Welcoming Back the Campus Community: Explore UNMAM’s Fall 2024 Offerings
As the University of New Mexico Art Museum (UNMAM) reopens its doors for the new academic year, we warmly welcome the campus community to reconnect with us through exhibitions, events, and student engagement opportunities. Throughout this semester, we are excited to collaborate with new partners to facilitate interdisciplinary learning and expand UNMAM’s role within the University.
Starting Tuesday, August 20, UNMAM will resume the following public hours through December 7, 2024:
Tuesday – Thursday, 10AM – 5PM
Friday & Saturday, 10AM – 6PM
Open late for shows in Popejoy Hall
We invite you to join us for an opening reception on Friday, August 23, presented in partnership with UNM’s College of Fine Arts Dean’s Office. From 4:00 – 7:00 PM, we’ll be celebrating both new and returning exhibitions with food catered by Fresko Mediterranean Fusion, a pop-up by Basement Films, and a performance by musician Hedia. We look forward to welcoming you back to the UNM Art Museum.
All three floors of the UNM Art Museum will be open for the duration of the Fall semester.
In the Main and Van Deren Coke Galleries, we are presenting the final iteration of the Hindsight Insight series. Created and curated by museum staff and collaborators, Hindsight Insight 5.0 features artwork by five contemporary artists affiliated with the University of New Mexico and a nineteenth century album of microscopic photographs of the natural world from the museum’s collection. While previous iterations of the exhibition series have displayed dozens of artworks from the collection, the final installment demonstrates that a single historical object can inspire individual artists as well as an entire exhibition.
Hindsight Insight 5.0 concludes the multiyear exhibition series by imagining the galleries as a laboratory, demonstrating how research and experimentation are put into action through projects at the intersection of art and science. The exhibition is organized into two sections.
The Main Gallery features a group exhibition by artists Fiona Bell, Kaitlin Bryson, Amy Pilling, and Andrea Polli, all of whom engage with biomaterials and sustainable practices. These artists are also members of the UNM community, bringing their expertise from UNM’s Art & Ecology Program, Center for Advanced Research Computing, and the Hand & Machine Lab in the Department of Computer Science. Throughout the semester, students in Kaitlin Bryson’s class Art & Ecology/Material Practice will contribute their own artwork to the exhibition.
In the adjacent Van Deren Coke Gallery, Notes on Care: Photographs by Rachel Cox features photographs by artist and UNM alum Rachel Cox from the series Portrait of a Woman. This highly personal body of work chronicles the artist’s experience accessing fertility treatment to start a family. We are pleased to share that Rachel Cox will present an artist talk on October 24 at the UNM Art Museum.
Pelton & Jonson: The Transcendent 1930s continues in the Raymond Jonson Gallery. It is a privilege to honor the legacies of painters Agnes Pelton and Raymond Jonson for the run of this exhibition. You can further explore Jonson’s legacy in the Raymond Jonson Web Portal.
Print in Action: Lithography and the Modern World will remain on view through October 5 in the Clinton Adams Gallery. The Adams Gallery will temporarily close for the installation of Graphic Art and Revolution: Latin American Political Posters 1968–2000, which will open on November 8, 2024. Graphic Art and Revolution is a collaborative exhibition developed by UNMAM with the Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII) and the Center for Southwest Research. It unites works from two major collections at the University—the UNM Art Museum and Sam L. Slick Collection of Latin American and Iberian Posters at the Center for Southwest Research—and includes contributions by past and present Latin American Studies faculty and students.
We are preparing to publish a very full events calendar – including artist talks, live performances, symposia and art making workshops. More details will be coming soon, but we encourage you to mark the following dates on your calendar:
Opening Reception, August 23, from 4:00 – 7:00 PM, presented in partnership with UNM’s College of Fine Arts Dean’s Office. Featuring catering by Fresko Mediterranean Fusion and a film pop-up by Basement Films. Join us for opening remarks at 4:45 PM, followed by a performance from Hedia from 5:30 – 6:30 PM.
Elderflora, a performance by Majel Connery, hosted at ArtsLab on October 18, from 5:30 – 6:30 PM.
Notes on Care artist talk with Rachel Cox on October 24, from 5:00 – 6:00 PM at the UNM Art Museum.
Graphic Art and Revolution: Latin American Political Posters 1968–2000 opening reception and symposium on November 8, from 5:00 – 6:30 PM at the UNM Art Museum. Presented in collaboration with UNM’s Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII) and the Center for Southwest Research.
We are also excited to announce that we will be a venue for UNM’s Research & Discovery Week from November 8 – 15, showcasing the excellence and diversity of UNM’s research community. In addition to the Graphic Art and Revolution symposium on November 8, we are also preparing a BioArt symposium to explore the intersections of art and science.
Throughout the semester, we encourage you to return to our events calendar to learn more.
This semester UNMAM SAC will create a second zine that responds to Hindsight Insight 5.0, exploring topics relating to BioArt and the intersections of art, science, and technology. Each student will take on a creative research project rooted in multidisciplinary learning. Throughout the Fall, students will learn the process of creative research, publishing, copyediting, design, and marketing.
Additionally, students in SAC will also explore ethical uses of artificial intelligence through a custom built ChatGPT model named BAA (BioArtAssistant.) Over the summer, Joseph McKee, Coordinator of Student Engagement & Technology, developed and trained BAA on a range of topics related to BioArt and Hindsight Insight 5.0. BAA has been specifically designed to assist students in developing their research projects and is intended to be used as a research assistant and collaborator.
To start the 2024 – 2025 academic year, UNMAM is welcoming new student employee hires to our Museum Assistant Program. We are also looking forward to welcoming back our returning students, many of whom have been traveling, visiting home, and working other jobs over the summer. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming our student employees during your next visit!
We are committed to offering students professional development and mentorship opportunities as well as access to the largest collection of artworks in New Mexico. As a member of the UNMAM Museum Assistant Program, student employees work alongside professional museum staff to deliver a positive and informed visitor experience while furthering their knowledge of UNMAM’s collections and exhibitions, learning new skills and supporting the daily operations of an art museum.
We are excited to share that UNMAM will be a part of the Fall curriculum through courses taught by our staff.
In the Department of Art, Curator of Collections & Study Room Initiatives Angel Jiang will teach Abstraction on Paper: Curating American Postwar Prints and Drawings. Taking place at UNMAM, this course provides students an opportunity to work closely with the museum’s permanent collection, gain knowledge of Postwar American art, and contribute to an exhibition scheduled for Spring 2025. The class will examine the graphic art of artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Richard Diebenkorn, and provide hands-on experience developing an exhibition on this material. We are grateful to the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation for their gift of 15 Frankenthaler prints and a grant of $25,000 which will support this class and the upcoming exhibition.
“This is the first time in my eight-year tenure as Director that UNMAM has developed an original course that directly connects our collection and staff expertise to enhance UNM students’ education,” said Director Arif Khan. “I applaud Curator Angel Jiang for her vision in developing this course and commitment to expanding student engagement at the UNM Art Museum.”
In the Arts Leadership & Business Program, Associate Director of Operations Devin E. Geraci will teach Leadership for Creatives, a course that is also available to students in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Museum Studies programs. Emphasizing effective leadership in the arts and cultural sectors, this course provides students the opportunity to understand and improve their own leadership potential. Students will examine leadership concepts and practices such as the nature of leadership, recognizing leadership traits, developing leadership skills, handling conflict and addressing ethics.
“As a graduate student, I took Leadership for Creatives with Regina Chavez Puccetti, a mentor throughout my Master’s programs and the former Director of UNM’s Arts Leadership & Business program. That course was instrumental in shaping my leadership skills,” said Associate Director Devin Geraci. “This Fall, I’m excited to guide students as they explore and develop their own leadership potential within the arts and cultural sectors.”
Press Contact:
Devin E. Geraci, Associate Director of Operations
(505) 277-6773 / dgeraci@unm.edu