The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $36,000. This grant will support ALL REZ: Kéyah, Hooghan, K'é, Iiná / Land, Home, Kinship, Life, an innovative, traveling, site-specific, experimental photography exhibition and museological project featuring the work of Diné photographer and curator Rapheal Begay.
The project, which is also supported by an award from the Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies at UNM, will launch on Saturday, June 1, with a kickoff celebration at the Maxwell Museum from 4 to 7 p.m. This public event is free and open to all. Learn more and register here.
The project is a collaboration of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Rapheal Begay, Axle Contemporary (a mobile artspace based in Santa Fe), and Lillia McEnaney, independent curator and museum anthropologist. The Maxwell Museum is particularly pleased to continue building relationships across the College of Arts & Sciences and College of Fine Arts along with Begay, who holds a BFA in Photography with a minor in Arts Management and a certificate in Museum Studies from UNM.
ALL REZ is a multifaceted community storytelling project with ongoing installations in two spaces—at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and in the Axle Contemporary mobile artspace. Through July 27, the Maxwell will feature an installation of Begay’s photography documenting his perspectives of land, home, kinship, and life, as related to his home Diné Bikéyah.
ALL REZ: Kéyah, Hooghan, K'é, Iiná / Land, Home, Kinship, Life photo exhibition
Saturday, June 1, 4-7 p.m. · Maxwell Museum
This public event is free and open to all · Register here.
The traveling portion of ALL REZ will take Begay’s photographs to multiple locations across the Navajo Nation in Axle Contemporary, stopping at community gathering spaces in Crownpoint, Gallup, and Shiprock, N.M; Chinle and Window Rock, Ariz.; and Monument Valley, Utah. The interior of the Axle gallery will be transformed into a welcoming space for reflection and conversation with the artist, exploring questions around connections to home, sense of place, and sense of self. As the exhibition travels, Maxwell staff will post regular updates so that visitors to the Museum can follow its journey; you can also follow the team on the project website www.allrez.net.
“The Maxwell Museum was proud to host the first solo exhibition of UNM graduate Rapheal Begay’s work in 2019,” said museum director Carla Sinopoli. “We are thrilled to partner with Rapheal, Axle Contemporary and Lillia McEnaney in this exciting and innovative project and are tremendously grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts and the UNM Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies for their support.”
“Projects like ALL REZ exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” noted NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design, and the National Endowment for the Arts is committed to ensuring people across the country benefit.
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news, the Maxwell Museum web site, and www.allrez.net.
Top image: Emergence (Naakaii Tó - Mexican Water, Ariz.), 2018
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