Spring 2018 – Page 2

A group of purple and pink squares. [gen-ai]

Roamings, Run-Ins, and Rendez-Vous

BY MERRY SCULLY Planning for our centennial exhibitions required reflection on the past, but also the kind of bold thinking under which the Museum of Art was founded. Rather than a chronology of the institution, our centennial celebrates the museum as an active place where art and history are archived, catalogued, and created. Contact: Local to Global reflects the New Mexico Museum of Art as a point of contact for the visual arts in New Mexico over the past five decades.

By Merry Scully

Categories: New Mexican cultures, Visual art

A rectangular, hand-painted white and red brick sits on a wooden surface. One side features a black swirl pattern and numbers are printed upside-down on the side facing up. [gen-ai]

Living History

BY CANDACE WALSH History. When I was in high school in the eighties, it was called Social Studies. My teens learn history in a class called Individuals and Society. The concept of trying to dismantle history’s silos with new nomenclatures and perspectives is not a new one. But the need to do it continues. Last year at the Association of Writing Professionals conference, a panelist talked about a concept that stayed with me.

By Candace Walsh

Categories: Editor's Letter

Woven sandal made from plant fibers, showing frayed edges and a checkerboard scale for size reference. [gen-ai]

History’s Footprints

BY LAURIE WEBSTER Visit the storage facility of any Southwestern anthropology museum, and you’ll see drawer after drawer of pre-Hispanic woven sandals—a few in pristine condition, but most worn out from use. Their sheer quantities are astonishing because early Southwesterners didn’t actually need footwear. Human feet develop thick calluses to protect them from sharp objects and hot and cold temperatures, and for most of human history, people went around barefoot.

By Laurie Webster

Categories: New Mexican cultures

Three pairs of Native American moccasins with detailed beadwork and leather fringe are displayed against a black background. [gen-ai]

The Solution That Sticks

BY PETER BG SHOEMAKER Few things make a conservator swoon quite like a good adhesive. After all, in a business that often begins with lots of things falling apart, a good adhesive can be the difference between smiles and frowns around laboratory worktables in conservation labs the world over. So imagine fifty or so pairs of moccasins, almost all heavily beaded, in various states of disrepair—tears in the heels, thread unraveling, some folded into themselves like scared armadillos, and all the gashes and distresses of a lifetime of wear and—in some cases—six to twenty lifetimes of storage.

By Peter BG Shoemaker

Categories: Landscape and environment