Greg Smith’s main topics will be Pride Month and the Arts. Guests will be State Senator Carrie Hamblen and media expert Jess Williams discussing the Pride Month show in the Staszewski Gallery at the Doña Ana Arts Council; how the Stonewall Riots in late June 1969 led to Pride Month all these decades later; the constructive roles each of the guests has played in those decades; and what role they and the arts are playing in the current dialogue about LGBTQA+ issues.
In keeping with the focus on art activities on the first Tuesday of every month, Nan Rubin hosts Karen Conley in the studio and Paul Maxwell on the phone to talk about the return of Art in the Garden on May 7th, sponsored by the Artists of Picacho Hills.
Host Greg Smith talks with Katrina Chandler about artificial intelligence and its potential threat to human-created art and humanity in general. The conversation explored the practical applications of artificial intelligence and its potential to do good or evil. The discussion also delved into the possibility of artificial intelligence competing with humans in the creation of various art forms. Will humans remain the primary creators of art, or will artificial intelligence become a significant competitor?
Host Greg Smith talked to Penny Peace, Tina Ballew, and Mary Diesel about the Unfinished Business: Women’s Power of Persistence show in the Arts Council galleries in March, Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica Quartet coming to the Rio Grande Theatre on March 22, and the Arts Fair coming to the Convention Center March 25th and 26th.
For Black History Month, host Nan Rubin airs a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior in 1961 at the Temple Emmanuel synagogue in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was shortly after the inauguration of JFK, at a moment when the civil rights movement was picking up steam. The recording was made available especially to KTAL Radio.
Greg Smith talks to artists who are featured in the Dona Ana Arts Galleries in February. Georjeanna Feltha’s show “Vindication, Restoration, and New Beginnings“ is up in the galleries most of February. Derrick Lee, whose jazz group will be performing in the Main Gallery on February 17, and Bob Diven, who will be presenting “Confessions of an Editorial Cartoonist” in the Main Gallery on February 25.
Honor Flight of Southern New Mexico and El Paso is part of a national network that transports veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War to Washington, DC. The veterans visit the memorials built to honor and remember those who served, and for many it represents a homecoming. Chapter Founder, Elaine Prickett, and volunteer Guardian, Bengy Kossman, join host, Nan Rubin, in the studio to relate moving stories from Las Cruces veterans on their most recent trip.
Two end of year follow-up stories: For the first part, host, Nan Rubin, asked Historic Preservation Specialist, Troy Ainsworth, for the latest status of the controversy around preserving the historic Trost clubhouse building on the old golf course property. In a second segment, regarding passenger service returning to the Las Cruces International Airport, Nan spoke with Airport Director, Andy Hume, about launching the new service in January.
Greg Smith announced his retirement from the Dona Ana Arts Council at the end of 2022 and he'll be joining Nan Rubin to talk about the evolution of the creative arts economy in Las Cruces over the past decade and what's in store for him next. For nearly 20 years throughout his various positions as a teacher, an architect and a Las Cruces City Councilman, he has been an outspoken and visible advocate for the arts.
At the end of 2022, The Branigan Cultural Center opened an exhibit called "Honesty of Construction: The WPA and Spanish Colonial Style Furniture." The exhibit features several rooms of household furniture that is beautifully designed and constructed. The pieces were made in the 1930's as part of The Works Progress Administration, a depression-era program of the federal government aimed at teaching young men and women a marketable trade such as woodworking.
The furniture represents a much broader story tied to the struggle to create an identity for New Mexico during its push towards statehood, the European concept of "high art" versus "low art", and the preservation of Indigenous and Hispanic cultures in the face of rapid expansion of Anglo settlers brought here by the railroads. Nan Rubin was joined in the studio by museum curator, Jennifer McClung, who prepared the exhibit and wrote extensive background commentary, and Irene Oliver-Lewis whose father, Fred, was a participant in the workshop. |
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