Events

There’s always something exciting happening at the Museum of International Folk Art! Join us for our many programs listed below.

NM Seniors Free
Family Featured Event

NM Seniors Free

December 7, 2016 through December 27, 2017
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

New Mexico residents age 60 and over are admitted free every Wednesday

New Mexico residents age 60 and over are admitted free every Wednesday

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Artistic Heritage: Syrian Folk Art
Featured Event Exhibition Opening

Artistic Heritage: Syrian Folk Art

June 4, 2017 through May 28, 2018
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

This display is a tribute to Syrian artistry, creative triumphs, and cultural heritage. Featured objects include Syrian clothing dating from the 19th century to mid-20th century, musical instruments, painted and inlaid boxes, traditional cookie molds, coffee pots, contemporary glassworks handmade in Damascus in 2017, and more.

Since 2011, Syria has been plagued by conflict and civil war leading to a current humanitarian crisis. All over the news, we see images of devastated ruins of what were once thriving cities and cultural centers such as Aleppo, Homs, Kobane, and others; images and stories of unfathomable human suffering. But this is not the only side of Syria. Pointing to the country’s artistic traditions and cultural and religious diversity, the Museum of International Folk Art will display and highlight its collection of Syrian folk art in Lloyd’s Treasure Chest.

Lloyd’s Treasure Chest is named for the gallery’s benefactor, the late Lloyd Cotsen, former CEO of the Neutrogena Corporation. In 1995, Cotsen and the Neutrogena Corporation donated the Neutrogena Gallery, Lloyd’s Treasure Chest, a state-of-the-art storage facility, and an important collection of international folk art. Lloyd’s Treasure Chest is an open storage concept gallery that allows visitors to view collections objects that are not on view in the museum’s formal exhibitions. In addition to the gallery being a place where visitors can explore the meaning of folk art, collections items are rotated from storage into thematic displays set in the Treasure Chest.

This thematic display, Artistic Heritage: Syrian Folk Art is presented in collaboration with the New Mexico History Museum their upcoming exhibition, Syria: Cultural Patrimony under Threat, opening June 23, 2017.  June 4 is the first Sunday of the month, admission is free for New Mexico residents;  youth 16 and under and members of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation are always free!

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Film Screening & Talk
Lectures and Talks Featured Event

Film Screening & Talk

October 15, 2017
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Reflections by Joyce Scott on her sister, Judith Scott, the film screening is followed by a book signing.

The Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) will present a public program featuring a film screening and talk about self-taught artist Judith Scott by her sister, Joyce Scott. A book signing for Joyce Scott’s recently released memoir, Entwined, will follow. It will take place Sunday, October 15, 2017, 2:00-3:30pm, in the auditorium of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture on Museum Hill, Santa Fe. The film and talk are by museum admission.

Judith Scott (1943-2005) is a celebrated self-taught artist who discovered her voice through art after decades of being institutionalized. Born with Down syndrome and profound deafness, Judith was separated from her twin sister, Joyce, and sent to an institution when she was 7 years old. She remained institutionalized and isolated for more than 30 years, until her sister gained legal custody of her in the 1980s and brought her home. Introduced to the art classes offered by the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California, Judith Scott began a prolific period of creating wrapped-yarn sculptures that have brought her great acclaim. Her work was recently the subject of a traveling exhibition organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art and she was included in the 2017 Venice Biennale. Judith Scott’s work is in numerous prestigious museum collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland; American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore; and the American Folk Art Museum, New York.

The October 15 public program will include a screening of Betsy Bayha’s documentary Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott (2006), followed by a talk by Joyce Scott about her sister and her work, as well as the sisters’ journey of love, loss, and finding a shared language through art. Joyce Scott will then sign copies of her recent memoir, Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott (Beacon Press, 2016), which will be available for sale.

Discounted and discarded herself by society, Judith Scott found her inspiration amid objects themselves broken and abandoned. Salvaged, wrapped and woven, they are entwined into mysterious forms of great beauty—truly straw turned into gold. –About Entwined, www.judithandjoycescott.com

Event details:

An afternoon with Joyce Scott, on the life and art of self-taught artist Judith Scott Film screening of Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott, by Betsy Bayha Talk by Joyce Scott, reading from her recently released memoir, Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott (Beacon Press, 2016) Sunday, October 15, 2:00-3:30pm Museum of Indian Arts & Culture’s Kathryn O’Keeffe Auditorium, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe.  By museum admission. First Sunday of each month free for New Mexico residents with ID. Children under 16 and Museum of New Mexico Foundation members always free.

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