Events

There’s always something exciting happening at the Museum of International Folk Art! Join us for our many programs listed below.

NM Seniors Free
Family Featured Event

NM Seniors Free

December 7, 2016 through December 27, 2017
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

New Mexico residents age 60 and over are admitted free every Wednesday

New Mexico residents age 60 and over are admitted free every Wednesday

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Artistic Heritage: Syrian Folk Art
Featured Event Exhibition Opening

Artistic Heritage: Syrian Folk Art

June 4, 2017 through May 28, 2018
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

This display is a tribute to Syrian artistry, creative triumphs, and cultural heritage. Featured objects include Syrian clothing dating from the 19th century to mid-20th century, musical instruments, painted and inlaid boxes, traditional cookie molds, coffee pots, contemporary glassworks handmade in Damascus in 2017, and more.

Since 2011, Syria has been plagued by conflict and civil war leading to a current humanitarian crisis. All over the news, we see images of devastated ruins of what were once thriving cities and cultural centers such as Aleppo, Homs, Kobane, and others; images and stories of unfathomable human suffering. But this is not the only side of Syria. Pointing to the country’s artistic traditions and cultural and religious diversity, the Museum of International Folk Art will display and highlight its collection of Syrian folk art in Lloyd’s Treasure Chest.

Lloyd’s Treasure Chest is named for the gallery’s benefactor, the late Lloyd Cotsen, former CEO of the Neutrogena Corporation. In 1995, Cotsen and the Neutrogena Corporation donated the Neutrogena Gallery, Lloyd’s Treasure Chest, a state-of-the-art storage facility, and an important collection of international folk art. Lloyd’s Treasure Chest is an open storage concept gallery that allows visitors to view collections objects that are not on view in the museum’s formal exhibitions. In addition to the gallery being a place where visitors can explore the meaning of folk art, collections items are rotated from storage into thematic displays set in the Treasure Chest.

This thematic display, Artistic Heritage: Syrian Folk Art is presented in collaboration with the New Mexico History Museum their upcoming exhibition, Syria: Cultural Patrimony under Threat, opening June 23, 2017.  June 4 is the first Sunday of the month, admission is free for New Mexico residents;  youth 16 and under and members of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation are always free!

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First Sunday- NM residents Free
Exhibition Opening Family

First Sunday- NM residents Free

December 3, 2017
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

New Mexico resident free day!

From 1 to 4 pm Celebrate the opening of Crafting Memory: The Art of Community in Peru with live music by Baracutanga and a reception hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

New Mexico residents admitted free the first Sunday of each month. Youth 16 and under and members of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation always admitted free!

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Opening of Crafting Memory
Performance Featured Event Exhibition Opening

Opening of Crafting Memory

December 3, 2017
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Opening events include live music by Barautanga and a reception hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

Meet artist Qarla Quispe of Warmichic, Peru, enjoy music workshops with Baracutanga at 1 and 3 PM, and a performance at 2PM plus a reception hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

This exhibition explores the new directions taken by current Peruvian folk artists during the recent decades of social and political upheaval and economic change. The exhibition will highlight the biographies and social histories of contemporary artists along with examples of work that preserve family tradition, reimagine older artforms, reclaim pre-Columbian techniques and styles, and forge new directions for arte popular in the 21st century.

The past forty years have been a time of tremendous change in the Andes, beginning with the Agrarian Reform of 1969 that broke up the large haciendas; a twenty-year internal armed conflict with the Shining Path that engulfed the 1980’s and 1990’s and claimed nearly 70,000 lives; economic swings, rapid development, the recent large investment in preserving archaeological heritage and the current booming tourism industry. 

All of these forces have all shaped the lives of artists and informed the art they create.  Crafting Memory visits a series of contemporary folk artists in Peru and places their work within this larger framework of Peruvian history and social change. The exhibition will explore the many routes through which craft and folk arts are learned and practiced, including multigenerational crafting families, self-taught artisans, and others who came to folk arts as a means of economic survival during the time of violence.  The show includes a third generation silversmith reviving the art of tupus or shawl stick pins that were worn during the Inca Empire; the art of war orphans from the 1980’s who were trained in traditional arts to give hope in dark times; and a collective of young artists in Lima using the medium of silk screening to promote conversations between rural highland and jungle communities with their counterpart migrant neighborhoods in the city, celebrating their shared arts, culture, and customs and emphasizing the value of the handmade, and the ideas, values, and aesthetics that arise from Cultura Popular - common people and everyday

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