In an effort to bring communities together, the UNM Art Museum is hosting an educational workshop designed for families to explore the flora of the Southwest through art.
“Lobo Studio Family Workshop: Exploring and Recording Nature” is a collaboration with a current exhibit at the University museum which showcases the horticultural sketches of Edward Skeats, a scientist and amateur artist who worked in New Mexico during the late 19th century.
Traci Quinn, a curator of education and public programs for UNM’s art museum, currently strives to facilitate collaboration among different departments. It also creates holistic learning opportunities within the museum space.
“I have been doing family art workshops since I started working at the UNM Art Museum back in 2015,” Quinn said. “It is something that I have done at every museum for which I have worked. It is a great way to get families engaged with art, art practices, local artists and the museum. Getting families into the gallery and setting the stage for them to make art together is a rewarding part of my job. Everyone — parents and children — enjoy their time looking at and making art.”
Edward Skeats, whose drawings are the basis of the workshop, is one of countless artists who has traveled from faraway lands to capture the intuitive beauty here in the Southwest.
“Skeats was, a chemist, a geologist, and an engineer and was an amateur artist who recorded much of the plant life near what is now Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the late 19th and very early years of the 20th centuries,” Quinn said. “Skeats was born in England and came to southern New Mexico in 1890. C.B. Eddy, for whom Eddy County is named, asked him to help find water wells in the area. The botanical drawings he created while he lived in southern New Mexico are wide-ranging.”
Along with creating drawings of their own, participants will also have the opportunity to go outside and discover botanical specimens to draw as well as discuss. It’s not certain what participants will find, but it will be an educational experience that utilizes art to learn more about the nativity of plants as well as local plant life in general, she said.
“I think using nature as a springboard for art projects is a great way to get people talking about their local environments (and) the importance of understanding, documenting and protecting the land that surrounds and sustains us,” Quinn said.
The event is a great opportunity for the community of Albuquerque to familiarize itself with the land which has so definitively defined what it means to live and have cultural heritage in New Mexico and to just have fun, she said.
No artistic skill is required, and those interested can sign up with family or friends and be prepared to stop, look and listen to what the land surrounding them has to say, she said.
The event is scheduled for this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will be held at the UNM Art Museum in Popejoy Hall. Space is limited — interested participants are encouraged to contact Quinn directly at tmquinn@unm.edu to make reservations.
Manuel Chavez is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
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