SFR Picks—Week of Nov 3

Night at the Museum

IAIA’s BFA senior show is back, and whoa boy is it good stuff

Every spring and every fall, a handful of students from the Institute of American Indian Arts put on a senior showcase at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art (kind a big deal, considering MoCNA was recently ranked as one of the best museums in the country—take that, fancy East coasters). This means twice every year, we’re reminded about the absurd talent IAIA pushes out on the regular, and this fall’s BFA show, We Went Wild, reflects artists’ urge to get back into the swing of normal creation.

“This is a show of the expression of genuine feelings and emotions,” student curator Jaime Herrell tells SFR. “It’s about overcoming [the past 18 months] and producing, getting to make the viewer feel something new. They are working wildly, together.”

Herrell explains she titled the show We Went Wild to encapsulate interconnected artists covering pandemic challenges in their lives, especially the emotional and spiritual aspects.

“Students vary from around the country’s Indigenous communities, from the pueblos here in the Southwest to the Great Northern Plains, while two students hail from Japan and Peru. The Peruvian artist, Suni Sonqo Vizcarra Wood (Quechua Nation) has a bronze statue that’s almost eight feet tall: a phoenix-like piece of a woman emerging out of her former self,” Herrell says.

The show also includes work from Chelsea Bighorn (Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux/Shoshone-Paiute), who hand cuts paper and mounts it between sheets of plexiglass, where light and shadow become a major aspect, as well as Jazmin Novick (Diné), who presents bronze -animal sculptures—and that’s just to name a few.

“It’s a show you shouldn’t miss if you want to familiarize yourself in contemporary work,” Herrell concludes. “You can come see the new blood in these Indigenous arts.” (Riley Gardner)

We Went Wild: All day Friday, Nov. 5. $5-$10. IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Place, (505) 988-6211

“Who riseth from a feast?”

If you’re wishing for a world wherein you can participate in the Thanksgiving origins discourse without having your day ruined by Twitter, you’re in luck—such a world exists at the Santa Fe Playhouse. The Thanksgiving Play follows four white-passing adults with a noble goal: to put on a politically-correct play for elementary school students about the first Thanksgiving. Despite good intentions (and accompanying grant money) things go from hilariously bad to hilariously worse. Larissa FastHorse’s (Sicangu Lakota Nation) satirical comedy looks at “wokeness” in educational culture and how not listening to Native voices is kind of a bad thing, actually. (RG)

The Thanksgiving Play: 7:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 4-Saturday, Nov. 6 and 2 pm Sunday, Nov. 7. $15-$25. Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E De Vargas St., (505) 988-4262

String Theory

Maybe you’ve been looking out at the dying leaves of fall and wondering why on Earth you haven’t been able to hear a live rendition of Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C Major or Tchaikovsky’s Serenade in C Major. Maybe the YouTube playlists aren’t cutting it any more? Wasn’t classical music made for autumn, anyway? Well, give thanks to Santa Fe Pro Musica and its members who are currently saving our autumnal desires from destruction. Sit back for a few hours at the Lensic and let yourself feel a little sweater-weather fancy. Bonus points if the power of classical music takes you over an emotional edge and tears start to form. We won’t blame you. (RG)

Fall Orchestra Concert: 7 pm Sat, Nov. 6 and 3 pm Sunday, Nov. 7. $12-$85. Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., (505) 988-1234

We like to MOVE it MOVE it

We know the feeling: the body is just begging for expressive movement, but you’re stuck in a psychological rigidity. You feel this, right? Well, the MOVE Lab knows these feels, too, and has your back. Explore your own individual or group movements in a dance workshop, like a pre-performance dance party—and if you don’t wanna move and just wanna see the dancers do their thing, you can attend the New Mexico Dance Project’s show at 6:30 pm. If all this sounds a little hippy-esqe, don’t fret: Project promises a space with any and all kinds of expressions. In other words, it’s called fun—that thing you used to have. (RG)

THE MOVE LAB: A Community Movement Experience: 6 pm, Sunday, Nov. 7. $18-$24. SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta. (505) 989-1199