Events for Jul. 2022

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.

Roberto Benavidez works in the Mexican tradition of cartonería, or papier-mâché. Benavidez grew up in South Texas, and like many Mexican and American children, he grew up with piñatas to mark celebrations. As part of a mixed-heritage family (Benavidez’s father is Mexican and his mother American), Benavidez conveys his sense of a hybrid identity through piñata forms such as Illuminated Piñatas No. 1 and 2, now in MOIFA’s collection, that reference the hybrid creatures that inhabit the margins of illuminated manuscripts. This particular series re-creates creatures from the Luttrell Psalter (ca. 1325-40), housed today in the British Library. Although trained as a sculptor at Pasadena City College, Roberto Benavidez is self-taught as a piñatero (piñata maker) and opted to work in a tradition associated with his Mexican-American roots. On his website, he describes himself in this way: "Half-breed, South Texan, queer, figurative sculptor specializing in the pinata form; playing on themes of race, sexuality, art, sin, humor, ephemerality and beauty." By blending two traditions--the piñata and the illuminated manuscript--Benavidez reconsiders both and at the same time offers paths of innovation

Northern New Mexico música buena evolved together with community dancing in bailes, fandangos, weddings, and celebrations, long before there was a division of audience, stage, and performance that we experience today around music.  The melodies and rhythms of the violins, accordions and guitars extended into the community through the feet and bodies of the dancers moving in rhythm, and their energy in motion in turn influenced the musicians.  The whole equation and chemistry of the resulting baile (or fandango, as it was called long ago) is joyful, social, cross-cultural, playful, expressive, uplifting, and facilitates community bonding and healing (and it’s good exercise!).  Lone Piñon and dance instructor Lucy Salazar work together to renew the structure of music and dance that has been passed down from generation to generation for many centuries but that takes a new form and serves a new purpose each time it is recreated and reembodied by the community of people present.  From listening to a recording or concert you can enjoy how New Mexico traditional music sounds, but if you have a chance to come to a baile you will have the privilege of physically understanding why it sounds the way it does.

Dances include la varsoviana, valse de la escoba, la vaquera, la cuna, el taleán, la camila, la marcha, las cuadrillas, valse de los paños, and more.

For all our upcoming events at MOIFA visit https://moifa.org/events/

Arts Alive! A collaborative summer program on Museum Hill at The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, The Santa Fe Botanical Garden, and the Museum of International Folk Art.

ALL ON-SITE WORKSHOPS ARE FROM 10 AM–2 PM, unless noted. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Please visit the different institutions’ websites for additional information. 

Funded by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and the International Folk Art Foundation.