Events

There’s always something exciting happening at the Museum of International Folk Art! Join us for our many programs listed below.

iNgqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa
Featured Event Exhibition Opening

iNgqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa

November 17, 2024
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

FREE Admission All Day

Join us for the exhibition opening of iNgqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa. MOIFA invites you to experience this immersive celebration of South African telephone wire weaving and vibrant cultural traditions featuring:

1:00 - 1:30 pm  Musical performance by Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi, South African composer and cellist from the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal.

1:30 -  3:00 pm  Opening remarks by Charlie Lockwood, MOIFA’s executive director, and collector David Arment, followed by curatorial roundtable with guest curator Dr. Elizabeth Perrill, community curator and lead Indigenous knowledge expert Muziwandile Gigaba, and weavers Ntombfuthi (Magwaza) Sibiya and Bongeleni Mkhize. 

3:30 - 4:00 pm  Encore performance by Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi, South African composer and cellist from the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Delight in refreshments from Jambo Cafe and hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico. 

ASL Interpretation provided for opening remarks and curatorial roundtable

Ntombfuthi (Magwaza) Sibiya was raised in KwaNongoma in the rural northern region of KwaZulu-Natal and moved to Isiyanda in 1992. Anamaria Dlamini first exposed Ntombifuthi to hard-wire weaving and was kind enough to teach her. Ntombifuthi has been crafting her unique, abstract voice since she first encountered a geometric pattern that resonated with traditional beadwork from her home of KwaNongoma. Since that first inspiration, her designs have morphed organically, developing in her mind serendipitously. Ntombifuthi’s late husband was also supportive and assisted in concept design. Ntombifuthi’s work is collected in many local South African museums including the Phansi Museum and KwaMuhle Museum Collection. She sells her works at the African Art Centre, Zenzulu, and to private clients.

Bongeleni Mkhize was born in Greytown, South Africa but later moved to Siyanda with her mother Jaheni Mkhize, who made her mark in the legacy soft-wire telephone wire weaving. Taught by her mother, Bongeleni started selling her weavings in 1997 and she continues to build on her popular stich, exploring it further and moving her work in different directions. Bongeleni is teaching her son, Andile, ensuring her family’s legacy will be passed on to the next generation. Bongeleni sells her work at Zenzulu and to private collectors.

Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi is a musician and cultural thinker who has a strong sense of community and how the local and global connect. Building artistic visions using an internationalist methodology, Mhlambi uses his art and exhibitions in order to convey African stories and philosophies. He has been a visiting artist at Cite Internationale Des Arts in Paris and at universities in Germany, Finland, and Brazil. Mhlambi recently returned from an Artist Fellowship at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, where he was developing new work using ancient Zulu idioms.

Dr. Elizabeth Perrill is a professor of art histories at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The author of two monographs, Zulu Pottery (2012) and Burnished: Zulu Ceramics Between Urban and Rural South Africa (2022), Perrill has been working in South Africa, and specifically KwaZulu-Natal province since 2004, where she is currently leading a Modern Endangered Archives Project grant sponsored through the UCLA Libraries  and Arcadia, a London-based charitable foundation. 

Muziwandile Gigaba is a South African artist working across art disciplines, including ceramics, printmaking, and sculpture. He is a community curator and Indigenous knowledge expert for iNgqikithi yokuPhica, and an Art Entrepreneurship and Ceramics Lecturer at the Nelson Mandela University. He has participated in several international art residencies and his work is collected by local and international museums.

iNgqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa features historical items alongside contemporary works of art, demonstrating individual and community-based ways of making and knowing. Curated in consultation with Indigenous Knowledge experts in broader Nguni and specific Zulu cultures, this exhibition sheds new light on this artistic medium, highlighting the experiences of the artists themselves through videos featuring interviews and the process of creating wirework.

The first major exhibition of telephone wire art in any North American museum, Weaving Meanings features a significant collection assembled and generously donated by David Arment and Jim Rimelspach, the David Arment Southern African Collection, IFAF Collection, Museum of International Folk Art. The exhibition is guest curated by Dr. Elizabeth Perrill in collaboration with community curator and lead Indigenous knowledge expert Muziwandile Gigaba.

iNgqikithi yokuPhica Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa is supported by New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the International Folk Art Foundation, and Friends of Folk Art, with lead support from David Arment and Jim Rimelspach. Additional major support comes from Courtney and Scott Taylor, a grant from the William H. and Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation, and the generosity of donors to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Exhibition Development Fund, including the Wilson Foundation (in honor of David Arment and the Telephone Wire Basket project); Joan and Steve Grady; and Kelly and Ginger Hardage. 

+ Read More

An Enduring Spirit: Ukrainian Voices Through Art and Film
Featured Event

An Enduring Spirit: Ukrainian Voices Through Art and Film

November 22, 2024 through December 22, 2024
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

FREE 

Join us for this compelling five-part Friday film series, presented in conjunction with Center for Contemporary Arts, and experience a cinematic journey through the heart of Ukraine’s struggle. Echoing the themes of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine, this film series deals with topics of loss, resilience, and the prevailing spirit of human creativity. Each film provides a unique perspective on the lives affected by the ongoing conflict, highlighting personal stories of hope, defiance, and the quest for solace amidst destruction. Film series schedule provided below.

In the Rearview (2023) | Director: Maciek Hamela | Friday, November 1, 2024 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) | MOIFA

A small van traverses war-torn roads, becoming a fragile sanctuary for Ukrainians fleeing their homes. Through intimate confessions and shared fears, this film captures the transient refuge and relentless hope of those seeking escape from the ravages of war.

Rule of Two Walls (2023) | Director: David Gutnik | Friday, November 8, 2024 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) | MOIFA

This raw and atmospheric portrait documents the lives of artists who remain in Ukraine. Their creative practices, whether in visual art, music, or performance, become acts of survival and defiance, offering a glimmer of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.

Intercepted (2024) | Director: Oksana Karpovych | Friday, November 22, 2024 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) | Center for Contemporary Arts

Pairing compositions that capture the unsettled aftermath of invasion with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families back home, this film starkly contrasts Ukrainian’s everyday reality with Russia’s brutal propaganda machine, highlighting the callous disregard for civilian lives.

20 Days in Mariupol (2023) | Director: Mstyslav Chernov | Friday, December 6, 2024 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) | MOIFA

Trapped in besieged Mariupol, a team of Ukrainian journalists documents the atrocities of the Russian invasion. Their harrowing footage—dying children, mass graves, and the bombing of a maternity hospital—captures some of the war’s most defining and devastating moments.

Porcelain War (2024) | Directors: Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev | Friday, December 13, 2024 (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM) | MOIFA

Amidst the chaos in war-torn Kharkiv, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind, defiantly creating beauty while defending their homeland.  Their story showcases the indomitable human spirit and sustaining power of art, proving that even amidst war, the passion for life and creation prevails. 

Image: Still from Porcelain War

We are grateful to the International Folk Art Foundation, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Exhibition Development Fund, including Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn, Gwenn and Eivind Djupedal, Rosalind Doherty, Barbara Forslund, David Vogel and Larry Fulton, The Gale Family Foundation, and TOKo Santa Fe for their support of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine and its related programming.

+ Read More

OFFSITE | Film Screening of
Featured Event

OFFSITE | Film Screening of

November 22, 2024
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) | 1050 Old Pecos Trail

FREE | RSVP VIA CCA HERE

Join us for this special one-time screening of Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted presented as part of our Friday film series in collaboration with Center for Contemporary Arts

VIEW THE FILM TRAILER HERE

Film Synopsis: Pairing compositions that capture the unsettled aftermath of invasion with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families back home, this film starkly contrasts Ukrainian’s everyday reality with Russia’s brutal propaganda machine, highlighting the callous disregard for civilian lives.

Director’s Statement: “When the Russian full-scale invasion started, I was working in Ukraine as a local producer with Al Jazeera English. This work allowed me to access many different Ukrainian regions where I witnessed Russian war crimes. After work in the evenings, I developed a habit of listening to the ‘intercepts’: intercepted phone calls of Russian soldiers in Ukraine calling their families back home, obtained and publicly released by Ukraine’s security services. The discrepancy between the brutal reality that I was living during the day and the things I was hearing at night was shocking. The most painful thing to accept was: Why do humans do such inhumane things? This question brought me to the film which is based on a simple juxtaposition of two realities. I was trying to understand the full complexity of the ‘Russian order’ so as to comprehend the kind of reasoning that sits behind the invasion.” 

“Terrific... An austere and harrowing chronicle of life, death and indifference… One of the strongest movies in [New Directors/New Films].” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times 

“Intercepted offers a spare psychological portrait of soldiers at war. Gleaned directly from their conversations, this is an honest depiction of how empathy disappears and malice takes over.” – Murtada Elfadl, Variety

This screening is presented as part of our ongoing programming for Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine

We are grateful to the International Folk Art Foundation, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Exhibition Development Fund, including Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn, Gwenn and Eivind Djupedal, Rosalind Doherty, Barbara Forslund, David Vogel and Larry Fulton, The Gale Family Foundation, and TOKo Santa Fe for their support of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine and its related programming.

+ Read More

Film Screening of
Featured Event

Film Screening of "20 Days in Mariupol" | Director: Mstyslav Chernov

December 6, 2024
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium | MOIFA

FREE | RSVP HERE

Join us for this special one-time screening of Mstyslav Chernov’s Academy Award winning 20 Days in Mariupol presented as part of our Friday film series in collaboration with Center for Contemporary Arts. Arrive early for complimentary viewing of the Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine exhibition. 

VIEW THE FILM TRAILER HERE

Film Synopsis: Trapped in besieged Mariupol, a team of Ukrainian journalists documents the atrocities of the Russian invasion. Their harrowing footage—dying children, mass graves, and the bombing of a maternity hospital—captures some of the war’s most defining and devastating moments.

Director’s Statement: “The Russian soldiers were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in. We were the only international journalists left in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and we had been documenting its siege by Russian troops for more than two weeks. We were reporting inside the hospital when gunmen began stalking the corridors. Surgeons gave us white scrubs to wear as camouflage. Suddenly at dawn, a dozen soldiers burst in: “Where are the journalists!?” I looked at their armbands, blue for Ukraine, and tried to calculate the odds that they were Russians in disguise. I stepped forward to identify myself. “We’re here to get you out,” they said. The walls of the surgery shook from artillery and machine gun fire outside, and it seemed safer to stay inside. But the Ukrainian soldiers were under orders to take us with them. We ran into the street, abandoning the doctors who had sheltered us, the pregnant women who had been shelled and the people who slept in the hallways because they had nowhere else to go. I felt terrible leaving them all behind…As shells crashed nearby, we dropped to the ground. Time was measured from one shell to the next, our bodies tense and breath held. Shockwave after shockwave jolted my chest, and my hands went cold. We reached an entryway, and armored cars whisked us to a darkened basement. Only then did we learn from a policeman why the Ukrainians had risked the lives of soldiers to extract us from the hospital. “If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie,” he said. “All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain.”...It was March 15. We had no idea if we would make it out alive.”

Mstyslav Chernov is a video journalist for The Associated Press. His courageous reporting in Mariupol earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

This screening is presented as part of our ongoing programming for Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine

We are grateful to the International Folk Art Foundation, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Exhibition Development Fund, including Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn, Gwenn and Eivind Djupedal, Rosalind Doherty, Barbara Forslund, David Vogel and Larry Fulton, The Gale Family Foundation, and TOKo Santa Fe for their support of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine and its related programming.

+ Read More

Film Screening of
Featured Event

Film Screening of

December 13, 2024
6:00 PM

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium | MOIFA

FREE | RSVP HERE | Runtime 1h 30min

Join us for a special screening of Porcelain War, the final installment in our Friday film series, presented in collaboration with Center for Contemporary Arts. We invite you to take advantage of the double feature, with Rule of Two Walls preceding this screening at 4:30 PM.

Arrive early for complimentary viewing of the Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine exhibition. 

VIEW THE FILM TRAILER HERE

Film Synopsis: Amidst the chaos in war-torn Kharkiv, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind, defiantly creating beauty while defending their homeland.  Their story showcases the indomitable human spirit and sustaining power of art, proving that even amidst war, the passion for life and creation prevails.

This screening is presented as part of our ongoing programming for Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine

We are grateful to the International Folk Art Foundation, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Exhibition Development Fund, including Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn, Gwenn and Eivind Djupedal, Rosalind Doherty, Barbara Forslund, David Vogel and Larry Fulton, The Gale Family Foundation, and TOKo Santa Fe for their support of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine and its related programming.

+ Read More

Film Screening of
Featured Event

Film Screening of "Rule of Two Walls" | Director: David Gutnik

December 13, 2024
4:30 PM

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium | MOIFA

FREE | RSVP HERE

Join us for this special one-time screening of David Gutnik’s Rule of Two Walls presented as part of our Friday film series in collaboration with Center for Contemporary Arts. Arrive early for complimentary viewing of the Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine exhibition. Free popcorn will be provided.

VIEW THE FILM TRAILER HERE

Film Synopsis: This raw and atmospheric portrait documents the lives of artists who remain in Ukraine. Their creative practices, whether in visual art, music, or performance, become acts of survival and defiance, offering a glimmer of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.

Director’s Statement: “Everyone in my family is from Ukraine. In April 2022, a little over a month into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I got a one-way ticket to Warsaw with the intention of entering Ukraine by bus. In Warsaw, I interviewed Ukrainians displaced by the war, thinking I would make a documentary about Ukrainians who, like my family, left. But by the time I crossed the border into Ukraine, it was clear to me that I was going to make a film about Ukrainians who stayed. 

Since completing the film, I find myself preoccupied with one shot in particular. In this shot, firefighters try to put out a fire in a local market, recently bombed by a Russian missile. Minutes after the bombing, the shelling continues on the same market, again and again, to prevent rescue workers from saving people. A Ukrainian cameraman holds the shot as the shelling continues. Bombs are falling within ten feet of him as the ceaseless assault continues. But the cameraman holds still. He refuses to run. He will wait out the shelling, as the camera rolls. Why would the cameraman risk his life for this? The answer to this question is what the Russian media and government failed to understand when predicting that Kyiv would fall in three days. When the cameraman risks his life to document the atrocities, he is also saying, “I, as a Ukrainian—exist.” 

Rule of Two Walls has received multiple international accolades including winning the Special Jury Mention Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

This screening is presented as part of our ongoing programming for Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine

We are grateful to the International Folk Art Foundation, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Exhibition Development Fund, including Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn, Gwenn and Eivind Djupedal, Rosalind Doherty, Barbara Forslund, David Vogel and Larry Fulton, The Gale Family Foundation, and TOKo Santa Fe for their support of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine and its related programming.

 

+ Read More

Lunar New Year Celebration
Featured Event Family

Lunar New Year Celebration

January 26, 2025
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

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, Taiko Drumming by Smokin’ Bachi Taiko and more!

+ Read More