The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces pays tribute to women making a difference in New Mexico agriculture with a rotating wall display in the central corridor.

The exhibit is called “Her Land: Women in Agriculture” and the new featured exemplar is 21-year-old Sophia Moreno of La Union, N.M.

Sophia grew up on a small, family farm along with her parents, Fred and Sharon, and younger sisters Monique and Nadette. They raise mostly meat, milk, and fiber-producing livestock, as well as horses. Sophia has served as both the Southern New Mexico Fair Rodeo Queen and Miss Rodeo New Mexico Teen.

An ambassador for the sport of rodeo, Sophia and her sisters also participated in 4-H, including horse shows, barrel races, ranch riding events, shooting sports, horse judging, wildlife, hippology, and parliamentary procedure. She received a horse judging scholarship to Clarendon, College in Clarendon, Texas. She is currently in the Ranch and Feedlot Operations program there and will earn an Associates Degree in Animal Science.

Sophia’s plans include becoming a veterinarian specializing in equine and bovine reproduction. She also wants to have a family, which she hopes to raise on her own ranch someday, passing along the skills, knowledge, and traditions that she gained through the first chapter of her life.

The exhibit will be changed about every six months to feature a different woman involved in New Mexico agriculture.

“Museums typically focus on the stories of our ancestors and their incredible accomplishments,” said Museum Executive Director Heather Reed. “We often forget to look around to see that history is unfolding right in front of us within our communities and our state. Her Land spotlights the amazing feats and contributions of modern-day women and showcases the young women working on the future of agriculture. This ongoing project will rotate every few months and will allow us to record history in real time for generations to come.”

The first person featured in the exhibit was Felicia Thal, a longtime rancher in northeastern New Mexico who passed away last year at the age of 92.

575-522-4100. www.frhm.org

Event Description: The gallery will feature two local artists of the month of August: Kurt Van Wagner and Mary Zawacki. Stop by and take a look at a unique contrast, with one artist engaging in digital art and the other using oils and pastels. 

Event Address/location: Mesilla Valley Fine Arts Gallery, 2470-A Calle de Guadalupe, Mesilla, New Mexico

Event Times: 10am – 5pm

Admission: Free

Event Phone Number: 575-522-2933

Event Website: www.mesillavalleyfinearts.com

Pray for Rain by Carissa Samaniego Mullennix Bridge Gallery, University Art Museum – June 10-September 2, 2022

The NMSU Art Museum is pleased to present Carissa Samaniego: Pray for Rain in the Mullennix Bridge Gallery at the University Art Museum (UAM) at New Mexico State University (NMSU), June 10–September 2, 2022.

Pray for Rain is an exhibition featuring recent works by Carissa Samaniego, who will join the NMSU Department of Art as visiting professor of sculpture in the fall of 2022. The selections are from three of the artist’s ongoing projects: the Querencia textile series, Block Pattern Halo drawings, and Americaña research. Through experimentation with varied materials and alternate methodologies, Samaniego explores the cultural histories and socio-political issues of life in the Rio Grande Valley.

Event Address/location: NMSU Art Museum 1308 E University Ave, Las Cruces, NM 88001

Event Times: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm. (Closed on Holidays)

Admission: $0 Free

Event Phone Number: 575-646-2545

Event Website: uam.nmsu.edu

The artist will lead a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m. on September 2.

The Branigan Cultural Center is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition, Symbols of New Mexico: A Personal Experience, which features artwork by artist Victoria Chick. Through a series of ten, large-scale paintings, Chick explores New Mexico’s open spaces, diverse plants and animals, and brilliant sunshine. Symbols of New Mexico is on view July 29—September 24, 2022.

Even after seventeen years living in New Mexico, Victoria Chick considers herself a newcomer, which she believes allows her to see with fresh eyes the landscapes, animals, and plants that are symbols of New Mexico. Chick enjoys these uniquely New Mexican characteristics and incorporates them into her large, colorful paintings. Her use of a cat motif within her artwork makes note of the role her pet cats have in drawing her attention to small elements in nature that she might have overlooked.

Victoria Chick is a painter and printmaker who is an active art collector. She has served as an instructor of life drawing, painting, and art history at several colleges. Her artwork is found in galleries and museums across several states. Currently, Chick is actively involved in working for the establishment of the Southwest Regional Museum of Art and Art Center in Silver City, New Mexico.

The museum is located at 501 N. Main St. and is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. There is no admission charge. The museum is accessible from RoadRUNNER Transit Route 1 Stop 1. For additional information, visit the website at https://www.las-cruces.org/Museums or call (575)541-2154.

Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main St., is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition, “Illumination: Crows and Ravens,” which features artwork by artist Catherine Eaton Skinner.

Fourteen, large-scale encaustic paintings of these beautiful, intriguing, and intelligent birds will be on view from July 1, 2022, through Sept. 24, 2022.

Crows and ravens have been embraced as significant messenger birds in a wide variety of cultures across the world and throughout time. They are known as speakers from the underworld, guardians of souls, and tricksters who test human resolve.

Recent scientific experiments on crows and ravens show that they have an amazing capacity for spatial memory, social interaction, and tool use. Skinner embraces all these characteristics as she portrays them in her artwork.

Catherine Eaton Skinner is an artist who combined her background in science with her passion for art and spent 20 years doing biological illustrations. She has since become a multidisciplinary artist, embracing a diverse range of methods including encaustic painting, oil painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, and found objects.

Skinner has presented in more than 40 solo exhibitions, domestic and international, and has been included in numerous group museum and gallery exhibitions.

Skinner divides her time between Santa Fe, NM, and her hometown Seattle, WA.

The Branigan Cultural Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. There is no admission charge.

The Branigan Cultural Center is accessible via RoadRUNNER Transit Route 1, Stop 1. For information, visit the Museum System website at https://www.las-cruces.org/1523/Museums or call 575/541-2154.

FEE: Free. No fee for program, park entrance fees apply.
LOCATION: Meet near the sunset stroll sign parking area, a 5-mile (8.05 km) drive from the fee station.

Days: Every week on Sunday, Friday, and Saturday

Dates: August 14th – September 10, 2022

Time: 6:30 PM
Duration: 1 hour

The Sunset Stroll is ranger-guided stroll through the gypsum sand dunes. It is a splendid opportunity to experience the dunes first-hand while learning about the uniqueness of our geology, plants, and animals. As an added bonus, the stroll is timed to end at sunset, providing a panoramic view of the sun setting over the mountains and the potential for some breath-taking photographic opportunities.

Contact White Sands National Park at 575-479-6124.

https://www.nps.gov/whsa/planyourvisit/calendar.htm

To encourage walking and enjoying the historic buildings in Downtown Las Cruces, the City’s Community Development Department has begun conducting “Heart and History” walking tours on the first and third Friday of every month.

The walking tours are from noon to 12:40 p.m. on those Fridays. The tours will depart the west side of City Hall at 12:10 p.m.

In June, July and August walks will be from 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. to avoid the heat of the day.

There is no cost to participate in any of the walks, and the public is always welcome. But individuals in the public will need to sign a release waiver before joining.

From the west side of City Hall, the tours will travel a route that will go north to Albert Johnson Park, cross west across north Main Street and then south on Main Street to Amador Avenue. The tour will then head west for a short distance on Amador before turning north onto Water Street.

The tour will then conclude by going east on Griggs Avenue and then north on Church Street before returning to the west side of City Hall.

Eight stops along the tour will include the tile mosaics and murals at Albert Johnson Park, at the southeast corner of Main Street and Picacho Avenue; the former Mama B’s building at the southwest corner of Main Street and Picacho Avenue; the Branigan Cultural Center, 601 N. Main St.; the Rio Grande Theatre, 211 N. Main St.; the Amador Hotel, 180 W. Amador Ave.; the former Doña Ana County Courthouse, 251 W. Lohman Ave.; Plaza Las Cruces, 100 N. Main St., which was the former site of the historic Hotel Rouault before it was demolished in 1971; and, finally, the Doña Ana County Municipal Courts Building, 135 E. Griggs Ave., which also served for years as Las Cruces’ main post office.

For information, contact Robert Messenger, Active Transportation Planner, by calling 575/528-3209 or by email at rmessenger@las-cruces.org