by Maria Manuela on
1 Catch an arts panel.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., artists, activists, and lawyers gather at the Albuquerque Museum to speak about the mass incarceration of immigrants in New Mexico and the rest of the country. “This is literally happening in our backyard, with detention facilities in our state,” says Elizabeth Becker, curator of education at the Albuquerque Museum.
The conversation centers on the installation, Detention Nation, part of the museum’s retrospective exhibition Delilah Montoya: Activating Chicana Resistance. The immersive piece recreates an ICE detention cell and includes cyanotype prints of detainees. The discussion features artists Delilah Montoya and Deyadira Arellano, and Teague Gonzáles of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
“This is a deeper dive into the roles of artists and activists as collaborators,” Becker says. “It highlights—in the work of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and the work in the exhibit—the power of storytelling. This is a personal story, these are humans. They are not just numbers that you see.” The panel is included with museum admission, allowing visitors to see the work and then hear from the artists who created it about their inspirations. Seating is limited, and there will be a simultaneous Spanish translation of the conversation.
2 Attend a film festival.
The inaugural Taos Film Festival features a lineup of international films curated by arts organizations including the Taos Abstract Artists Collective (TAAC), Paseo Project, and the Taos Center for the Arts. “It’s been a wonderfully collaborative experience,” says Lauren Dana Smith, a founder at TAAC. “From the beginning, we wanted to curate an experimental shorts program.”
That program, titled exLab, features two parts: a sound and video installation at Atelier 111, and a more traditional screening of 15 films curated from more than 70 submissions. “We are very much about the abstract process, and so many things are possible when we bring in the new media,” says Smith.
Short films can be anything under 30 minutes, but most of the movies in exLab run between five and 12 minutes. Smith says classifying the films as “experimental” allows the filmmakers to create with boundless imagination. “We are interested in the poetics of filmmaking,” she explains. “A lot of these films are trying something completely new, and it defies typical classification and is still provocative and engaging.”
In addition to the screenings and installations, the Taos Film Festival includes Q&As with filmmakers, pop-up parties, and innovative ways to watch movies, such as a 20th-anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine with the soundtrack played live by the group DeVotchKa. Most of the movies play at the Taos Center for the Arts, Wildflower Playhouse, and the Harwood Museum of Art.
3 Catch the last dance.
This weekend, the final Gathering of Nations brings Indigenous groups from tribes throughout the country to Expo New Mexico. One of the largest powwows in the world, the event includes a vibrant flurry of cultural dances, a horse parade, rodeo, arts vendors at the trader’s market, and more. Happening annually for 42 years, the gathering will be missed by many next year, as it has become one of the most beloved Native cultural events in the country.
4 Boogie at a Las Cruces festival.
The fourth annual ¡Mira! festival comes to downtown Las Cruces on Friday and Saturday, offering live music, local food, drone shows, dance performances, chalk art, and lucha libre matches. Singer-songwriter Annie Bosko headlines with two performances of her unique Nashville-meets-California sound on Saturday. Lorena Lozano, director of marketing at Visit Las Cruces, explains that the spring fiesta aims to give visitors a taste of everything Las Cruces has to offer in one family-friendly weekend. “Our purpose is to showcase Las Cruces, and what it’s all about,” she says. “We have art, music, food, and local organizations with interactive elements. It’s a great celebration.”
5 Experience lowrider culture.
Cruising and lowrider culture are deeply embedded in New Mexican life, and they get the spotlight they deserve when the exhibition Corazón y Vida: Lowrider Culture in the United States pulls up to the Farmington Museum. The traveling show is informed by Smithsonian research on this homegrown scene, and includes a selection of photographs, iconography, and prints capturing the spirit of lowriders and their drivers. On Saturday from noon to 8 p.m., a celebratory Park & Chill car show takes over the museum’s parking lot with cars, DJs, food vendors, and live entertainment, marking the opening of the special exhibition. Throughout its time at the museum, the show will be enhanced by a series of events, including a panel discussion featuring women lowriders, a skateboard-decorating workshop, and a Sharpie graffiti class. The exhibition runs through July 26.
For more things to do, check out our online calendar of events.