

Artist Lecture: Jason Middlebrook

University Art Gallery, 6-7pm

RSVP on Facebook here!

Turounet Wall Exhibition view

Thursday, September 3

Reception for Your General Store and BETWEEN HERE AND THERE | Paul Turounet |
Terri Warpinski

Gallery talk and walk-through with artist Paul Turounet 6pm

University Art Gallery, 5-7pm

RSVP on Facebook here!

Paul Turounet Exhbition

Wednesday, September 2

Workshop with Paul Turounet

Making Photographic Ex-Votos

University Art Gallery, 12-2pm

If you plan on attending, you will need to RSVP here.

Santa Fe Commission's Community Gallery Building

June 26th, 5-7pm

“30 UNDER 30” Exhibition Opening

Santa Fe Community Convention Center, Santa Fe, NM

The Santa Fe Commission’s Community Gallery will be opening their doors for their “30 UNDER 30” Exhibition. The featured artists (which include both NMSU faculty and alumni) were selected by a jury, of which our very own Director, Marisa Sage, was a part! If you cannot make the opening, the exhibition will run from June 26th through September 5th, 2015.

Read more about this event here.

Near East Family flyer

May 28

The Near East Family: Ode to the West

David & Tara Gladden create a site-specific audiovisual performance

University Art Gallery, 6pm

Read more about this event here.

Illumination

Lecture by Lea WiseSurguy-Sophiliazo & Mr. Ruben Zapata

Graduating MFA student Lea WiseSurguy-Sophiliazo and Mr. Ruben Zapata from NMSU’s Food Safety Laboratory will be giving a collaborative artist and scientist lecture on the bio-artworks of Lea WiseSurguy-Sophiliazo, who uses agar to grow human bacteria in her artwork.

This lecture will be an insight into the precedents of bio-arts, a look into the current works of bio art in the University Art Gallery, and a scientific explanation of the technologies used for these pieces

Wandering Book Artist

Wandering Book Artists

The gypsy wagon will be making a stop at the University Art Gallery on April 7th at 4pm. Peter and Donna Thomas are book artists from Northern California who have been spending the last year traveling around the U.S. in a handmade gypsy wagon.  The wagon is their temporary home as well as a place to sell their books, teach book arts workshops and give talks and lectures.  Wherever they’ve gone, their gypsy wagon has attracted attention for its whimsical color and design.

For more information on the Wandering Book Artists, you can visit their website at:   http://wanderingbookartists.blogspot.com

Story book

Artist workshop in conjunction with JSS 2015:

Juan Cholo-“Light is the New Heavy”:
March 20, 12-2pm.

Read more here.

Artist weaving

“COMMUNITY WEAVE”

Friday, January 5, 2018

JOHN GARRETT USES YOUR OLD CLOTHING FOR A RAGS TO ARTWORK WOVEN COMMUNITY STORY! Community weave will ask Las Crucens to donate their old t-shirts and clothing to be used in a large woven piece.

Starting on January 5, Garrett and Sage request that you donate all forms of knitted garb, including used and old T-shirts, knitted pants, shirts and skirts, which, over the course of the month, will be constructed into a large tapestry.  Read more here

Potential logo

Las Cruces Connects

Saturday, February 7, 12:00-4:00pm
Las Cruces Connects was a celebratory weekend of art exhibits, art-based events, and performances. This artistic weekend created a connection between the University Art Gallery, Las Cruces Museum of Art, and all the various arts organizations within our community. We created a map of each participating organization.  There was bus transportation at each of the blue marks on the map. View the map here:  Art_Hop_Map_ 2015Final.

Art director in front of Art piece

Gallery Talk: Marisa Sage

Saturday, February 7, 2pm

On curating vs. Creating and Miami Basel

Chris Bardey banner

Gallery Talk/Panel: Chris Bardey  

Thursday, February 12, 2018 6pm

On community arts engagement

Read more about the event and view photos.

two children with art from the workshop

Collaborate with your Kids Workshop

Saturday, February 21, 12-2pm

A workshop with the artist Isadora Stowe.

See pictures from the workshop, and read more here.

John Garrett giving a lecture to the crowd

Gallery Talk: Artist John Garrett

Thursday, February 26, 6pm

On his art and the Community Weave project.

Peter Turchi giving a lecture to the crowd

Gallery Talk: Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Peter Turchi

Friday, February 27, 3pm

Author Peter Turchi will give a talk exploring the challenges of discovery, the challenges of presenting those discoveries, and how the presentation itself is often the key to discovery.