Events for Oct. 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.

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.

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.

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

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.