Current Exhibitions

Wooden Menagerie on Parade: Pop-up Exhibit

MOIFA celebrates the popular Desfile de los Ninos/Pet Parade
August 29, 2024 - September 12, 2024

This year is the 100th anniversary of Zozobra. To celebrate, MOIFA will present two pop-up displays related to two of the most popular aspects of Santa Fe Fiestas, along with hands-on art making for all ages programs.  

“Wooden Menagerie on Parade” is MOIFA’s nod to the popular Fiesta event Desfile de los Niños/Pet Parade. For only 15 days, a selection of 42 carved and painted animals—all from MOIFA’s collections—will take up residence in the museum’s auditorium, forming a procession leading up to the stage. Many of these New Mexico animals are part of the Hispano tradition that was the focus of our popular 2014 exhibition Wooden Menagerie. Included in the animal parade will be a Felipe Archuleta giraffe, which was recently conserved and is currently the subject of a series of social media posts following her convalescence after years of suffering from a broken neck. The dates of MOIFA’s animal parade are August 29 to September 12, 2024. 

Also on Display “Lounging with Zozobra,” a vignette of three works highlighting Zozobra, will be on view August 20 to September 22, 2024.

Lounging with Zozobra: Pop-up Exhibit

A vignette of works highlighting Zozobra’s 100th anniversary
August 20, 2024 - September 22, 2024

This year is the 100th anniversary of Zozobra, a favorite Santa Fe tradition featuring a multistory effigy/marionette that is burned each year to purge the community’s glooms. To celebrate the occasion, MOIFA will present two pop-up displays related to two of the most popular aspects of Santa Fe Fiestas, along with hands-on all-ages art programs.  

“Lounging with Zozobra,” a vignette of three works highlighting Zozobra imagery, will be on view August 20 to September 22, 2024. It also includes an orginal 1920s “Quisicosa” head by Will Shuster. In Spanish, quisicosa is an enigma or conundrum, and this large-scale, quirky head is certainly enigmatic. It is one of four that MOIFA acquired in 1985 as a gift from the Santa Fe Fiesta Council. These heads were worn as part of certain Fiesta activities until 1984, when new ones were created.  

 Also on display “Wooden Menagerie on Parade” is MOIFA’s nod to the popular Santa Fe Fiesta event Desfile de los Niños, also know popularly as the Pet Parade. For only 15 days, August 29 to September 12, 2024, a selection of 42 carved and painted animals—all from MOIFA’s collections—will take up residence in the museum’s auditorium. 

Between the Lines: Prison Art & Advocacy

August 11, 2024 - September 2, 2025

Between the Lines: Prison Art and Advocacy seeks to rehumanize the incarcerated through a dynamic blend of in-gallery artworks, interviews with returned citizens and allies, artmaking demonstrations, and community-co-created events, this exhibition explores human rights, recidivism, systemic oppression, rehabilitation and community empowerment.

Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine

June 23, 2024 - April 20, 2025

Amidst Cries from the Rubble delves into the heart of Ukraine’s struggle. Featuring more than sixty works, including large-scale photographs and evocative objects collected from the war-torn landscapes and communities of Ukraine, this exhibition follows the journey of a nation grappling with the daily trauma of death and destruction. Appropriating tools of war—shell casings, missile fragments, ammunition boxes—Ukrainians breathe new life into the remnants of conflict, infusing them with the spirit of human creativity.

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.

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.