President’s Circle Event
Summer Solstice at Forked Lightning Ranch
Date: Sunday, June 23, 5:00-8:00PM
Admission: Free event for members of the Board of Directors, Founders’ Society, President’s Circle, and special guests. Please RSVP to Lindsay Archuleta at archuleta@sarsf.org or 505-954-7231.
Forked Lightning Ranch. Image courtesy of Swan Land Company.
Enjoy an evening at the historic Forked Lightning Ranch, now home to Kimberley and Scott Sheffield. The 2,300-acre ranch, formerly owned by Jane Fonda and Texas oil tycoon Buddy Fogelson and his wife, film actress Greer Garson, is sited magnificently along the Pecos River on ancestral Pueblo land related to the Jemez people. Sip cocktails overlooking the river and limestone cliffs at the River House, featured in 2014 in Architectural Digest, followed by a western style dinner buffet. Hear about the archaeology of the area, as well as the history of the Pecos Pueblo, known as Cicuye. View Estella Loretto’s Deer Dancer and learn more about SAR’s programs for Native American artists and community members. President’s Circle and Founders’ Society members are encouraged to bring up to two guests.
Generously hosted by Kimberley and Scott Sheffield.
This salon has reached capacity.
Concluding the 2018–2019 Creative Thought Forum theme of tradition and innovation, SAR presents our Summer Salons: conversation-style discussions exploring topics of broad social concern with leading experts. Learn more about the Creative Thought Forum which invites participants into a meaningful dialogue with speakers and provides an opportunity for discussions on existing assumptions and evolving perspectives.
Salon Description
Historic Churches as Symbols and the Meanings of Restoration
Author Frank Graziano shares research on the world of New Mexico’s historic stone and adobe churches and the role these structures play in communities today. Based on interpretive ethnographic fieldwork, his work demonstrates how a few committed mayordomos (church caretakers) or entire communities rallying around restoration efforts can influence the future of culturally relevant historic locations.
Frank Graziano is John D. MacArthur Professor of Hispanic Studies, Emeritus, Connecticut College and author of Historic Churches of New Mexico Today.
Free to SAR members with priority registration given at the Chaco level and higher. If you are not a member at this level and would like to join or upgrade membership to participate, please join here. Limited to 25 people.
This salon has reached capacity. For information about future salons or further questions please contact Meredith Davidson 505-954-7223 davidson@sarsf.org.
A field trip for SAR members to churches with Graziano and curator, Robin Gavin, will take place the day following the salon, June 27. Contact Amy Schiffer for more on the trip: schiffer@sarsf.org.
Photo: St. Patrick’s Mission Church, Otero, Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, photo by Frank Graziano
Historic Churches of Northern New Mexico
Church in Northern New Mexico. Photo by Frank Graziano.
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Cost per person:
$215 (Includes a $25 non-refundable tax-deductible donation to SAR)
Field trip limited to 20 people.
To register for this trip click here.
Stone and adobe historic churches are plentiful in New Mexico, but over time many have lost cultural and artistic integrity due to theft, structural changes, or abandonment. Join SAR on a special guided journey to four notable exceptions on the High Road to Taos: The Santuario de Chimayó, which is a major pilgrimage destination; and the village churches in Córdova, Truchas, and Las Trampas, which are rarely seen by non-parishioners.
Our visit to the magnificent interiors of these churches will be guided by author and historian, Frank Graziano and art historian Robin Gavin. With decades of work dedicated to the exploration of these churches and their cultural significance, our guides provide distinct perspectives that will enrich our understanding of these structures.
Built between 1770 and 1832, these buildings represent some of the moist important examples of late New Spain colonial period art and architecture. The structures reflect an era of rapid political and social change following the Bourbon reforms and leading up to Mexican independence. The artwork in particular, produced by some of the most prolific artists of New Mexico’s colonial period, is a masterful blending of Spanish and Native American aesthetic from which emerged a new and quintessentially New Mexican artistic tradition. Participants will have the unique opportunity to explore the history, iconography, and stylistic characteristics of these artworks, the lives of the artists who made them, all within the context of place and community.
Also included on the trip are the San Lorenzo mission at Picurís Pueblo, and the historic areas of the pueblo, which feature a round tower kiva in a spectacular setting. Lunch will take place at Sugar Nymphs Bistro in Peñasco (and might include a piece of carrot cake, if we’re lucky).
San Rafael MIssion Church. Photo by Frank Graziano.
Study Leaders:
Frank Graziano has published numerous books on religious cultures with Oxford University Press, including his newest publication Historic Churches of New Mexico Today (2019). Graziano is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright and Fulbright-Hays programs, the John Carter Brown Library, Duke University, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, among many others. Between 1999 and 2016 he was John D. MacArthur Professor of Hispanic Studies at Connecticut College.
Robin Farwell Gavin is an art historian with a background in Southwest anthropology and archaeology. She received a BA in Anthropology and Art History from Connecticut College and an MA in Art History from the University of New Mexico. She began her career as an archaeologist with the Museum of New Mexico’s Laboratory of Anthropology, working throughout the state. After returning to graduate school at UNM, she focused on Spanish colonial art and subsequently served as curator of Spanish Colonial collections at the Museum of International Folk Art and chief curator for the newly opened Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. She has authored several books and articles, including Converging Streams: Art of the Hispanic and Native American Southwest (2010). Gavin retired from the MoSCA in 2017. She continues to research and write on various topics related to colonial art of the Southwest.
Activity Level: Low-Moderate, involves getting on and off the bus, standing, and a short walk on uneven ground at Picuris Pueblo.
Includes: Transportation in air-conditioned mini coach; water and snacks; lunch at Sugar Nymphs Bistro in Peñasco; guides, entry fees, and gratuities.
In conjunction with this trip, Frank presents in our Summer Salon Series (Wednesday, June 26).
Concluding the 2018–2019 Creative Thought Forum theme of tradition and innovation, SAR presents our Summer Salons: conversation-style discussions exploring topics of broad social concern with leading experts. Learn more about the Creative Thought Forum which invites participants into a meaningful dialogue with speakers and provides an opportunity for discussions on existing assumptions and evolving perspectives.
Salon Description
Where Wind Works: Documenting US and European Wind Turbines and Correlating Changes to the Landscape
Since 2011, photographer Bryan Steiff has tracked developments and uses of energy-generating wind turbines. From small applications and individual residential use to massive commercial wind farms, visualizing the current state of wind-use invites a dialogue around practicality, community impacts, environmental concerns, and political implications of this particular energy source.
Steiff says, “these dramatic symbols of renewable resources and green technology vividly evidence the hand of man on the landscape in a way not seen since the massive World War II infrastructure development in American and rebuilding of post-war Europe.”
Bryan Steiff is a photographer and author. Learn more about his Wind series here.
Free to SAR members with priority registration given at the Chaco level and higher. If you are not a member at this level and would like to join or upgrade membership to participate, please join here. Limited to 25 people.
To register contact Lindsay Archuleta 505-954-7231 archuleta@sarsf.org.
Photo: Detail of Clines Corners, New Mexico (CCT0005) 2015, by Bryan Steiff.
REGISTER FOR THE TALK IN ADVANCE HERE
How a professional Native artist creates a sustainable career is the driving question of Dr. Marilyn Norcini’s economic study of Santa Clara Pueblo artist, Pablita Velarde (1916-2006).
“When you attend the Santa Fe Indian Market, do you ever walk past the booths thinking of the artists as self-employed business men and women? Probably not. And are you aware that the price you paid for the Native basket or pottery is a revenue stream for the artist family’s yearly income – providing a household with money for food, clothing, housing and gas?”
Velarde was a New Deal public artist who transitioned into a professional artist during the second half of the twentieth century. For fifty years, Velarde owned and operated a successful home business in Albuquerque by making and selling her visual and literary works. After a divorce in the late 1950s, Velarde solely supported herself and her two children from her artworks, books and crafts.
Dr. Norcini presents a unique approach to writing an artist biography – by focusing on the practical economic aspects of making a living as a Native artist. Although Pablita modestly dismissed the idea that she was a competent businesswoman, quantitative financial data prove otherwise. Research from diverse primary and secondary sources builds a financial picture of a Native artist’s business practices – a pattern of wholesale and retail sales, marketing strategies, pricing, several product lines, and a signature line of “earth paintings.” With hard work, talent and business savvy, Velarde created a personal “brand” as a full-time, professional Native artist and businesswoman.
The presentation is free and open to the public, advanced registration is encouraged. A reception to meet Dr. Norcini will follow her talk.