The City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department’s Community Gallery is presenting three public programs as part of the current gallery exhibit, “Neon & Chrome: The Visual Vocabulary of Route 66.” This exhibit illuminates the history and visual vocabulary of Route 66 in New Mexico.
All events will take place at the Community Gallery at 201 West Marcy Street, inside the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, and are free to the public.
Drop In and Hang with Willie Lambert
Saturday, October 22, 2022 – 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Are you interested in the well-known and less-travelled paths Route 66 takes through New Mexico? Do you enjoy the stories maps can tell? Come by to flip through Mr. Lambert’s extensive library of self-published binders – an encyclopedic and beautiful result of 18 years of research about driving along Route 66 in New Mexico. Mr. Lambert’s ongoing passion has been to document and understand the different Route 66 alignments in New Mexico. His goal is to learn more about the Mother Road by sharing his work of nearly 500 hand drawn maps, as well as his collection of over 1000 New Mexico Route 66 postcards which compliment his personal documentation of Route 66 from the past to the present day.
Hidden Voices of Route 66 with Dr. David Dunaway
Wednesday, November 16, 2022 – 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Route 66 is more than a nostalgic look back on the “good old days” – it is a living and dynamic road where the ghosts of the past mingle with new international visitors and where the stories of women and diverse groups are finally emerging. Dr. David Dunaway has recorded these stories and will present about some of them, including: accounts from the founder of Route 66’s revival in Arizona; an elder of the Hualapai tribe who talks about Route 66’s own Trail of Tears; an African-American community member who shares about how their family gave land for the route itself but now cannot be buried in a segregated cemetery; and another community member who describes meeting his first tourist via Route 66. All these stories are intrinsic to and celebrate Route 66’s truly multicultural history. For a quarter-century Dr. David Dunaway has recorded oral histories along the Mother Road for NPR and in his own national radio series, "Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story." He has also shared these histories in his memoir, his anthology, "A Route 66 Companion", and as co-editor of the first bibliography of Route 66, as well as with the National Park Service.
Inside Lowrider Culture and its Legacy in New Mexico with Sin Vargas, Casey Montoya and Carlos Munoz
Wednesday, December 7, 2022, 5:00 p.m.to 7:00 p.m.
Join the founding members of the New Mexico Lowrider and Arte Culture (NMLAC) organization for a presentation on their efforts to promote and foster the Arte of Lowriders. NMLAC was created to preserve lowrider culture through community education, public events, and technical training. The NMLAC was originally started to showcase New Mexico's best lowrider painters, lowriders builders, photographers, and hydraulic installers. They strive to keep Lowrider culture alive and flourishing by producing numerous lowrider-oriented events such as car shows, cruises, charity events, and much more. NMLAC’s YouTube channel is dedicated to the Arte of Building Lowriders and explores the artistic processes that go into building them, as well as biographies of everyone involved in the building of the featured lowriders.
The “Neon & Chrome” exhibit will be open through December 2022. For more information, contact Rod Lambert, Arts and Culture Department Assistant Director, at: 505-955-6707 or rdlambert@santafenm.gov
The City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department is part of the City of Santa Fe municipal government and provides leadership by and for City government in support of the arts and cultural affairs. The Arts and Culture Department also recommends programs and policies that develop, sustain, and promote artistic excellence in the community.