Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/22095
BY PATRICIA ANN JORDAN FromLos AngelesTo NewMexico:TheGrammy; The Las Cruces; Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum” marvelous one. Mine has been good,with some snags. As always, I amhappy to be alive. Want to share a couple of “cool”museums with you. The Las Cruces Museum of Art, located in New Mexico, will It’s present “Looking Ahead: Portraits from the Mott-Warsh Collection,” an exhibition of 30 contemporary portraits of people of African descent. The exhibition aims to increase the viewer’s knowledge of 20th century American culture and the African Diaspora, in which African-Americans expanded out of the South in the years follow- ing the abolishment of slavery, said Exhibitions Curator Joy Miller. The artists in the exhibition, which runs from December 3, 2010 to January 22, 2011, use their works to explore cultural per- ceptions and socio/political concepts in a variety of media, including drawings, paint, prints, photography, mixed media and sculptures. Noteworthy portrait artists include Romare Bearden, Chuck Close, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Elizabeth Catlett, who convey the person- alities and moods of their sub- jects with stirring clarity. Several of the works are small, intimate pieces, while others are large in scale and domineering. Also in Las Cruces at The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, “The Dust Bowl Dark Times in New Mexico” opened October 8 and continues through Aug. 21, 2011. Through the use of text, dramatic photographs, and oral histories, visitors are intro- duced to a story that came to symbolize the despair of the Great Depression Era. The Dust Bowl storms affected 13 New Mexico counties and seriously impacted seven of them, according to researcher Richard Chavez, who is one of the co-curators of the exhibit. Also viewing through September 12 hard to believe that November is already here. The year appeared to go by so fast, or was it in my head. I hope your year, though fast, was a 2011 at Farm & Ranch:”Red or Green?” The Origins and Cultural Significance of the Chile Pepper in New Mexico. With four floors of interactive and stimulating exhibit space, The GRAMMY Museum experience is celebratory, inspirational and educational. The Museum tour begins with a tunnel of bold graph- ics and powerful GRAMMY music which opens to an exciting gallery space filled with films, artifacts and interactive exhibits — all of which capture the lega- cy of recorded music and reveal the many ways in which it inter- twines with social and cultural history. Visitors experience behind- the-scenes into the art and tech- nology of the recording process, which features hands-on, in-the- studio experiences, as well as an in-depth exploration of the annual GRAMMY Awards tele- cast. Exhibitions like Songwriters Hall of Fame Gallery feature video highlights from the annual Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) Awards & Induction Dinners, an information kiosk of SHOF inductees and honorees, and interactive songwriting kiosks where visitors can collaborate in writing a song with legendary SHOF inductee songwriters Hal David (Rain Drops Keep Fallin’ on My Head), Lamont Dozier (Baby Love), and Desmond Child (You Give Love a Bad Name). The GRAMMY, truly a unique experience, debuted December 2008 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the GRAMMY Awards. The one-of-a-kind, 30,000-sq. ft. museum has interactive, permanent and traveling exhibits. More than two dozen exhibits that explore the greatest GRAMMY music, everything from rock and hip-hop to country, classical, Latin, R&B, and jazz. For meetings The GRAMMY offers a 200-seat state-of-the-art Clive Davis Theater, plus Target Terrace Rooftop terrace perfect for special programs and private events Hip Hop: A Cultural Odyssey will open during GRAMMY week 2011. For More Information: The Las Cruces: (575) 541-2137 , www.las-cruces.org/museums Farm&RanchHeritageMuseum: (575) 522-4100,www.nmfar- mandranchmuseum.org TheGRAMMY: (213) 765-6800,www.grammymuseum.org Black Meetings & Tourism November/December 2010: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com