SFR Picks—Week of April 17

Planetary Celebrations

Santa Fe embraces Earth Day

After the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill in California resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of wild animals, environmental protection became a rallying cry for many in the United States. A year later, on April 22, the first Earth Day event was held, grown from Wisconsin Governor turned US Sen. Gaylord Nelson’s teach-in talks for discussing environmental issues.

This year’s Earth Day comes with the theme Planet vs. Plastics and, as per usual, Santa Fe offers numerous events for the environmentally conscious, such as an animal meet-and-greet with the New Mexico Wildlife Center Ambassador Program; lessons in aquaponics and beekeeping at St. John’s College; a rain garden demo and speakers in Arroyo Hondo; live music, arts and crafts activities and art installations at Railyard Park; and a walk-through/nature sketching session at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. You can also play with clay at Meow Wolf with nonprofit outfit Paseo Pottery; hear poetry at Evoke Contemporary; or delve into the history of the sacred La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs at a guided hike and community clean-up. The Santa Fe Symphony even presents an environmentally-themed musical performance in partnership with WildEarth Guardians at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and the Santa Fe Indigenous Center invites the Native community to make birdseed ornaments, learn more about recycling and receive plant starter kits and fresh veggies.

Whatever you choose to do, remember the Earth. We’ve only got one. (Mo Charnot)

Native Earth Day: 10 am-2 pm Friday, April 19. Free. Santa Fe Indigenous Center, 1420 Cerrillos Road, (505) 660-4210

Earth Day Clay: 5:30 pm Friday, April 19. Free. Meow Wolf, 1352 Rufina Circle, (505) 395-6369

Santa fe County 2024 Earth Day Event: 9am-noon Saturday, April 20 . Free. Arroyo Hondo Fire Station #1 21 Steon Village Road, (505) 986-6200

Earth Day 2024: 10 am-2 pm Saturday, April 20. Free. Railyard Park, 740 Cerrillos Road, (505) 316-3596

Earth Day at St. John’s College: 3:30 pm Saturday, April 20. Free. St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, (505) 984-6000

Earth Day Poetry Reading: 4 pm Saturday, April 20. Free. EVOKE Contemporary, 550 S Guadalupe St., (505) 995-9902

The Santa Fe Symphony: Oceana: 4 pm Sunday, April 21. $25-$92. Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234

Earth Day in Nature: 12-3:30 pm Monday, April 22. Free. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 217 Johnson St., (505) 946-1000

The Four Tides

From living with the Oglala Sioux people of South Dakota to moving to Florence, Italy, at 23 to study art then working as a fisherman in Alaska—all before moving to Santa Fe in 1969—painter Sam Scott is not only an established local artist, but a passionate seafaring type. “When I was 12 years old,” he tells SFR, “I was determined that I wanted to intimately know the great ecosystems.” Scott pulls from those lessons for his forthcoming Deep Nature exhibit of abstracts and watercolors opening at Pie Projects this week. More specifically, the collection of ocean-inspired works are inspired by Scott’s time in Port Aransas, off the coast of Corpus Christi, Texas, where, he says, he would take his sailboat out to become one with the four tides. (Adam Ferguson)

Sam Scott: Deep Nature opening: 5-7 pm Friday, April 19. Free. Pie Projects, 924 Shoofly St. Ste. B, (505) 372-7681

Stone-Cold Awesome

Though numerous photogs have shot in Peru, something about the stone shrines known as huacas called to photographer Edward Ranney after he graduated college in 1964. “I traveled a bit in Latin America when I was in college, then applied for a Fulbright Scholarship and was granted one,” Ranney tells SFR. “That’s when I started to photograph seriously.” Ranney would make several more trips during the ‘70s to photograph the huacas, and those shots comprise his newest photo book, The Huacas: Rock Shrines and Ritual Landscapes of the Incas. OK, but if the photos are from the 1970s, why release them now? “During the pandemic I spent time studying parts of my archive,” Ranney explains, “and I found there were a lot of negatives that had not been published.” Ranney joins writer Lucy R. Lippard and photographer/curator Toby Jurovics at SITE Santa Fe this week for a free-wheeling discussion on the book, the arts, photography et al. You can even buy Ranney’s newest book while you’re there. (Alex De Vore)

Edward Ranney discussion: 2:30-3:30 pm Saturday, April 20. Free. SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, (505) 989-1199

King GEORGE

Santa Fe venue Paradiso has certainly proven a friend to the weirdo jazz aficionados out there (look to recent shows with musicians like Carolina Mama/Brian Haas for proof), and will fully stay in the swing of things when GEORGE comes to town. To be fair, genrefying GEORGE is a bit of a challenge. Certainly there are foundational jazz elements and some of the mathiest time signatures to ever hit a stage, but with subtler elements of synth pop, funk and even punk, this is the type of band to turn even the staunchest of jazz haters into its strongest defenders. Even better, those who recall the days when local arts collective High Mayhem hosted regular shows might recognize drummer John Hollenbeck from the band Claudia, and they absolutely ruled each and every time they came to town. To summarize, folks in need of a good old-fashioned horizon expansion need look no further; everyone else who already loves nerdy jazz might feel like they’ve just won the lottery. (ADV)

GEORGE: 8 pm Monday, April 22. $10-$20. Paradiso, 903 Early St., (505) 577-5248