Summer 2017 – El Palacio

Two people wearing warm clothing and hats stand outdoors in a snowy landscape with bare trees in the background. [gen-ai]

Headed into the Wind

BY JACK LOEFFLER I was a seventeen-year-old senior in high school when I received news that I had failed my aptitude test. The test had revealed that my career preference was bifurcated between being a jazz trumpet player and a forest ranger. According to those who were purported to know better, I was assailed by conflicting absolutes. One cannot want to be both a jazz trumpet player and a forest ranger.

Categories: Featured, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Staff favorites

A man in old Western attire stands outdoors, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, patterned vest, and coat, with one hand resting on his hip and the other holding an object. [gen-ai]

Dressed for Success in the West

In 1865, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley famously urged, “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” The imperative suggested economic opportunity, and indeed boundless opportunities greeted the young men and women who struck out on wagon trains and horseback to make their fortunes in the West. But the young, restless, and unemployed also saw the opportunity as a chance to reinvent themselves by tossing off Eastern conventions.

By Daniel Kosharek

Categories: Framework, New Mexican history, Southwestern history

A weathered, ornately painted wooden chest with a large black metal lock and decorative patterns, featuring figures and buildings. [gen-ai]

Rooted In History

As I enter the Palace of the Governors, I often stop at the doorway on the left. It opens onto an austere room—the Office of the Governors—where locally made wooden chairs sit around a table, representing long gone administrations: Spanish, Mexican, Territorial.

By Penelope Hunter-Stiebel

Categories: New Mexican history, Southwestern history

A decorative pattern featuring repeating dark dragon motifs and cross-shaped cutouts on a golden background. [gen-ai]

Picturing the Future

Cultivating, weaving, and dyeing cotton were regular parts of Mo Aiqun’s childhood. Born in 1958 in the Zhuang village of Sanbao (Tian’e County, Guangxi), she began learning to sew and embroider when she was thirteen. Like many young women in her community, she arrived at her new husband’s home with quilts she made for her dowry.

By Dr. Carrie Hertz

Categories: Visual art

A large stone sculpture of a face partially buried in the ground among rocks and dirt. [gen-ai]

Remnants among the Ruins

The New Mexico History Museum and the Museum of International Folk Art Reflect on the Syrian Civil War

By Andrew J. Wulf and Khristaan D. Villela

Categories: New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art

A person’s hands sew or repair a blue, white, and green beaded textile item on a padded white surface. [gen-ai]

In It Together

Becoming a conservator involves education, tradition...and channeling Macgyver.

By Peter BG Shoemaker

Categories: Landscape and environment, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art

A person wearing protective welding gear uses a tool to grind metal, creating bright sparks in an industrial workshop setting. [gen-ai]

Making History

Cutting-edge, technology-driven operas may not seem like an immediate fit with the New Mexico History Museum, but if the goal is to explore emerging technology through the lens of history, this partnership is the solution.

By Andrew J. Wulf, Kate Russell, and Meredith Davidson

Categories: New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art

Embroidered fabric featuring colorful flowers, birds in flight, and a central circular blue pattern on a beige background. [gen-ai]

Negotiate, Navigate, Innovate

The exhibition Negotiate, Navigate, Innovate: Strategies Folk Artists Use in the Global Marketplace opens June 9 in the Museum of International Folk Art’s Gallery of Conscience. It explores the ways in which folk artists from around the world and in New Mexico work within the global market setting.

By Julia Gomez and Nicolasa Chávez

Categories: New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art

A textile artwork features abstract red, green, and pink geometric shapes with the text Rebecca James, 1950 woven into the center. [gen-ai]

Free to Be You and Me

BY CANDACE WALSH Once upon a time, I was a child in the seventies with hippie parents. Want proof? If I had been a boy, they would have named me Sundance. During the first few years of my life, I was steeped in counterculture. (more…)

By Candace Walsh

Categories: Editor's Letter

Cubist-style painting of a hilly landscape with abstract houses, green and blue tones, and angular lines suggesting fields and mountains under a blue sky. [gen-ai]

The View from Out There

BY CHRISTIAN WAGUESPACK “I think New Mexico is the greatest experience I ever had from the outside world.” —D. H. Lawrence [wonderplugin_slider id="18"] (more…)

By Christian Waguespack

Categories: Featured, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art