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New Mexico Stories Highlights Colcha History and Devotional Art
The Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum is continuing its New Mexico Stories series this October with two presentations exploring important pieces of New Mexico’s artistic and cultural history.
Carson Colchas: Legacy, Legitimacy, and Invention
Thursday, October 29 | 4:15–5:30 p.m.
Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum | 750 Camino Lejo
Folklorist, ethnographer, and art historian Suzanne MacAulay will present Carson Colchas: Legacy, Legitimacy, and Invention, a program examining the remarkable history of Carson colcha embroidery.
MacAulay’s book, Stitching Rites, played an important role in research for the museum’s current exhibition, The Carson Phenomenon: A Colcha Cottage Industry. As the exhibition prepares to close at the end of October, MacAulay will share stories from her research and explain how an unexpected confidential report helped uncover new details about the history of Carson colcha.
MacAulay is Professor Emerita and former chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Her work as a folklorist, ethnographer, and art historian has focused particularly on the revitalization of traditional arts and Spanish Colonial colcha embroidery.
Her book Stitching Rites was the first comprehensive academic study of colcha embroidery and Hispanic art revitalization. She also co-authored Cultural Performance: Ethnographic Approaches to Performance Studies.
In 2019, MacAulay successfully nominated San Luis Valley folk artist Josephine Lobato for a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. She has also served as a consultant for Colorado Creative Industries’ Folk and Traditional Arts grants program and was recently appointed a Research Associate at the Museum of International Folk Art.
History of Conservation and Restoration of New Mexican Devotional Art
Thursday, October 15 | 4:15–5:30 p.m.
Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum | 750 Camino Lejo
Earlier in the month, New Mexican artist, conservator, and santero Gustavo Victor Goler will present a program examining the history of conservation and restoration of New Mexican devotional art.
Goler’s presentation will explore some of the earliest efforts to preserve altars in New Mexico churches and institutions, along with the people who helped establish the field and those continuing the work today.
The program will also examine the history of overpainting santos and how modern conservators approach cleaning and removing those later layers. Goler will discuss the intentional burning of areas on bultos and retablos, as well as discoveries involving the materials traditionally used to create and preserve New Mexican religious artwork and historic buildings.
Goler will also draw from his work at significant historic sites throughout New Mexico, including Las Trampas, as it marks its 250th year.
Together, the two October programs offer a closer look at the artists, traditions, research, and preservation efforts that continue to tell the story of New Mexico’s distinctive cultural heritage.
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