Current Exhibitions

Ghhúunayúkata / To Keep Them Warm: The Alaska Native Parka

May 21, 2023 - April 7, 2024

Ghhúunayúkata / To Keep Them Warm explores the art of the parka, a garment made for survival in the harsh environments where Alaska Native peoples live and thrive.

Between the Lines: Prison Art & Advocacy | A Community Conversation

March 31, 2023 - November 5, 2023

Along with exploring exhibition themes, aesthetics, materials and artists, visitors will have the opportunity to provide their input in this initial iteration of the upcoming exhibition Between the Lines: Prison Art and Advocacy.  This six-month exhibition will ask visitors to reflect on individual pieces and installation themes through a series of prompts, talk back boards and a dialogue lounge, while offering opportunities for community members to share their personal stories related to the show.

A series of community dialogues is also planned for the space, which in concert with visitor input, will help inform the final exhibition set to open in the Cotsen Gallery in 2024.

Purse, artists unknown, 2018-2020, Cibola County Correction Center, Milan, New Mexico. Made from chewing gum wrappers. MOIFA Collection, gift of Santa Fe Dreamers Project.

This purse was made by an asylum-seeking transgender artist, for wear in a prisoner-organized fashion show inside this ICE detention center.

La Cartonería Mexicana / The Mexican Art of Paper and Paste

January 29, 2023 - November 3, 2024

Mexican cartonería is an artform that expresses human imagination, emotion, and tradition using the simple materials of paper and paste to create a diverse array of subjects such as piñatas, dolls, Day of the Dead skeletons, and fantastical animals called alebrijes.  The first exhibition to focus exclusively on a Mexican folk art tradition in many years, La Cartonería Mexicana showcases more than 100 historic sculptures from the Museum of International Folk Art’s Permanent Collection, many of which have never been displayed.   

The exhibition takes place in our Hispanic Heritage Wing, one of the few museum wings in the United States which devotes space to display the art and heritage of Hispanic and Latino culture.

Yōkai: Ghosts & Demons of Japan

December 8, 2019 - November 5, 2023

Vivid in Japanese art and imagination are creatures that are at once ghastly and comical. Yōkai is a catchall word that generally refers to demons, ghosts, shapeshifters, and “strange” and supernatural beings. Yōkai  are prevalent in Japanese popular and expressive culture; you find them in manga (comics), anime (animation), and character-based games such as Pokémon (“pocket monster”).

Multiple Visions: A Common Bond

Permanent Exhibit
On long-term display

Multiple Visions: A Common Bond has been the destination for well over a million first-time and repeat visitors to the Museum of International Folk Art. First, second, third, or countless times around, we find our gaze drawn by different objects, different scenes. With more than 10,000 objects to see, this exhibition continues to enchant museum visitors, staff and patrons. Explore highlights from the GIRARD WING.

Lloyd’s Treasure Chest: Folk Art in Focus

On long-term display

Lloyds’s Treasure Chest: Folk Art in Focus is a participatory gallery that encourages the exploration of folk art and contemplation of what is meant by “folk art.” Temporary, thematic displays are drawn from, and highlight the museum’s permanent collection of folk art, which is the museum’s “treasure.”