Day at the museums

Sep. 8—As difficult as it might be to believe after Santa Fe's hot summer, the city's average high temperature on the first day of fall — September 23 — is only 61.1 degrees. On the first day of winter — December 21 this year — that number drops to 41.2 degrees.

By fall, the Santa Fe Opera and most theater companies have nearly completed their seasons, leaving concerts and poetry readings as two of the main offerings in town. As people head indoors to learn or be entertained in public, the visitation dynamics change toward museums, many of which offer exhibitions that stretch across multiple seasons.

Following is a look at what's happening among Santa Fe's museums this fall and winter.

SITE SANTA FE

1606 Paseo de Peralta; 505-989-1199; sitesantafe.org

Deborah Roberts: Come walk in my shoes focuses on Black boyhood in the United States. It consists of collages and paintings featuring found images and runs through November 6. Roberts' work also will be featured as part of SITE Santa Fe's Billboard Project.

The lecture The People's Tongue: English in a Divided America, with Ilan Stavans, is September 21. The cost is $10 to $15. It's presented by the School for Advanced Research; visit sarweb.org.

TAKE NOTE: Opening this fall at SITE Santa Fe are and Water, an exhibition of N. Dash's ecologically driven paintings, October 6 through February 5, 2024; Nicholas Galanin: Interference Patterns, which is rooted in the artist's relationship to land, Indigenous visual language, and thought, October 6 through February 5, 2024; and Billie Zangewa: Field of Dreams, featuring collages made of hand-stitched fragments of raw silk, November 17 through February 12, 2024.

CENTER

505-933-9146; visitcenter.org

Center lists its mission as supporting environmentally and socially engaged photography projects. Its major annual event, the Review Santa Fe Photo Symposium, includes a series of private reviews involving photographers and portfolio reviewers spread over two days.

The symposium includes two events open to the public: The Democratic Lens Scholar Lectures series and the Review Santa Fe Portfolio Walk & Photographic Book Fair. The scholar lectures are Photography, Ecology, Democracy with Makeda Best, curator of photography at Harvard Art Museums; and Deep Into What I'm Seeing: Photography and the Making and Unmaking of Black Citizenship with Leigh Raiford, professor of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The lectures are November 19 at the New Mexico History Museum (113 Lincoln Avenue, 505-476-5200; nmhistorymuseum.org).

TAKE NOTE: The free Review Santa Fe Portfolio Walk & Photographic Book Fair, featuring the work of more than 100 photographers and videographers, is November 17 at the Farmers Market Pavilion, 1607 Paseo de Peralta.

CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS

1050 Old Pecos Trail; 505-982-1338; ccasantafe.org

In April, it didn't look like CCA had a future. The nonprofit arts organization's board of directors voted to shut down, citing financial woes. Supporters questioned whether CCA was truly out of options and raised more than $300,000 to help keep the art house theater open. Some employees lost their jobs and weren't brought back when CCA opted to remain open, but it maintains a full slate of offerings.

The final four offerings of its yearlong Closer Looks: Cinema + Conversation series remain. The series consists of a monthly screening of a classic film, followed by analysis. The lineup is Two-Lane Blacktop, 6 p.m. Thursday, September 14; Touki Bouki, 6 p.m. October 12; The Rules of the Game, 6 p.m. November 9; and La Haine, 6 p.m. December 14.

Not all films featuring post-screening discussions are part of the Closer Looks list. The Northern New Mexico Horsemens Association will present The Rider, a film about rodeo riders on a reservation in South Dakota. The screening, at 7 p.m. October 10, will be followed by a panel discussion about the experiences portrayed in the film.

TAKE NOTE: CCA will add screenings periodically this fall and winter; visit ccasantafe.org/events.

IAIA MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY NATIVE ARTS

108 Cathedral Place; 505-983-8900; iaia.edu/mocna

The Stories We Carry has a massive footprint, stretching across almost exactly three years. The exhibition, which runs through September 29, 2025, features contemporary jewelry created by more than 100 Indigenous artists through the decades. Many of the works were created by IAIA students, faculty members, alumni, or artists in residence.

TAKE NOTE: The Art of Jean LaMarr, featuring creations aimed at challenging stereotypes and preconceptions about Indigenous people, runs through January 7, 2024. LaMarr once taught at IAIA. A hardcover book, also titled The Art of Jean LaMarr, is available in the MoCNA museum store.

MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART

706 Camino Lejo; 505-476-1200; internationalfolkart.org

Staff Picks: Favorites from the Collection runs through October 6, 2024. It's the first staff-curated exhibition in the museum's 70-year history. Thirty-four staff members selected their favorite works based on criteria such as their roles in past exhibitions, how much they bring awareness to a topic, personal connections, or the amount of joy they elicit.

Several other exhibitions continue through fall and/or winter: Ghhúunayúkata / To Keep Them Warm: The Alaska Native Parka, running through April 7; Between the Lines: Prison Art & Advocacy, ending November 5; Yōkai: Ghosts & Demons of Japan, also November 5; and La Cartonería Mexicana / The Mexican Art of Paper and Paste, November 3, 2024.

TAKE NOTE: Protection: Adaptation and Resistance focuses on Alaska's Indigenous artists and runs December 3 through April 7, 2024. An opening reception is planned on December 3.

NEW MEXICO HISTORY MUSEUM

113 Lincoln Avenue; 505-476-5200; nmhistorymuseum.org

Solidarity Now! 1968 Poor People's Campaign, part of a Smithsonian Institution traveling show based on a National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibition, delves into the six-week demonstration in Washington, D.C. Land grant activist Reies López Tijerina led a New Mexico delegation to the event, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. The exhibition runs October 14 through January 14, 2024.

A History of Enslaved and Free Black Cowboys in the Southwest, delivered by Ronald W. Davis II, is September 17 and is presented by the School for Advanced Research; visit sarweb.org.

Several exhibitions continue at the museum: EnchantOrama! New Mexico Magazine Celebrates 100, through February 16, 2024; The Santos of New Mexico, through April 3, 2025; Silver and Stones: Collaborations in Southwest Jewelry, through April 1, 2025; Working on the Railroad, through October 18, 2026; and Setting the Standard: The Fred Harvey Company and Its Legacy, through December 31, 2024. Several other exhibitions run through 2030.

TAKE NOTE: Miguel Trujillo and the Pursuit of Native Voting Rights opened August 3 and runs through February 15, 2024. It marks the 75th anniversary of the landmark court case Trujillo vs. Garley, which granted Native New Mexicans the right to vote in U.S. elections.