The Second Annual “Holiday at the Museum” art show will start on November 14, 2020 with an opening reception from 10:00 to 3:00 p.m. pending further developments of the COVID situation in the San Luis Valley and Rio Grande County.

Several well known artists from the San Luis Valley will be showing their work.  These artists include Mary Susan Eldridge, Albert Kahan, Martha Ann Kennedy, Craig Lehman, Laura Lunsford, Cathy Morin, Jeannie Lynn Norwood, John Patterson, Marian Schlaugbaum, Evelyn Sprouse-Rowe and Darwin Thompson.  Chelle Wiescamp has joined the group this year along with the addition of student artists, Kami Humphreys and Jayden Powell-Gates who will be making their art show debuts.

The show will continue through the months of November and December.  It is an opportunity to support our local art community as well as giving a unique present.  The Museum Gift Shop is also open with local jeweler, Patty Pogue, Alex Colville and Jean Hanna showing their work.

Rio Grande County Museum is located at 580 Oak Street in Del Norte.  The hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday.  For more information, call Rio Grande County Museum at (719)657-2847, email at rgmuseum@riograndecounty.org or follow us on Facebook.  Masks are required to enter the museum, but are not provided.

#evelynsprouserowe #marysusaneldridge #albertkahan #marthaannkennedy #craiglehman
#sanluisvalley #mysticsanluisvalley #lauralunsford #cathymorin #jeannielynnnorwood #johnpatterson
#sanluisvalleyartists #marianschlaugbaum #darwinthompson

By Carolyn Snowbarger, Ouray County Plaindealer

"Chief Ouray was born near Taos, New Mexico, in 1833 during the Leonid meteor shower. “Ouray” means “arrow” in the Ute language, and this moniker proved appropriate and even prophetic.
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His father, Guera Murah, was Jicarilla Apache, and his mother was a member of the Uncompaghre Ute band. He didn’t grow up with his parents. A neighboring Spanish family raised him, and he spoke both Spanish and English in the home and was educated by Catholic friars. He spent much of his youth working for Mexican sheepherders and fighting against the war ring Sioux and Kiowa..  Read more...

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​by Rebecca Copley, Monte Vista Journal
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MONTE VISTA - The Monte Vista Historical Society gathered for their annual meeting Oct. 7. The weather was lovely for the outdoor socially distanced event. They did not have enough members present at the meeting to elect two new persons to the board of directors. However, Peg Schall was able to read the annual report. Schall reported to those present the following:

“Due to the COVID-19 virus the activities for the past year have been minimal. During the winter months the history center has had no water. Freezing was suspected, and the bathroom was heated. The public works department was able to remedy the situation, and we are most grateful.

The photo albums and computer were moved to the Transportation Museum the Fall with the intention to work on them during the winter and spring. Again, due to the virus it was thought safer to keep both the History Center and Transportation Museum closed for the 2020 season. Both the Colorado Wyoming Association of Museums and various women’s suffrage events were canceled.

Reading of the Monte Vista Journals to update the “Bridge to Yesterday,” book continues. Inquiries for family information or locations of certain buildings have been answered. Cooperation with individuals seeking photos for historical presentations continues. Playing cards are for sale at the Chamber of Commerce and the Monte Vista Coop.

A book about the Teft family, a history of Creede, and a Swoop of Cranes (book), have been donated to the museums. Tourist maps feature an ad for the Historical Society and are available here today.

Thanks to the Carnegie Public Library for its assistance throughout the year, and a big thanks to all the volunteers and board members. Board members are Kay Campbell, Laurie Ellithorpe McClung, Tami Fassett, Wanda Hawman, Norma Valdez and Peg Schall.”

After the report was given attendees were able to look at the commemorative Swoop of Cranes book which was given to the Historical Society by the Monte Vista Chamber of Commerce.

by Phil Virden

I am an amateur astronomer and part of a small team that was successful in receiving a recent dark sky designation for the Slumgullion Dark Sky Park, a parcel of land  near Lake City which belongs to the Lake Fork Valley Conservancy.   With this good news, we are already making plans for astronomy/stargazing programs in 2021 (assuming things settle down with the pandemic by then). 

We will strive to do our part to be good stewards for preserving dark skies, and actively promote ways to prevent light pollution with people living and visiting Colorado.   

We are deeply appreciative of so many of helping us out these last few years.  We are but a few volunteers so we will continue to need all the help we can receive. 

Read the Lake City article for more details...

Like many organizations throughout the Valley, the Rio Grande County Museum has been closed for a majority of the year but have now been given the go-ahead to open their doors to the public. “It has been a long, hard spring, summer and beginning of fall, but we have got through it so far and things are going well. The Museum is now open regular hours Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Masks are required, but the museum doesn’t provide them.  It is exciting to see people again and all have been willing to wear their masks.”

Though the museum was closed to the public, museum staff have been busy behind the scenes making sure everything was ready by the time they were able to open. “As we get into the swing of things again, the exhibit that was done for the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage is still up and can be viewed through the middle of November. A quilt was made with blocks representing the states or territories that gave suffrage to women before the constitutional amendment in 1920. This block represents Colorado and called Colorado Beauty.”

In the monthly newsletter the museum talks about another exhibit stating, “The exhibits will be reworked for next year with a history of Monte Vista notebook. Barbara Deacon had donated a large collection of San Luis Valley Graphic Newspapers and research through those is the beginning of the history.

The first event is the Second Annual Holiday at the Museum Art Show. The opening reception will be Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The show will be catered by Carther Roadhouse; a new business in Del Norte. They have some exciting ideas about a refreshment table.

The art show will feature San Luis Valley artists. Evelyn Sprouse-Rowe, Darwin Thompson, John Patterson, Albert Kahan, Laura Lunsford, Marian Schlagbaum, Mary Susan Eldredge, Martha Kennedy, Cath Moran, Jeanne Norwood and Craig Lehman will be showing their work. This is an exciting group of artists who show well together as there is such a variety of talents and different styles. In keeping with the museum’s mission, it has included two student artists.

Kami Humphreys is a student in the eighth grade in the Pueblo area. She has done work for the museum for several years. Two of her paintings hang in the welcome area of the museum and one was used as a postcard for the museum. Kami has volunteered for the museum for the past several summers, helping to set up and serve ice cream for the Covered Wagon Days Ice Cream Social. She and her grandmother are museum members.
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Jayden Powell-Gates is a third grader in the Upper Rio Grande School District who loves his artwork and is greatly encouraged by his art teacher, Susie Carrasco. Jayden spends a great deal of time in the museum as his great grandmother is the director. He also does volunteer work such as washing the glass cases, help to move books in the museum library and does a good job with the vacuum sweeper. He is trying his hand at some sculptures.

It is important to give young artists a place where they can show their work. Hopefully, this spring we will be able to do the school art show again. There is a showing that can be viewed in the museum of what the students of Ms. Carrasco and Dan Roesch did with their students. Thanks to the Upper Rio Grande School District for their commitment to the arts.

One of the artists, Martha Kennedy, has a photo of a drawing that she did as a 6-year old. She drew this when she would travel from Denver to Alamogordo where her father was doing research. She now paints professionally, as well as, writes and publishes books. The painting is entitled March is the Big Empty and will be shown in the holidays at the Museum's Art Show. Darwin Thompson will also be showing his carvings, drawings and watercolors. His carvings will not be for sale, but the watercolor paintings will be, with some of the proceeds going to a special project for the museum.

As we go through the next few weeks, we will bring more information and stories of our talented artists. Most are well known in the Valley and Southern Colorado.

Just a reminder from the 503(c)3 Museum board that dues will be due again starting in January. However, dues can be paid at any time and pro-rated.

Masks are required, but not provided and social distancing is promoted. Small groups of a maximum of 10 people can be accommodated, but it is suggested that these groups call to schedule a time. It is our goal to protect our visitors as well as our staff as we continue to respond to the COVID virus. For any questions or more information, please call us at (719)657-2847 or email at rgmuseum@riograndecounty.org . You can also follow them on Facebook at Rio Grande County Museum

The collaborative group - Colorado Stargazing - received the Outstanding Marketing award at the 2020 Colorado Governor's Annual Tourism Conference!

The project was a collaboration with the San Luis Valley Museum Association, Huerfano County Tourism, Custer County Tourism, and the Headwaters Alliance.

​This first year's featured towns include: Creede, Lake City, La Veta, Cuchara, Westcliffe, Silver Cliff and Crestone.

Check out the Conference's featured video:


Can't wait to see what we can accomplish in 2021!

Spanish Peaks Country (Huerfano County Tourism)
Visit Wet Mountain Valley (Custer County)
Visit Creede 
Headwaters Alliance


#coloradostargazing #stargazing #darkskies #sanluisvalley #mysticsanluisvalley 

By Colorado Department of Transportation

"Three scenic byways in Southern Colorado have joined forces to feature a road trip that offers an infusion of fall colors, wide open spaces and some very quirky stops along the way. 

In this region of Colorado, the traffic is light, homemade pies are plentiful and local establishments are mostly one of a kind. The spectacular geological backdrop is shaped by the Spanish Peaks, the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountain ranges.... read more



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This project was a collaborative effort by the Highway of Legends Scenic and Historic Byway, Los Caminos Scenic and Historic Byway, the Silver Thread Scenic and Historic Byway, the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area, and the San Luis Valley Museum Association.

#silverthreadscenicbyway #loscaminosantiguos #scenichighwayoflegends #scenicbyways #southerncolorado #sanluisvalley #spanishpeaks #creede #lakecitycolorardo #CDOT

​"The enormous Slumgullion landslide in southwestern Colorado has been moving — sometimes imperceptibly slowly — every day for some 300 years."

According to the Hinsdale County Museum - The Slumgullion Earthflow is probably the most studied feature of its kind in the world. In the summer, the museum offers a field trip entitled "Volcanoes of Lake City."

"In southwestern Colorado, a centuries-old “laboratory” looks out on the snowy peaks of the Lake City Caldera in a remote section of the San Juan Mountains. The lab’s scientists don’t wear white coats, but Gore-Tex and hiking boots, and they don’t work inside a building but on a 6.8-kilometer-long mishmash of red, brown and yellow earth topped with boulders, ponds and tilted spruce. Early settlers to the region called the mass Slumgullion, after an “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” stew, with “slum” being an old word for “slime” and “gullion” an English term for “cesspool.”

Read more of this Earth Science article here...


#volcanoes #lakecity #silverthreadscenicbyway #hinsdalecountymuseum #slumgullion #earthflow

​Museum of Friends (MoF) is pleased to announce that two new exhibits will open to the public on a Live Stream Facebook Event on Friday September 11th at 5 pm RMST.  The exhibit on the 1st floor in the Changing Exhibition Gallery isCOVID-19 Crisis or Opportunity
Artists Response Group Exhibition runs through November 30th. 
 
The opportunity is that the theme is creativity in the time of COVID-19. One that resonates with artists around the world. The works in the show do not necessarily represent images of the virus or its negative consequences, but the overflowing of creativity in this time of change. The theme attracted visual artists, sculptors, photographers and film-makers from many parts of the world: Sophia, Bulgaria; Edinburg, Texas;  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; San Francisco and Oakland, California; New York, Philadelphia; Denver, Aquilar, Walsenburg, Trinidad and La Veta, Colorado; and many other locals. 

The crisis is being shut in – isolated – separate from the camaraderie that we know of as the art community.  The opportunity is the time it allotted us to think – to begin to see new ways of being.  How we cope while staying safe and practicing healthy habits so that the virus will not overcome us is also a theme, we heard from many of our artists friends.  There are so many emotions being expressed in this exhibit: fear, anxiety, hope, clarity.  Some of the artists stuck with what they know – having more time – they even perfected their work further. The youngest artist in the show is Brandy Gilbert.  Her works were inspired by found wood and the repetition of patterns. The other artists in the exhibit are: Linn Baker, Tim Baker, Brendt Berger, Ann Bradford, Maria Cocchiarelli, Ben Eagle, Ray Espinoza, P.D. Garrett, Archil Gheghechkori, Brandy Gilbert, Elizabeth Hansen, Kathy Hill, Jim Long, Chris MacMichael, Emily Nieswiadomy, Charles Parson, Collin Parson, Devon Parson, John Raggio, Brian Rosino, Lika Shubitidze, Gregory Tait, Miryana Todorova, Annamarie Trombetta, Paul Valadez, Gary Weston, Jan Wurm.
 
On the 2nd floor opening is Votes for Women: a Portrait of Persistence poster exhibition (livestream on Facebook 5:45 pm RMST.)  This exhibit is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery. This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.  The crusade for women's suffrage is one of the longest reform movements in American history. Between 1832 and 1920, women citizens organized for the right to vote, agitating first in their states or territories and then, simultaneously, through petitioning for a federal amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Based on the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of the same name, Votes for Women seeks to expand visitors’ understanding of the suffrage movement in the United States. The poster exhibition addresses women's political activism, explores the racism that challenged universal suffrage, and documents the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment which prohibits the government from denying U.S. citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. It also touches upon the suffrage movement's relevance to current conversations on voting and voting rights across America.

Museums of Friends
info@museumoffriends.org
600 Main Street
Walsenburg, CO. 81089
www.museumoffriends.org