"It's an opportunity to really highlight the skills and knowledge of people working at IAIA and here," Museum of Contemporary Native Arts interim curator Candice Hopkins says about the Brown Bag It series, wherein attendees get a chance to go behind the scenes of the cultural institution's exhibitions and programming.
On Wednesday, Lara M Evans, associate professor of art history in the museum studies department at the Institute of American Indian Arts, will do just that, revolving around War Department, MoCNA's latest exhibit unveiling Jan. 24. It parts from the concept of examining and showcasing war depictions in contemporary Native American art.
"What [Evans] was interested in with this exhibition, was the fact that many of the works in the show actually span 500 years of conflict—starting from the Spanish Pueblo Conquest, World War II, the Vietnam War, Wounded Knee, as well as the...Mohawk Oka Crisis," Hopkins says, "and I think what she was interested in as well, was the lasting impacts of war and civil unrest."
Something, Hopkins explains, is not so much decided by government officials, but how those stories are told and "how war and conflict have impacted Native peoples' everyday life.
Noon-1 pm Wednesday, Nov. 5. Free
IAIA MoCNA
108 Cathedral Place,
983-8900
Santa Fe Reporter