Students from Dr. Mariana Sabino Salazar’s Latin American Film: New Millenium Identities visit the Beaumont Newhall Study Room at the UNM Art Museum.

In the Spring of 2024, students enrolled in Latin American Film: New Millenium Identities (LTAM/FDMA/AMST 1996), taught by Dr. Mariana Sabino Salazar, collaborated with Dr. Angel Jiang, the UNM Art Museum Curator of Collections and Study Room Initiatives, on a project-based learning course that resulted in the museum’s newest exhibition, Graphic Art and Revolution: Latin American Posters 1968-2000, on view at the UNM Art Museum until May 2025. 

Project-based learning—a form of experiential learning—is a pedagogical approach in which students learn by doing, discussing, and developing a sense of social responsibility. Dr. Sabino’s course was designed for students to learn while actively engaging with real-world issues: how can we increase New Mexicans’ awareness of Latin America’s history and cultural diversity? And how can we question pan-Latin American stereotypes?  

At the beginning of the semester students were presented with two potential exhibition topics and voted to pursue the topic now on display, they then began the process of selecting objects for the exhibition. Dr. Jiang and Dr. Margie Montañez, Latin American Collections Curator at the CSWR, drew from the collections at UNMAM and the Sam L. Slick Collection of Latin American and Iberian Posters to guide the students’ selections. Students then visited the Center for Southwest Research and the Beaumont Newhall Study Room several times to view the objects.  

For their final project, each student delivered written and oral presentations for two objects to be included in the exhibition, focusing on their historical significance, visual strategies, audience, and symbolism. As part of their presentations, they created posters developed during a two-day InDesign workshop with Dayna Diamond at the Adobe Creative Commons in Zimmerman Library. On March 5, students presented their posters to Angel Jiang and Joseph McKee, UNMAM Coordinator of Student Engagement and Technology. The project’s objective was to provide students with professional skills that included image analysis, collaboration with cultural institutions, software literacy, and effective presentation competencies with audiences beyond the instructional setting. 

View the posters created by students in Latin American Film: New Millenium Identities below. Images used in the posters come from both the UNMAM and CSWR collections.  

Students also reflected on their experiences at the UNM Art Museum saying and CSWR saying:

“Being able to see the actual objects from revolutionary movements in history was something I wasn’t expecting this semester. I think this class overall was so much more hands-on than others. When we actually are able to go to these places and see the things we are learning about, it makes the class so much more special. The art museum was probably my favorite. I enjoyed seeing the posters and I am already interested in art and especially political art. I also think it helped me understand what we were doing more efficiently once I saw examples and learned about them and curators as well.”

Maya Chavez, Senior, Department of American Studies

“I really liked the archive. Seeing the posters in person added so much, and it was crazy to have history at your fingertips like that. It offered a much more ground level view of these struggles and movements that can get glossed over easily. As an artist and someone who appreciates working with physical graphic material like that was super cool and inspiring. … It’s new to me to have class experience that overlaps with people’s actual jobs, and makes the class feel more relevant when many classes feel like busy work.”

Tao West, Sophomore, Department of American Studies

“During our class time in the archive, library, and art museum I learned a number of valuable skills applicable beyond this class. Additionally, learning about the archives enabled me to use the resources available to me at UNM to further my education. After learning how to access the archive, I was able to independently visit the archive, look through materials, and find a unique poster to propose for inclusion of our co-curated exhibit. These skills will undoubtedly contribute to my professionalization. First, they gave me experience working in highly professional academic spaces and gave me the tools necessary to navigate them. Second, these experiences better taught me how to engage with professionals, learn from professional feedback, and showed me the importance of producing professional quality work.”

Constance Youngman, Junior, Department of Political Science

Over the summer, Drs. Jiang and Sabino made the final selection for the checklist of objects to be included in the exhibition and completed didactics written from the museum’s institutional voice. Alejandra Rodriguez, UNMAM Museum Assistant and Curatorial Assistant, contributed additional research and writing.  

Drs. Jiang and Sabino developed a larger exhibition workflow with plans for students in the Fall 2024 Latin American Studies classes to engage with the exhibition through a series of research and writing projects. As a result, students enrolled in Kathryn McKnight’s Fall 2024 Latin American Film: New Millenium Identities (LTAM/FDMA/AMST 1996) contributed additional interpretative labels for the objects in the exhibition. Graphic Art and Revolution will be on view in the Clinton Adams Gallery from November 2024 – May 2025.