New Mexico Artists Around the Kitchen Table
ARTISTIC MENTORSHIP GROUNDS MILLICENT ROGERS MUSEUM EXHIBITION
Supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Challenge grant, New Mexico Artists Around the Kitchen Table (October 14, 2023-January 24, 2024) offers the community an exhibition and program series featuring more than 20 New Mexico artists that grounds artistic mentorship in families and social circles as a sustainable cycle of legacy and stability. Offering a firm foothold in the creative economy, artistic practices are passed on at kitchen tables–whether in a kitchen, in a classroom, in a yard, or at a church. The kitchen table takes form anywhere and everywhere as a meeting place and a place of learning, observation, exchange, and storytelling. It becomes the glue that gives meaning to artistic legacies that emerge from mentorships, friendships, families, and loved ones. 
Part of the Millicent Rogers Museum’s “New Mexico Artists” series begun in 2021, New Mexico Artists Around the Kitchen Table focuses on the ways that intergenerational legacies are both passed on and embarked upon for future generations. At the kitchen table, relationships between community, survival, dialogue, and creativity fuse to sustainably propel local residents into New Mexico’s creative economy through learned arts practices. Through this exhibition, the museum adds to this legacy by facilitating a passing on of these relationships to residents and visitors, with an emphasis on Indigenous and Hispanic perspectives in New Mexico.
Reflecting these relationships, the exhibition’s organization takes its shape around particular family groups and mentorship pairings that demonstrate intergenerational learning in New Mexico communities. These groupings showcase family members working across mediums and mentor-mentee relationships exploring particular materials and categories of artistic practice. Experiencing these artworks in these groupings offers an important opportunity to see how creative mentorship and intergenerational learning yields endless results through each artist’s journey. This process reveals how supportive networks allow artists to find pathways into the creative economy that lead to sustainable careers in arts production–a gift that continues onward.
Artists featured in this exhibition include:
Michael Gorman (Diné/Navajo)Carl (C.N.) Gorman (Diné/Navajo)
Zonnie Gorman (Diné/Navajo)
Christopher Gorman (Diné/Navajo)
Anthony Gorman (Diné/Navajo)
Anita Rodriguez
Shemai Rodriguez
Margarita Paz-Pedro (Santa Clara Pueblo descent/Mexican-American)
Nora Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo)
Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo)
Barbara Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo)
Cavan Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo)
Eric Marcus (Taos Pueblo)
Angie Yazzie (Taos Pueblo)
Mercedes Montoya
Jessica Herrera
Jodie Herrera
Dante Biss-Grayson (Osage)
The exhibition is guest curated by Michelle Lanteri, PhD, Curator of Collections, Albuquerque Museum.
Programs & Events
Roundtable: Sunday, Nov. 5, 2:00-4:00pm,
included with admission, free to Taos County residents
Roundtable 1, 2:00-3:00pm
“La Familia - Enjarradoras Across Generations in Taos”
Anita Rodriguez
Shemai Rodriguez
Roundtable 2, 3:15-4:00pm
“Indigenizing Film & Fashion through Storytelling in Northern New Mexico”
Charine Pilar Gonzales
Dante Biss-Grayson
Roundtable: Sunday, Dec. 17, 2:00-4:00pm,
included with admission, free to Taos County residents
Roundtable 1, 2:00-3:00pm
“Women Supporting Women in Native Arts Mentorship in New Mexico”
Margarita Paz-Pedro
Nora Naranjo Morse
Roundtable 2, 3:15-4:00pm
“A Family of Nuevamejicana Women Artists from Taos Valley”
Mercedes Montoya
Jodie Herrera
Join us for “Around the Kitchen Table Discussions - Session 2,” the second set of artist roundtable presentations as part of New Mexico Artists Around the Kitchen Table, supported by a National Endowment for the Arts grant. This exhibition and program series showcases the ways artistic mentorship in families and social circles ground sustainable cycles of legacy and stability.
Session 2 will feature two sets of presenters:
Roundtable 1, 2:00-3:00pm, “Women Supporting Women in Native Arts Mentorship in New Mexico,” with Margarita Paz-Pedro (Laguna/Santa Clara Pueblos descent) and Nora Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo)
Register for: Roundtable 1 with Margarita Paz-Pedro and Nora Naranjo Morse.
Roundtable 2, 3:15-4:00pm, “A Family of Nuevamejicana Women Artists from Taos Valley,” with Mercedes Montoya and Jodie Herrera. This presentation will be moderated by guest curator Michelle Lanteri and offered in-person at the museum and also via Zoom.
Register for: Roundtable 2 with Mercedes Montoya and Jodie Herrera.
Please note that each roundtable discussion requires a separate registration to attend via Zoom.
Please feel free to share these graphics with the schedules:
