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.
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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