Contact:

Rebecca Hernandez, 277-3270 Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

January 9, 2002

UNM INSTRUCTOR TO TEACH MUSEUM PRACTICES AT A:SHIWI A:WAN MUSEUM AND HERITAGE CENTER OF ZUNI PUEBLO

University of New Mexico Art and Art History Department and Native American Studies Program instructor Rebecca Hernandez will be on the road this spring presenting museum studies workshops at New Mexico tribal museums and cultural centers.

Hernandez received a $26,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities late last year to develop and implement two-day workshops to facilitate "an exchange of knowledge between museum practitioners in Native American communities and scholars from the UNM campus," she says.

Charged by the UNM Arts of Americas Institute (AAI) to develop a curriculum for Museum Studies courses with a strong Native American component, Hernandez says the workshops will help her measure specific need around the state.

"We will offer workshops that incorporate a variety of topics, from the theoretical to the practical. The experience will aid in creating new courses for UNM that both traditional students and the community really needed," she says.

In February, Hernandez will make initial stops at five locations - all members of an AAI working consortium. They are: Indian Pueblo Cultural Center of Albuquerque; Poeh Arts Center and Museum of Pojoaque Pueblo; Walatowa Visitors Center of Jemez Pueblo; A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center of Zuni Pueblo, and Jicarilla Apache Culture Center in Dulce, NM.

"We hope to extend the program as it develops," Hernandez says, adding that she will visit Acoma Pueblo and the Mescalero Apache reservation as well. She also hopes to recruit a student intern this spring semester to accompany her on visits to the museums and centers and during actual workshops to be offered in May and June 2002.

Hernandez taught a three-credit course on issues surrounding the representation of Native Americans in museums/culture centers and it was a great success with students from a variety of majors. This spring semester she will teach a general museum practices course, which filled quickly leaving more than 13 students on a waiting list.

"Students at UNM are very interested in learning more about how Native American museum practices differ from standardized procedures," she says. "It is exciting to offer some of the first courses of this kind at a university level."

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The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981