Events for Jan. 2025

Vernick Auditorium

Please join us for a reading panel and Q&A with three contributors to the winter issue. Featured readings include:

Dr. Elizabeth Perrill’s article about the telephone wire weaving and art that emerged from Apartheid South Africa and continues to thrive today.

Nikki Nojima Louis’s essay about the way her life and family relationships were shaped by the her internment with her mother in Idaho, and her father’s internment in New Mexico, in the Japanese American internment camps that were created during World War II.

Joelle Mendoza’s article about a musical score, "Dispatch," by Raven Chacon and Candice Hopkins that serves as a template for activism and resistance.

Following the readings, editor of El Palacio, Emily Withnall, will facilitate a Q&A. Light refreshments will be served.

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium | MOIFA

Included with Museum Admission | RSVP HERE

ASL interpretation available upon request by January 6, 2025 | Email laura.mueller@dca.nm.gov

Join virtuoso musician Julian Kytasty as he performs songs on the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian folk instrument with similarities to the lute and the zither. During the performance, Julian will also speak to the history and lore of the instrument, including its relationship to Ukrainian folk traditions and culture. The performance will include a Q&A session. 

Julian Kytasty was born in Detroit, Michigan into a family of Ukrainian refugees who came to the United States after World War II. He is a third generation bandurist, first learning the instrument from his father and grandfather. In 1980, he moved to New York to become the artistic director of the New York School of Bandura. Since then his multifaceted work as a performer, recording artist, composer, teacher, and ensemble leader has redefined the possibilities of his instrument. He has been a guest lecturer at many universities including Yale, Harvard, Wesleyan, and the University of California. In September 2021, President Zelensky awarded Julian the title Honored Artist of Ukraine in a ceremony in New York City.

FREE Family Program! Join us for our monthly Family Mornings at Folk Art program featuring storytime, art activity, and explorations in the galleries. 

 January 12 - Make a Ribbon Wand and Rattle!

*ASL Interpretation Provided

Following Dates: 

• February 16 - Spectacular Kites & Celebration!
• March 16 - Pysanky Ukrainian Easter Eggs
• April 13 - Earth Day for All!

Vernick Auditorium

Since at least the 16th century, the African continent has been home to intricate creations fashioned from copper and brass wire; but the art form known today as telephone wire art has its more recent origins in the wire embellishments on sticks and beer pot covers (izimbenge) first fashioned by Black workers during the Apartheid decades. Employing coated wire that became available with the advent of telephone lines, these unidentified artists produced pieces from salvaged telephone wire, creating desirable items, sought by travelers in search of “Zulu” souvenirs. After Apartheid, the pioneering work of the Bartel Arts Trust and Nedbank Arts and Culture Trust opened the door for an emerging contemporary art form—telephone wire art—that combines innovation and experimentation with traditional methods, motifs, and forms.

David Arment, an art consultant and collector based in Santa Fe, is known in South Africa as the “telephone wire Fundi”  (telephone wire expert). Arment first encountered telephone wire baskets in 1991 when his husband, Jim Rimelspach, took him on a birthday trip to Africa. Three decades later, the collection numbers around 2000 pieces; a number of them—thanks to a generous gift from Arment and Rimelspach—have been accessioned as part of the collection at MOIFA and form the basis of iNgqikithi yokuPhica/ Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa which opened in November at the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA). The exhibition has at its core the generous gift to MOIFA of the David Arment Southern African Collection.

This presentation will focus on David Arment’s life as a major collector of South African telephone wire art: How he got started, what keeps him going, how extensive the collection is at this point, how he lives with a major collection. He will talk about why he and his husband Jim Rimelspach have gifted part of the collection to a museum while they are still actively building the collection. For the FOFA audience that is passionately interested in the handmade, the traditional arts, innovation in tradition, this glimpse into the mind and heart of a collector is sure to be an enlightening and entertaining event. In preparation, please come to MOIFA and tour the exhibition several times before this event!

Registration is free for FOFA Members. All participants must be current members of FOFA. A Single Membership allows access to one ticket. A Dual Membership allows for two tickets.

For information on joining FOFA, a membership group of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, please click here.

For questions, please email friendsoffolkart@gmail.com

FREE Admission for New Mexico Residents All Day

Join us to Celebrate  Asian New Year traditions and the Year of the Snake. There will be family-fun for all ages including art activities, performances by Quang Minh Temple Lion Dance Group, and Taiko Drumming by Santa Fe Wadaiko.

11:00- 4:00 pm  All ages art activities

11:00 am “Thread” film short screening and Q&A with Director Terry Ngo

11:30 pm Quang Minh Temple Lion Dance Group Parade

1:00 pm Taiko Drumming performance by Santa Fe Wadaiko 

2:00 pm  Quang Minh Temple Lion Dance Group Parade

3:00 pm  Taiko Drumming performance by Santa Fe Wadaiko