Events

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

NM Resident FREE Sunday
Family

NM Resident FREE Sunday

October 2, 2022
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

New Mexico residents admitted FREE the first Sunday of each month. Youth 16 and under and Museum of New Mexico Foundation members are always free. We are open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Come Explore our engaging exhibits!

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

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

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.

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MAKE & TAKE @ MOIFA
Family

MAKE & TAKE @ MOIFA

October 9, 2022
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Join us for art in the atrium on Sunday with art projects, coloring sheets, and self-guided treasure hunts. Add to your explorations at MOIFA with fun collection-inspired bilingual art kits, facilitated by our fantastic MOIFA docents.  

Museum admission is always free for Kids and Members, program included with admission. 

This month’s themes:

  • Sunday, October 2nd – Animals in Folk Art! 
  • Sunday, October 9th – Animals in Folk Art! 
  • Sunday, October 16th - Make a Paper Ofrenda!
  • Sunday, October 23rd - Make a Paper Ofrenda!

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

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

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.

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Public Talk - Masters of Monsters: The Tradition of Horror in Japanese Folklore and Manga
Lectures and Talks Featured Event

Public Talk - Masters of Monsters: The Tradition of Horror in Japanese Folklore and Manga

October 16, 2022
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Join us at MOIFA to jump deep into Yokai, J-horror, and all things spooky with Zack Davisson, Writer, Translator, Folklorist; as he shares the world of " Masters of Monsters: The Tradition of Horror in Japanese Folklore and Manga." Book signing to follow the talk. Free Talk with Museum Admission. Before the talk, get ready for Halloween and make your own Yokai mask from 12noon-2pm in our Atrium.

To request ASL interpretation please contact patricia.sigala@state.nm.us, by Oct. 9th.

From the ancient weird energy of mononoke to the rise of yokai in the Edo period, Japanese storytellers have a well of frights to draw on. Kabuki artists like Tsuruya Namboku IV spun ancient folklore into modern stories. Ukiyo-e artists like Yoshitoshi Tsukioka amped up the gore and writers like Ryunosuke Akutagawa refined the shock into terror.This is the inheritance of horror that modern manga artists have continued to build upon. ‘Ge-Ge-Ge no Kitaro’ artist Shigeru Mizuki was one of the first to use Japan’s folkloric past in manga, followed by second-wave artists like Hideshi Hino and Tsunezo Murotani and modern artists like Junji Ito. Learn more about this legacy of horror!

Zack Davisson is an award winning translator, writer, lecturer, and scholar of manga and Japanese folklore and ghosts. He is the author of YUREI: THE JAPANESE GHOST, YOKAI STORIES, and THE SUPERNATURAL CATS OF JAPAN from Chin Music Press. He contributed to exhibitions at the WERELDMUSEUM ROTTERDAM, the ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, and the INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF FOLK ART.  He has lectured on Japanese folklore and manga at DUKE UNIVERSITY, ANNAPOLIS NAVAL ACADEMY, UNIVERSITA CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA, UCLA, and the UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, and is a frequent guest and panelist at comic and anime conventions. He has been featured on NPR, the BBC, and in THE NEW YORK TIMES, and has written articles for SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, WEIRD TALES, JAPANZINE, METROPOLIS, KANSAI TIME-OUT, and THE COMICS JOURNAL. He was a researcher and on-screen talent for National Geographic’s TV special OKINAWA: THE LOST GHOSTS OF JAPAN, has appeared as a commentator on Chinese news network CCTV. He has maintained the popular Japanese folklore website HYAKUMONOGATARI.COM since 2010. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife Miyuki, their dog Mochi, cats Bagheera and Sheer Khan—and several ghosts.

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NACHA MENDEZ DAY OF THE DEAD CONCERT
Ticketed events and galas Performance

NACHA MENDEZ DAY OF THE DEAD CONCERT

October 25, 2022
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Concert to Benefit the Nacha Mendez Music Scholarship for New Mexican Girls of Color Performances by Awardees of the Nacha Mendez Music Scholarship for New Mexican Girls of Color and the Nacha Mendez Trio

Pianist Willow Schwartz Szeto (age 16), cellist Narai Armour (age 16), and violinist Elena Roybal (age 12), will perform during the reception. Composer, producer, vocalist and guitarist Ishi Sato (age 16) will open the concert followed by the Nacha Mendez Trio. The Nacha Mendez Trio (Nacha Mendez, vocals and guitar; Carla Kountoupes, violin; Melanie Monsour, piano) will perform music to honor our ancestors. The music repertoire will include Native American, Mexican, Jewish, Arabic, Greek, Italian, and Celtic music. New Mexican artist Margarita Cordero (b. Chicago, raised in La Union, NM), of Hispanic and Chihene Nde Apache heritage who performs as “Nacha Mendez,” founded the music scholarship for New Mexican girls of color in 2021. 

Tickets available at https://givebutter.com/NachaD2D

More information: nachamendezscholarship21@gmail.com

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Día de los Muertos 20th Annual Community Celebration
Performance Featured Event Family

Día de los Muertos 20th Annual Community Celebration

October 30, 2022
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Celebrate Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead.

Decorate sugar skulls/calaveras de azucar, sample traditional Pan de Muerto and view the Ofrenda installation by local artist Stephanie Riggs.

Enjoy Los Niños de Santa Fe Dance Performances at 1:30 and 3:30 pm

FREE admission for everyone all day!

To request ASL interpretation, please contact patricia.sigala@state.nm.us by October 23rd.

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Book signing with Author and Photographer Ann Murdy of the award-winning book On the Path of Marigolds: Living Traditions of Mexico's Day of the Dead.

Ann Murdy has been documenting the celebrations around Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Mexico for more than twenty years. On the Path of Marigolds is a bilingual book that features nearly 100 photographs illustrating Dia de Los Muertos celebrations and remembrances in Huaquechula, Puebla, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca and the communities around Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan —along with a conversation between her and Cesáro Moreno, Director of Visual Arts and Chief Curator of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and an essay by Mexican-American writer Denise Chávez.  Murdy captures the spirit, beauty, and magic of this sacred observance.

Books will be available for purchase in our Museum Shop.

Photographer Ann Murdy has been documenting the celebrations around Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Mexico for more than twenty years. On the Path of Marigolds: Living Traditions of Mexico’s Day of the Dead, is a bilingual book that features nearly 100 photographs illustrating Día de Los Muertos celebrations and remembrances in Huaquechula, Puebla, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca and the communities around Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan —along with a conversation between her and Cesáro Moreno, Director of Visual Arts and Chief Curator of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and an essay by Mexican-American writer Denise Chávez.  As Murdy’s hauntingly beautiful images show, in Mexico death is considered a part of life and something to be celebrated rather than feared. El día de los muertos (which actually lasts two days on November 1–2) is a time to gather with friends and families to feast, pray, dance, and honor the lives of those who have died. From the preparation of the food and flowers to the sanctification of the public and private spaces, to the ceremony itself, Murdy captures the spirit, beauty, and magic of this sacred observance.

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