Events

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

Ukrainian Short Films Screening
Featured Event

Ukrainian Short Films Screening

March 28, 2025
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium | MOIFA

FREE | RSVP HERE | Total Runtime 72 min

Join us for this special Ukrainian short films program featuring Betsy West’s Oscars shortlisted Once Upon a Time in Ukraine and Jordan Campbell’s Ukraine Under Fire. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session featuring Jordan Campbell (director) and Michael Campbell (story producer) of Ukraine Under Fire. Arrive early for complimentary viewing of the Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine exhibition. ASL interpretation will be provided.

Once Upon a Time in Ukraine | Betsy West | 32 min | 2024

A powerful and unexpected story of resilience, this Oscars shortlisted film offers verité glimpses of life behind the frontlines, revealing how Ukrainian children navigate the brutality of war while finding creative and courageous ways to survive.

Ukraine Under Fire | Jordan Campbell | 40 min | 2024

American journalist Jordan Campbell returns to Ukraine on a mission to amplify the voices of those who have endured life under fire, chronicling the experiences of Olga Butko, a national news anchor, and Peter Fouché, a frontline medic from the UK.

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.

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OFFSITE Performance: The Ukrainian Folk Music of Yagody
Performance

OFFSITE Performance: The Ukrainian Folk Music of Yagody

March 29, 2025
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Unit B by Chocolate Maven | 821 W San Mateo Rd.

WORKSHOP IS FULL

Join Yagody, one of Ukraine’s most charismatic folk bands, for a special evening performance located offsite at Unit B, 821 W San Mateo Rd., and presented by AMP Concerts. Founded in Lviv, Ukraine, in 2016 by Zoryana Dybovska, Yagody (meaning “berries” in Ukrainian) is rooted in Ukrainian and Balkan musical traditions. However, the ensemble has created its own modern and gripping sound by showcasing theatrical singers supported by musicians playing on drums, percussion, guitar, bass, and accordion. Yagody conceive their musical stage show according to dramaturgical principles—a concert is like a performance in one act, self-described as a musical trance based on the pulse of humanity.

Yagody’s visit and performance at Unit B are presented in collaboration with MOIFA’s Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine.

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Folk Art Flea Spring Donation Days
Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) Shop Event Featured Event

Folk Art Flea Spring Donation Days

April 5, 2025
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Back Parking Lot

Give your beloved folk art a new home by donating to the fabulous Folk Art Flea.

FOFA is seeking folk art donations of gently used textiles, clothing, ceramics, masks, wood carvings, paintings, sculpture, jewelry, and folk art décor items to be sold at the 2025 Folk Art Flea. If you have folk, tribal, fine art, decorative art, clothing with an ethnic or folk art look, or art books that you are ready to recycle to other art lovers then please join us for our spring donation days.  All folk art donations are tax deductible. Anyone can donate!  If you have friends who are cleaning out, downsizing, or holding an estate sale, please let them know about this special opportunity to make a difference at one of Santa Fe’s most celebrated institutions, the Museum of International Folk Art, by recycling their art items to the Folk Art Flea.

BRING YOUR FOLK ART TO FOFA’S SPRING DONATION DAYS

Saturday, April 5 & 26, and May 10

10 am to 2 pm

Drive to the back of the Museum of International Folk Art parking lot and look for the storage pods.  WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THEN! 

FOFA IS NOW ACCEPTING DONATIONS YEAR-ROUND.

If you are unable to make one of the donation days, call 505.476.1201 to arrange pick-up or drop off information.

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Family Mornings at Folk Art
Family

Family Mornings at Folk Art

April 13, 2025
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

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

April 13 - Earth Day For All! Come make a Muffler Man using recycled materials. 

Muffler men are pieces of art made by welders using old car parts. Most prominently, they would be made using a car’s muffler, giving the figures their name.

*ASL Interpretation Provided

Following Dates: May 18 - Weaving Together!

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Folk Art Flea Spring Donation Days
Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) Shop Event Featured Event

Folk Art Flea Spring Donation Days

April 26, 2025
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Back Parking Lot

Give your beloved folk art a new home by donating to the fabulous Folk Art Flea.

FOFA is seeking folk art donations of gently used textiles, clothing, ceramics, masks, wood carvings, paintings, sculpture, jewelry, and folk art décor items to be sold at the 2025 Folk Art Flea. If you have folk, tribal, fine art, decorative art, clothing with an ethnic or folk art look, or art books that you are ready to recycle to other art lovers then please join us for our spring donation days.  All folk art donations are tax deductible. Anyone can donate!  If you have friends who are cleaning out, downsizing, or holding an estate sale, please let them know about this special opportunity to make a difference at one of Santa Fe’s most celebrated institutions, the Museum of International Folk Art, by recycling their art items to the Folk Art Flea.

BRING YOUR FOLK ART TO FOFA’S SPRING DONATION DAYS

Saturday, April 26 and May 10

10 am to 2 pm

Drive to the back of the Museum of International Folk Art parking lot and look for the storage pods.  WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THEN! 

FOFA IS NOW ACCEPTING DONATIONS YEAR-ROUND.

If you are unable to make one of the donation days, call 505.476.1201 to arrange pick-up or drop off information.

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Exhibition Closing - Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine
Performance Featured Event

Exhibition Closing - Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine

April 27, 2025
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium

RSVP Here | Programming included with museum admission

Join us for an afternoon of Ukrainian poetry and music as we honor the closing of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine. This program offers time to reflect on the powerful stories of perseverance and remembrance conveyed through the exhibition. We invite you to experience these moving works one final time and bear witness to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of devastation.

  • 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM — Poetry presentation featuring Lyuba Yakimchuk

  • 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM — Piano performance featuring Pavel Gintov

  • 3:45 PM - 4:30 PM — Reception featuring a performance by the Sevda choir and catering by Market Street

Celebrated Kyiv-based poetess, Lyuba Yakimchuk, will detail her work as a war-poet and read excerpts from her poetry anthology, Apricots of Donbas. Copies of her book will be available for purchase and signing on-site. Acclaimed pianist Pavel Gintov will follow with a performance of Ukrainian classical music, accompanied by reflections on the lives of prominent Ukrainian composers. The afternoon will conclude with a reception featuring the Sevda choir and closing remarks from the curators. ASL Interpretation will be provided.

Artist Bios

Lyuba Yakimchuk is an award-winning poet, playwright, and screenwriter born in 1985 in Luhansk, Ukraine. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Apricots of Donbas (2015), which was published in English by Lost Horse Press (2021). The French translation of the book was shortlisted for the prestigious 2024 Prix Mallarmé, and actress Catherine Deneuve recorded an audiobook version. Yakimchuk has also written two plays and two film scripts, including one for the 2017 documentary The Slovo House, which explores the lives of Ukrainian modernist artists arrested and executed during the Stalinist purges. She has presented her work on renowned stages, including the 2022 Grammy Awards alongside John Legend. Her writing has received numerous awards, been translated into more than 20 languages, and featured in The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and CNN.

Pianist Pavel Gintov has been praised as “a poet of the keyboard” (Illinois Entertainer), a “musical storyteller” (Shikoku News, Japan), and “a fantastic pianist and extraordinary artist” (Fanfare Magazine). He made his debut at the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall at age 12 and has since toured extensively across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States, performing on renowned stages such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and Teatro Verdi Nazionale in Milan. Gintov holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he studied with Nina Svetlanova.

Sevda is a six-member, Santa Fe-based mixed choir led by Grammy Award-winning vocalist Willa Roberts. The ensemble performs music from the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Baltic. Drawn to the profound storytelling, tight harmonies, complex rhythms, and vocal acrobatics of these traditions, Sevda brings to life spring calling songs, ballads of love, loss, and bliss, as well as tales of resistance and sagas of epic heroes and gods—transporting audiences to another place and time.

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.

Image: Повелителька дронів (Lady of the Drones) · Roman Selivachov, b. 1976 · 2024 · Kyiv, Ukraine · Wooden base from ammunition box, egg tempera, gold leaf

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Appearances Deceive: The Embroideries of Policarpio Valencia
Members Friends of Folk Art (FOFA)

Appearances Deceive: The Embroideries of Policarpio Valencia

May 4, 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Doors open at 1:30 PM for Reception.

This talk discusses the behind-the-scenes planning for an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art. Appearances Deceive is the first retrospective of Nuevomexicano artist Policarpio Valencia (b. 1853 – d. 1931), whose embroidered textiles contemplate the serious subjects of morality and mortality with wit and whimsy.

Carrie Hertz Bio

Carrie Hertz is Curator of Textiles and Dress for the Museum of International Folk Art. She earned her MA in Museum Studies and her PhD in Folklore from Indiana University. As a special focus, her work considers the social, cultural, moral, material, and political dimensions of textiles and dress traditions around the world. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Scandinavia, China, and the United States, and she is editor of the award-winning book Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia, published by Indiana University Press in 2021.

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

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Folk Art Flea Spring Donation Days
Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) Shop Event Featured Event

Folk Art Flea Spring Donation Days

May 10, 2025
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Back Parking Lot

Give your beloved folk art a new home by donating to the fabulous Folk Art Flea.

FOFA is seeking folk art donations of gently used textiles, clothing, ceramics, masks, wood carvings, paintings, sculpture, jewelry, and folk art décor items to be sold at the 2025 Folk Art Flea. If you have folk, tribal, fine art, decorative art, clothing with an ethnic or folk art look, or art books that you are ready to recycle to other art lovers then please join us for our spring donation days.  All folk art donations are tax deductible. Anyone can donate!  If you have friends who are cleaning out, downsizing, or holding an estate sale, please let them know about this special opportunity to make a difference at one of Santa Fe’s most celebrated institutions, the Museum of International Folk Art, by recycling their art items to the Folk Art Flea.

BRING YOUR FOLK ART TO FOFA’S SPRING DONATION DAY

Saturday, May 10, 10 am to 2 pm

Drive to the back of the Museum of International Folk Art parking lot and look for the storage pods.  WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THEN! 

FOFA IS NOW ACCEPTING DONATIONS YEAR-ROUND.

If you are unable to make one of the donation days, call 505.476.1201 to arrange pick-up or drop off information.

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Two Stories About Art and Politics in South Africa
Lectures and Talks Featured Event

Two Stories About Art and Politics in South Africa

May 10, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Joan and Clifford Vernick Auditorium | ASL interpretation provided

Included with Museum Admission | Online link registration forthcoming

Join us for a public talk with Dr. Daniel Magaziner, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor, Department of History, Yale University. Dr. Magaziner will discuss the multiple ways that South African artists addressed Apartheid, ranging from direct political commentary to the continuance of long-standing artistic traditions.

This talk examines two sides of the story of visual culture in 20th century South Africa during Apartheid. Toggling between rural and urban areas, we consider how artists engaged the country’s politics from the 1950s through the 1980s. Some artists offered work that commented on and engaged in the struggle to overturn white supremacy, and some suffered for this, including being forced into exile, censored, imprisoned, or worse. Others turned to art as a means of survival, finding solace in craft and other novel practices, as a means of evading both state violence and Apartheid’s humiliations. Focusing especially on artistic networks in rural and urban KwaZulu-Natal, the talk demonstrates how creators built their own worlds within Apartheid, with their hands, materials, and minds.

This event is presented in conjunction with our current exhibition, Ngqikithi yokuPhica / Weaving Meanings: Telephone Wire Art from South Africa, on display through March 6, 2026.

Daniel Magaziner teaches South African, African, and Global history at Yale University. A specialist in intellectual and cultural history, he has written three books published both in the United States and South Africa: The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968 – 1977 (Ohio University Press / Jacana Media, 2010); The Art of Life in South Africa (Ohio University Press / University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2016); and Available Light: Omar Badsha and the Struggle to Change South Africa (Ohio University Press (2024) / Jacana Media (2025)). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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The Fabulous Folk Art Flea is coming Saturday, June 7, 2025!
Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) Members-only Shop Event Featured Event

The Fabulous Folk Art Flea is coming Saturday, June 7, 2025!

June 7, 2025
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

The fabulous Folk Art Flea is back!  Once again, the much beloved and anticipated Flea will be at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds at 3229 Rodeo Road featuring hundreds of curated folk art pieces from collectors and artists around the world.  The donated art benefits educational programs and exhibitions at the Museum of International Folk Art, through the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, a private nonprofit organization.

Admission is free and members of Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) enjoy early admission to the Flea from 9 to 10 a.m. Public admission is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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

If you would like to become a sponsor of this popular community event and receive special benefits, including early shopping, please click here. Folk Art Flea Sponsors - MNMF  

For questions, please email friendsoffolkart@gmail.com

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FOFA Montreal and Quebec City Tour
Friends of Folk Art (FOFA) Members-only Travel and Tours

FOFA Montreal and Quebec City Tour

September 19, 2025 through September 29, 2025

Offsite

We begin our custom tour in Montréal, the second largest French-speaking city in the world—after Paris. This bilingual, cosmopolitan city was the first in North American to be designated a UNESCO City of Design by the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity. We will have a comprehensive city tour, visit Montréal’s renowned museums, see the Gardens of Light at the Botanical Gardens, visit a folk art studio, experience the international gastronomy of Montréal, and see the AURA Show at Notre Dame Basilica.

Leaving Montréal, we will travel to Québec by motor coach via the Eastern Townships with a stop in Magog to visit the Musée d’Art Naïf and have lunch in picturesque North Hatley.

We will then arrive in Québec, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Old Québec, with its cobblestone streets and well-preserved old-world architecture, is the hub of French Canadian culture and a top foodie destination.

After a comprehensive city tour we will take a short ride to Wendake, home to the Iroquoian-speaking Huron-Wendat Nation. Included is a traditional Indigenous dinner. Just minutes outside of Québec, we will follow the Beaupre coast to the 278’ Montmorency Falls (taller than Niagara Falls). Visits to museums, a behind-the-scenes folk art tour and meeting local artists will be topped off with a local tastes-of-Québec food tour and lunch at the historic Hôtel Château Frontenac.

You must be a current member of Friends of Folk Art or using the membership of a member who is not traveling with us to join. For more information visit: https://canadatrip.eventbrite.com

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

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