Events

Noche de Animas. Tzintzuntzan is the culmination of a collaborative project of Metamorfosis Documentation Project (represented by Armando Espinosa Prieto and Craig Johnson) and the Centro Cultural Comunitario “Tzintzuntzan” in Tzintzuntzan to document the celebration of Day of the Dead in this community and to explore the relationships between the living and their dead.

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a feast day celebrated in indigenous and mestizo communities throughout Latin America. Known as Todos Santos, Fieles Difuntos (All Souls), the celebrations have deep roots in pre-Hispanic indigenous cultures and in pagan and Catholic rituals. Each country, region and ethnicity has developed different ways of honoring their ancestors, always based on the same principles of responsibility and reciprocity that honor the role of the dead in the life of their families and communities.

The documentary investigates, as told through the voices of members of the community, how this agricultural ritual to celebrate the dead – the preparations for the celebration, the altars, and the sharing with the dead – strengthens ties of family, spiritual kinship and community.

Specifically highlighted in the film is the cultural legacy of the ancient P’urhepechas. In the celebration of Noche de Animas, family and community are regenerated in a ritual of cultural unity that features the generous sharing of abundance, evoking a feeling of belonging and well-being.

 Metamorfosis Documentation Project

Metamorfosis Documentation Project (MDP) is a local nonprofit organization based on a belief in the richness and importance of cultural traditions, focusing on cross cultural rituals and dances in the Americas.

Through projects with mestizo and indigenous communities, MDP, in collaboration with their community museums, documents and supports rituals and dances in their own cultural settings and shares them with a wider audience, fostering an understanding of distinct cultures.

These collaborative projects typically involve three phases: 1) the documenting of the tradition through filming and interviews, resulting in a documentary film, with rights to reproduction and sale of the film being gifted to the Community Museum; 2) a related project sponsored by MDP in direct support to the community; and 3) public presentation of the results of the project including documentary film screenings, submissions to film festivals, lectures, photographic exhibitions, web presentations, and related art works that offer opportunities for wider audiences to experience an inside look at cultures and community rituals markedly different from their own.

Executive Director Armando Espinosa says the mission of MDP is “to help to protect, preserve and promote traditional cultures in the Americas.”

MDP began working with indigenous communities in the late 1990’s, collaborating on a small scale project with a small Rarámuri (Tarahumara) community in Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico to document their Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebration.

Beginning in 2007, MDP has completed collaborations on four large-scale documentary project

The Day of the Dead Tzintzuntzan Project, MDP’s current project, involved a collaboration with the Centro Cultural Comunitario “Tzintzuntzan” (Tzintzuntzan Community Cultural Center) to document the traditional celebration of Noche de Animas in the P’urhépecha community of Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán.

The first phase of this Project again included MDP’s apprentice program, with two apprentices chosen by the local Tzintzuntzan Preparatory School who participated in the filming and interviewing of community members. In an additional collaboration in this phase, with support from New Mexico Film Resource, the Santa Fe Community College Film Department sent two students to work with MDP as apprentices during the filming of the actual Day of the Dead celebrations. This phase culminated in the production of the documentary, Noche de Animas. Tzintzuntzan.

In the community support portion of this Project, MDP and the Centro Cultural Comunitario “Tzintzuntzan” collaborated to offer a workshop, “Techniques of Filming and Editing Cultural Documentaries”, to nine members of the community in an effort to stimulate and prepare members of the community to document their own cultural traditions. Workshop participants filmed and produced three short documentaries focused on different cultural traditions of the community, which were then screened for the community.

MDP is now in the third phase of this Project, and is presenting Noche de Animas. Tzintzuntzan in museums and universities in Mexico and the United States.

About the Museum of International Folk Art: http://www.internationalfolkart.org/

Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the Museum of International Folk Art’s mission is to foster understanding of the traditional arts to illuminate human creativity and shape a humane world. The museum holds the world’s largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations, representing a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure.  The museum’s historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

 706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, NM 87505. (505) 476-1200.

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. First Sunday of Every Month is free to NM Residents.

Upcoming Programs at Southside Library:

Nov. 26th – Animal Masks

Dec. 17th – Peruvian Retablos

Produced In Partnership with Museum of International Folk Art and Santa Fe Public Library. For more information, please contact Kemely Gomez at 505-476-1215.

About the Museum of International Folk Art: http://www.internationalfolkart.org/

Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the Museum of International Folk Art’s mission is to foster understanding of the traditional arts to illuminate human creativity and shape a humane world. The museum holds the world’s largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations, representing a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure.  The museum’s historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

 706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, NM 87505. (505) 476-1200.

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. First Sunday of Every Month is free to NM Residents.

Lara Manzanares is a bilingual singer-songwriter of Northern New Mexican heritage. In addition to singing the traditional New Mexican canciones of her sheep-ranching childhood, Lara also composes her own style of music in both English and Spanish. Through a combination of storytelling and songs both playful and sincere, Lara draws on her rural New Mexican roots and her urban experiences across the U.S. and abroad as she sings about love, loss, a sense of place, and her own connection to the land.

After several years spent living across the U.S., in 2016 Lara returned to New Mexico with her guitar and several original songs in tow. In 2017 she recorded her first original album at Santa Fe’s The Kitchen Sink Studios with producer and sound engineer Jono Manson, backed by a phenomenal cast of musicians including Mark Clark, Justin Bransford, Jono Manson, Jordan Wax, Char Rothschild, Felix Peralta, and Rafael Herrera. The album, Land Baby, contains original songs in both English and Spanish. It received several nominations at the 2018 New Mexico Music Awards and went on to win Album of the Year.

Just like Lara’s upbringing and New Mexico itself, her music is a complex yet deeply cohesive mixture of cultures and sounds: deeply rooted but never still, heartfelt and humorous, simultaneously ancient and innovative. She continues to explore her New Mexican musical heritage and write and record songs while living in the Albuquerque area. Her most recent single, "Dear John," was nominated as a finalist in the Americana category at the 2019 New Mexico Music Awards. You can listen to her music learn more about Lara by visiting her website, laramanzanares.com. 

Photo credit Philip Wiley

About the Museum of International Folk Art: http://www.internationalfolkart.org/

Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the Museum of International Folk Art’s mission is to foster understanding of the traditional arts to illuminate human creativity and shape a humane world. The museum holds the world’s largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations, representing a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure.  The museum’s historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

 706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, NM 87505. (505) 476-1200.

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

First Sunday of Every Month is free to NM Residents. Wednesdays are always free for New Mexico Seniors.

Upcoming at Santa Fe Southside Library:

Dec. 17th – Peruvian Retablos

Produced In Partnership with Museum of International Folk Art and Santa Fe Public Library. For more information, please contact Kemely Gomez at 505-476-1215.

About the Museum of International Folk Art: http://www.internationalfolkart.org/

Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the Museum of International Folk Art’s mission is to foster understanding of the traditional arts to illuminate human creativity and shape a humane world. The museum holds the world’s largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations, representing a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure.  The museum’s historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

 706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, NM 87505. (505) 476-1200.

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. First Sunday of Every Month is free to NM Residents.

More Info

About the Museum of International Folk Art: http://www.internationalfolkart.org/

Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the Museum of International Folk Art’s mission is to foster understanding of the traditional arts to illuminate human creativity and shape a humane world. The museum holds the world’s largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations, representing a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure.  The museum’s historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

 706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, NM 87505. (505) 476-1200.

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. First Sunday of Every Month is free to NM Residents.

More Info