Arts and Culture - Mountainair Dispatch

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Arts and Culture

A collection of 15 posts

Stargazing at Abó: Night Sky Program Illuminates the Past and Present

Stargazing at Abó: Night Sky Program Illuminates the Past and Present

While the town of Mountainair gathered under gymnasium lights on the evening of Friday, May 23, 2025, to celebrate the graduation of the Mountainair High School Class of 2025, a quieter, more contemplative gathering took place a few miles west, under a different kind of illumination. At the Abó unit

30 Years of Cibola Arts

Arts and Culture

30 Years of Cibola Arts

Scenes from today’s 30th anniversary celebration at Cibola Arts Gallery, hosted by gallery owners Ray and Elaine Darnell, and attended by artists - and art aficionados - from throughout New Mexico. Update April 28, 2025: Anne Ravenstone advised that Cibola Arts Gallery is a co-op owned by member artists,

Exhibition Opening - David Schwindt: West of the 100th Meridian and Beyond

Arts and Culture

Exhibition Opening - David Schwindt: West of the 100th Meridian and Beyond

David Schwindt is a seasoned landscape painter whose work reflects a lifelong connection to the American Southwest. Raised in the Four Corners region, he has spent decades exploring and painting the terrain that shaped him—from the mesas of Colorado to the canyons of Arizona and the open skies of

New Exhibit Explores Lincoln County’s Role in the Atomic Age and the Legacy of the Trinity Test

New Exhibit Explores Lincoln County’s Role in the Atomic Age and the Legacy of the Trinity Test

Carrizozo, N.M. — The Carrizozo Heritage Museum will shed light on the lasting impact of the first atomic bomb test on nearby Lincoln County and its residents, with a new exhibit opening this spring. “Atomic Dawn: Lincoln County, Trinity, and the Bomb” will debut on March 22, 2025, and is

The Blue Nun's Story

The Blue Nun's Story

The story of Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda, OIC, born María de Coronel y de Arana in 1602, begins in Ágreda, in the Northwestern portion of Spain known as Castilla y León. Like New Mexico, the region is arid and mountainous, with a steep canyon, Hoz de Llánaves, that

A cow’s eye peering out from behind the metal slats of a trailer

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Arts and Culture

Steer and Heifer Tag-In

2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Arts and Culture

2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Advertise with the Dispatch: If you are considering advertising with the Mountainair Dispatch, please get in touch with me at todd@mountainairdispatch.com or 719-496-1660. I can help with graphics and copywriting. Consider sponsoring free public access to a month's worth of news. It's a cheap

Mountainair Christmas Parade and Luminaria Art Show

Arts and Culture

Mountainair Christmas Parade and Luminaria Art Show

Last week’s bitter cold contributed motivation to those attending the Mountainair Christmas Parade on Thursday, December 21, 2023, to hustle over to the Dr. Saul Community Center for hot chocolate and respite from the cold. There, visitors were greeted with a table (run by Anne Ravenstone) where children could

MMAC November Music Series: Composers of Mountainair

MMAC November Music Series: Composers of Mountainair

MMAC is hosting three composers who will perform their works across November. Here’s the details.

Opening Portals with Artist Elijah Nieto

Arts and Culture

Opening Portals with Artist Elijah Nieto

The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind. — E.B. White Elijah Nieto, an emerging contemporary artist, was in Mountainair for his first gallery exhibition at La Galeria at the Shaffer, which opened on June 2, 2023. Nieto sat

Paint in the Park

Arts and Culture

Paint in the Park

Wendy Ahl was the last painter to be working at the Abó unit of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument on Saturday, May 6, 2023. Ahl was part of a cadre of ten painters that the National Monument had opened its doors to as part of the Mountainair-Plein Air Collaboration

New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp stands at a microphone, reading from an open book of poetry.

Arts and Culture

Poet Laureate and Other Writers Share Their Work at MMAC

An event which showed the impact of poetry on young writers, while sharing the reflections of a few older writers, as well.

Arts and Culture

MMAC Speaker Series Ends, Upcoming Performance and Exhibition Planned

On Saturday, February 18, 2023, the Manzano Mountain Arts Council (MMAC) ended its February Speaker Series with a talk by Gloria Lovato Zamora on New Mexico Land Grants. Zamora’s talk discussed the land grants in a wide-ranging fashion that included personal history, the work of Oglala Lakota Activist Russell

On the left is a woman speaking behind a microphone; on the right is a woman seated with a ukulele.

Arts and Culture

From Mountainair Mud

At the Manzano Mountain Arts Council (MMAC), Sidney Smart and Davine Torres presented Mountainair in Story and Song. Smart’s stories covered the history of Mountainair going back to the Cambrian Era, when Torrance County was the shallow sea floor over which swam trilobites and nautili. The presentation by Smart

Mountainair Christmas Tree Lit

On Sunday, December 11, 2022, Mountainair held its Christmas Tree Lighting.

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