Newsletter of the New Mexico Humanities Council Spring/Summer 2009 “If the landscape gave birth to American And while Ghost Ranch is one vehicle to help better understand New Mexicans’ identity, the West reaffirmed that existence.” attachment to place (and therefore get us closer to answering the RFP’s questions about “identity”) When we read that sentence in NMHC’s Mexico Press in July 2009. NMHC has we also know that if our project succeeds it request for proposals addressing the topic, contributed meaningfully to an important will be because so many visitors will leave the “What Does It Mean to Be a New Mexican?”, project, and we, in turn, will help further the exhibition thinking about their own deeply we immediately saw that our project was a council’s intent to explore “What it means to personal attachments to place. In short, our perfect fit. be a New Mexican.” exhibition’s educational promise is in uncovering In helping develop and deliver the multitude of personal narratives about special “Ghost Ranch and the Faraway places that provoke, inspire, and enlighten. Nearby,” we are working with a Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby, the variety of humanities scholars, exhibition, will be presented at the Albuquerque artists, curators, and cultural Museum of Art and History from July 12 practitioners (for instance, through September 28, 2009, with the first Albuquerque Museum’s director, public slide-illustrated lecture on Sunday July 12 Cathy Wright and educational at 1 pm. The second presentation will be Friday curator, Elizabeth Becker have been July 17 at 6 pm at the new auditorium at the New key to developing the educational Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, with three components of the exhibition). other presentations to be scheduled around New But it’s a slippery thing, Mexico. The exhibition will continue to travel to defining a “sense of place,” and even venues across New Mexico through 2010. tougher determining how that definition can be communicated via Chimney Rock and the red hills of Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM by Craig Varjabedia. © 2006 (Article courtesy of Ghost Ranch Project Staff) the camera’s lens. Of course using A generous humanities grant to The Ghost Ranch as a focus aids this work, because Ghost Ranch Project has given life to our goals historically so many people have held such of exploring how Ghost Ranch (a celebrated powerful attachments to the ranch and have Inside This Issue icon of New Mexico, the American West, articulated these connections so beautifully. and even readily identifiable in international Still, we recognize that “sense of place” is art circles) is a perfect starting place to intertwined among many different cultures 2 From the Director explore the importance of “place” in forging in New Mexico. “La querencia” is an old a New Mexican identity. The Ghost Ranch New Mexican Spanish term for place of the 4 Museum on Main Street Project will present the work of celebrated heart or homeland. For poet, author and photographer Craig Varjabedian: a 75 print teacher V.B. Price, of Albuquerque, it is “the exhibition along with interpretive text at the place that is a part of you, body and soul.” 6 National History Day in NM Albuquerque Museum of Art and History in Enrique Lamadrid, linguist and associate July of this year. In addition, Craig will deliver professor of Spanish at the University of 7 Picturing America five slide-illustrated lecture and discussion New Mexico, defines it as “an immutable programs across our state. The exhibition is attachment to a place and everything about titled “Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby,” it.” Native Americans speak in terms of “center 8 NMHC Chautauqua evoking one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s famous place,” rather than emotional attachment to a works from the same setting. specific place. Center place is more symbolic 10 NMHC Grants Awarded The exhibition’s images spark the and spiritual than physical; there is no need opportunity to awaken memory, enhance to describe a relationship with the land in recognition, and stimulate dialogue. And for a culture where people see no distinction 13 Board and Staff News audiences unused to considering their own between themselves and the Earth, says roles in creating a New Mexican identity, Rina Swentzell, author, cultural consultant, 15 Newsworthy this exhibit will allow them a convenient and architectural historian, and member of the stirring starting point. In conjunction with the Tewa-speaking Santa Clara Pueblo. Of course exhibition and public discussions, a book of this phenomenon of sense of place is palpably the photographs along with several interpretive found here in New Mexico, and, we believe, NMHC receives funding from the Federal/State Partnership essays, Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby, is articulated beautifully by looking closely at of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the will be published by the University of New Ghost Ranch. NM Department of Cultural Affairs. A Message From The Director The State’s Centennial: “A Potluck Supper and a No Host Bar” and the NMHC Response As the Santa Fe New the NMHC Board of Directors has been very proactive in Mexican reported a couple providing support for Centennial projects and activities. of years ago, the lack of state Choosing to move ahead rather than waiting on state support for New Mexico’s government to turn its attention to this seminal point in our 100th anniversary of statehood state’s history, the NMHC Board is now in its third year of will result in “a potluck supper funding New Mexico Centennial projects. with a no-host bar.” After over five years of planning, Back in November of 2007, the NMHC Board of the Centennial Steering Directors voted to fund the Centennial Online Atlas of Committee, of which I am a Historic New Mexico Maps. The NMHC has contracted with member, has seen its planning 1UFFAKIND, a web development company, to develop and efforts go virtually unfunded. implement an online companion for the Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps by Dr. Peter Eidenbach of NMSU-Alamogordo. Recent legislative sessions have resulted in very little The companion book is scheduled for publication by the support for the Centennial of New Mexico Statehood. In University of New Mexico Press in 2009. This project will be mid February of 2008, Governor Richardson signed House hosted on the NMHC internet site: www.nmhum.org and is Bill 2 which included a $100,000 appropriation to the New scheduled to be completed and online by August 1, 2009. Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) “for planning and implementation of centennial activities.” Of this amount, TheCentennial Online Atlas was recently tested in January $50,000 was made available to support Centennial projects of 2009 by a focus group composed of UNM faculty and while the remaining funds were dedicated to a Centennial students, the webmaster for the New Mexico Department web site and a part time position within the DCA to assist of Cultural Affairs, and representatives from the Palace of with the ongoing planning efforts. The NMHC contracted the Governors and the Southwestern Association for Indian with the DCA to create a request for proposals (RFP), a grant Arts. The focus group pulled, viewed and interacted with application, and rating criterion. The NMHC publicized the most of the 20 historic maps of New Mexico included in Dr. RFP, established a deadline, and received 22 applications for Eidenbach’s manuscript, spanning from the late sixteenth the first deadline. Of this number, 13 applications were funded century to the early twentieth century. The intent was to to organizations statewide for Centennial projects. explore how this project can be used by libraries, schools, and every New Mexican who wants to understand how historical During the recent Legislative Session, Representative Don forces and events are mapped on the state’s terrain. Ratings Tripp introduced House Memorial 124, which encourages of usability for the site ranged from “very easy” to “moderately state, local, and tribal governments to collaborate with the easy,” with positive comments received about the clean design, Centennial Task Force to create centennial projects. While beautiful photographs, and historic excerpts included in the House memorials are unfunded, Representative Tripp also was site. This interactive site, employing a Google Maps platform, successful in adding $400,000 to HB2 for Centennial activities, was designed with educators in mind. It includes the creation but the language in the bill was changed to split this amount of four sets of curricular material from four historic maps between Santa Fe’s 400th Anniversary and New Mexico’s 100th with six lessons per set. Please look for an article in the next Anniversary of Statehood. The split has resulted in $350,000 Humanities Newsletter that will announce the launch of the going to Santa Fe’s 400th and $50,000 to the Centennial of Centennial Online Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps. Statehood. This latest redirecting of Centennial funds to Santa Fe is more than a frustration after five years spent Adding to the ongoing Centennial Online Atlas project, attending planning meetings to position the State of New the NMHC Board approved, at its March 2009 meeting in El Mexico to take a leadership role. Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, two more council conducted projects for the centennial of New Mexico’s statehood. While the State of New Mexico The first project is the creation and installation of a major continues to struggle with planning exhibition entitled, Celebrating New Mexico Art: From Ancient and funding for the Centennial, to Modern. This major exhibition application was submitted to 2 www.nmhum.org Spring/Summer 2009 New Mexico Humanities Council The State’s Centennial: Board of Directors “A Potluck Supper and a No Host Bar” and the NMHC Response Dr.