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El Palacio: The art, history, and culture of the Southwest

03/07/2025

When is the last time you stopped everything to gaze at the sky? Contemplating the movement of the stars, moon, and clouds, or paying attention to the birds or the wind, can help connect us to the life happening above our heads. At Museum of Indian Arts and Culture the new exhibition “Makowa: The Worlds Above Us,” tells the centuries long stories of Native Astronomy from celestial pictographs and the alignment of architecture at Chaco Canyon to contemporary art, science, and storytelling that continues among Pueblos and tribes in the Southwest. In this episode of Encounter Culture, Makowa consultants Misha Pipe (Diné) and Kaela Waldstein speak with host Emily Withnall about their connection to the sky and the knowledge and insights they contributed to the exhibition. Listen at podcast.nmculture.org or on your favorite podcast app.

This is our final episode of Season 8, but be sure to follow us so that you can catch up on episodes you missed and so that you don’t miss Season 9 when it launches this fall. Thanks for listening!

17/06/2025

Change of venue alert: The El Palacio reading on Sunday will take place at the ‘s Wells Fargo Theater (not the Salón Ortega as previously advertised). Hope to see you there!

16/06/2025

Please join us for El Palacio’s summer reading panel! For the first time we’ll be in Albuquerque for the readings and Q&A: Sunday, June 22 at 2 pm at the Wells Fargo Theater at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. The readings will dive into the history of Buffalo Soldiers in New Mexico, Indigenous astronomy, and trans artist Chris E. Vargas’s ideas about the expansive possibilities in documenting q***r history.

11/06/2025

On the surface, the picture books Navajo author Daniel Vandever has written are magical tales of imagination and adventure. But readers who spend a little more time with the books will discover many layers to his stories, including cultural references, Indigenous history, and more. No matter what your age, “Fall in Line, Holden!,” “Herizon,” and “We Weave” offer readers beautiful illustrations, engrossing stories, and the opportunity to engage with history in an approachable and age-appropriate way. Join Encounter Culture host Emily Withnall in her conversation with Daniel Vandever about the power of imagination, Federal Indian Boarding Schools, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, wordless picture books, literacy, and more! Please follow us on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode!

02/06/2025

The summer issue has arrived and should be landing in mailboxes this week! The issue is full of insightful articles about Native astronomy, the woman who dressed as a man to join the Buffalo Soldiers, a profile of trans artist Chris E. Vargas, and a profile of artist Janet Stein Romero (check out the retrospective exhibition of her work at the United World College-USA Kluge Auditorium in Montezuma, NM from June 7 to July 7), among other intriguing articles. Not a Foundation member or direct subscriber? Remedy that at elpalacio.org/subscribe/.

29/05/2025

Did you know the region of New Mexico used to be on the equator and was mostly covered in warm, shallow seas? Or that six-foot millipedes used to traverse the once-tropical landscape near Española? The stories captured in the state’s 541-million-year geological record can be mind boggling but for paleontologist Dr. Spencer Lucas and curator Matt Celeskey at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, telling these stories of ancient life in New Mexico presents a fun challenge. In the museum’s new Bradbury Stamm Construction Hall of Ancient Life, a vast exhibition space reveals the plants, animals, multiple mass extinctions, and shifting geography and climate in the state long before dinosaurs showed up. To hear about how these stories get told—and what we still don’t know!—join Lucas, Celeskey, and host Emily Withnall on this new episode of Encounter Culture. Listen on any podcast app or at podcast.nmculture.org.

16/05/2025

Have you ever met someone working in a job or field and wondered how they learned about the opportunity or what path they took to get there? While paths to careers in the arts can be varied, some programs like New Mexico Highlands University's Media Arts and Technology department support students to explore a wide range of arts careers and give them hands-on experience that prepares them for success after graduation. In New Mexico, keeping local students in state to support arts and culture is a vital way to keep our history and traditions alive. In this episode of Encounter Culture Lauren Addario and Becca Sharp talk about their department’s Program for Interactive Technology and the wide range of exhibitions students at NMHU have designed—including at many of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs's New Mexico Historic Sites!

Listen at podcast.nmculture.org or anywhere you get your podcasts.

30/04/2025

Whether you’re a cowboy boot aficionado or know relatively little about this legendary footwear, join us on this new episode of Encounter Culture where guests Deana McGuffin and Jes Márquez share their passion for boot making and talk about the essential support they received from New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. Do you have a skill you want to learn or pass down? Since 1989 the program has facilitated the flourishing of a vast array of folk arts and traditions from around the state.

Link in comments or find and follow the podcast on any podcast app!

17/04/2025

El Palacio magazine and the Encounter Culture podcast recently received six awards from New Mexico Women Press. First place awards went to editor Emily Withnall for editing and to Cara Romero for her photograph, “Sand & Stone.” These first place awards now head to the national contest with the National Federation of Press Women.

Second place was awarded to writer Leah Romero for her article “From Disability to AgrAbility,” to podcast producer Andrea Klunder and podcast host Emily Withnall for the Encounter Culture podcast, and to art director David Rohr and editor Emily Withnall for editing of the Fall 2024 issue of El Palacio.

A third place award went to writer for her article, “Returning Home: Two Sovereign Nations Reclaim Land Following U.S. Government Extraction, Removal, and Displacement.”

Find all of these award-winning articles and podcast episodes in the link in our bio!

16/04/2025

We’re launching Season 8 of Encounter Culture with a fabulous conversation about La Virgen de Guadalupe. Artist Delilah Montoya talks about the many ways Guadalupe has been interpreted and represented and about the process she used to capture the image central to her multimedia piece, “La Guadalupana.” And if you want to see it, you still have time! It’s on view at ‘s Vladem Contemporary through May 18. Listen to this episode on any podcast app or through the link in our bio. And please remember to follow us so you don’t miss an episode.

01/04/2025

The New Mexico Office of the Governor has authorized that all state offices close at 4:15 p.m., on April 1, 2025, due to deteriorating driving conditions, reduced visibility on the roadways, and road closures throughout the state. This includes all museums and historic sites.

18/03/2025

The New Mexico Office of the Governor has authorized that all state offices close at 4 p.m., on March 18, 2025, due to deteriorating driving conditions, reduced visibility on the roadways, and road closures throughout the state. Essential workers must remain in service during this inclement weather condition unless otherwise approved by an agency head. Please drive safe.

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Art, History & Culture of the Southwest

El Palacio is the oldest museum magazine of its kind, first published in 1913 by the Museum of New Mexico. This state museum system was created by an act of the territorial legislature in 1909, three years before New Mexico became a state (January 6, 1912). It was established in the Palace of the Governors with the School of American Archaeology (later the School of American Research) alongside the already existing Historical Society of New Mexico. El Palacio (“the palace”) magazine was first published in November 1913—its name refers to the Museum of New Mexico’s first home.

The Museum of New Mexico was eventually reorganized under the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), which was established in April 2003 after Governor Bill Richardson signed legislation elevating the Office of Cultural Affairs to Cabinet-level status.

In the words of one writer, El Palacio “has appeared over the years in numerous manifestations, from its beginning as a thin pamphlet in the teens to a journal that grew from the ‘50s through the ‘80s to a glossy magazine with color art and (gasp!) advertising in the 1990s. These different personalities often reflected the various stewards of the publication”¹

Under DCA’s stewardship, the magazine continues to cover the art, culture, and history of the Southwest as reflected in the exhibits, public programs, and scholarship of the department’s four Santa Fe museums—Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum, Museum of International Folk Art, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, and New Mexico Museum of Art; its six State Monuments—Coronado, Jemez, Fort Selden, Lincoln, Fort Sumner, and El Camino Real International Heritage Center; and the Office of Archaeological Studies, which collects and shares information about prehistoric and historic sites across the state.