The University of New Mexico’s Zimmerman Library Murals have been subject to national debate, and UNM has actively been involved in addressing the controversial artwork located in the historic west wing of the library.

On Monday, Feb. 19, from 5 to 7 p.m., room 105 in the Hibben Center, representatives from earlier eras of campus controversy and today’s student leaders will engage in a stimulating discussion of the library murals titled, "Community Perspectives on the Politics of the Zimmerman Murals."

University and community leaders from the 1970s and 1990s will discuss their experiences and continuing concerns around the murals. Their insights provide historical and contemporary perspectives for today’s efforts to address the artwork. The event is free and open to the public.

Speakers at the event include: moderator Michael Trujillo, associate professor of Chicano/a studies, American studies; Joaquin Arquello, a community social worker and student artist and activist in the 1990s; Moises Gonzales, an associate professor for school of architecture and planning, also a student activist in the 1990s; Joshua Heckman, a graduate student in American studies and MEChA representative; Neri Holguin, political consultant and student activist in the 1990s; Jennifer Marley, an undergraduate student in Native American studies and KIVA Club vice president; Beva Sanchez-Padilla, from Field Organizer-Feminisms and Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP), a student activist from the 1970s.

For more information on the Zimmerman Murals and what UNM has done to address the controversy, visit Studying public art through a lens of history & higher learning.

The event is sponsored by the Alfred Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies.

Ortiz Session