Events

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

NM RESIDENT FREE SUNDAY
Family

NM RESIDENT FREE SUNDAY

July 3, 2022
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

New Mexico residents admitted FREE the first Sunday of each month. Youth 16 and under and Museum of New Mexico Foundation members are always free. We are open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Come Explore our engaging exhibits!

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.

 

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Conversation with Papier-Mâché Artist Roberto Benavidez
Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) Lectures and Talks

Conversation with Papier-Mâché Artist Roberto Benavidez

July 12, 2022
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

MOIFA sponsored IFAM artist, Roberto Benavidez, in conversation with Laura Addison, Curator of European & American Folk Art Collections at the Museum of International Folk Art.  Reception follows the presentation.

Registration  opens Tuesday, June 21 at 9 am and is free for FOFA Members.

To Register go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversation-with-paper-mache-artist-roberto-benavidez-tickets-348810510627

FOFA requires proof of vaccination and booster to attend this gathering. Masks are required.  For questions, please email friendsoffolkart@gmail.com

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

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Baile (dance) with Lone Piñon and Lucy Salazar
Performance Featured Event Family

Baile (dance) with Lone Piñon and Lucy Salazar

July 24, 2022
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Join us for a baile! Learn and dance the traditional steps and figure dances that have been passed down for generations as a counterpart to the violin and accordion-driven melodies of Northern New Mexican music.  Lucy Salazar will teach the steps and Lone Piñon will play la camila, la cuna, la varsoviana, and more.

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.

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VIRTUAL TOUR:
Lectures and Talks

VIRTUAL TOUR: "FAB FAVES" AS THE GIRARD WING TURNS 40

July 27, 2022
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

A TIME TO CELEBRATE: "FAB FAVES" AS THE GIRARD WING TURNS 40

VIRTUAL TOUR OF MOIFA’s "Multiple Visions: Common Bonds" Do you love Folk Art? Would you love to dive deeper into MOIFA’s Girard Wing with its 10,000 pieces of vibrantly colored and fantastically arranged folk art from dozens of countries? Here’s an all new look with the amazing stops that top everyone’s favorites list. Tour or re-tour—virtually—Alexander Girard’s last massive art installation from the comfort of your home or hotel with fantastic MOIFA docents.  If you have been before you will find something new every time. The 10 “stop” tour lasts about 45 minutes. Please note tours run on MOUTAIN TIME. Register for the zoom at the date and time you prefer below:

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

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Arts Alive!
Workshop Featured Event Family

Arts Alive!

July 28, 2022
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Free Hands-on Workshops for Ages 3-103

Join Us on Museum Hill Plaza, MOIFA Outdoor Classroom. Make a rain stick and enjoy a free visit to the museum. 

Thurs, 7/28 - Rain Sticks 

For groups of 6 or more, please call or email Patricia Sigala, 505-476-1212, patricia.sigala@state.nm.us Museum entrance free for Arts Alive! participants during workshop hours. 

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.

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