Afternoon talk on August 8th: "Potsherds of Poverty: A Material History of Poverty and Migration to Mexico City in the Mid-Twentieth Century"

Join us for an afternoon presentation from Joshua K. Salyers, University of Arizona, "Potsherds of Poverty: A Material History of Poverty and Migration to Mexico City in the Mid-Twentieth Century".

Time: 1:30 p.m. on August 8^th

Place: Lyceum at the Center of Southwest Studies

Joshua Salyers  will share his approach for his dissertation research on the material history of the poor and migration of families into Mexico City during the middle decades of the twentieth century.  Mr. Salyers is a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Arizona and is currently working with the Center of Southwest Studies archives personnel to improve researchers’ access to the oral history collections held by the Center.  He will return to his research in Mexico City later in the coming academic year.

Member's only tour to Silverton!

Summer Benefit Party at the Rochester Hotel and Bar

Come join the party! Join us at the Rochester Hotel and Bar on Thursday, July 25th from 5:00-7:30 pm for cash bar, light appetizers and music by Robby Overfield. This event is free and open to the public. Please consider a membership or donation to the Center.
Co-sponsorship by

Music in the Mountains pre-concert lecture

Dr. Linda Mack Berven will discuss the composers and give insight on the evening's Music in the Mountains concert, Dramatic Passage on Sunday, July 21 from 4:30 – 5:15 p.m. in the Center of Southwest Studies Lyceum room.

Celebrate the summer solstice at the Center!

The Center of Southwest Studies

celebrates the Summer Solstice on Friday, June 21^st. Doors open at 6:00AM. At the dawn of the summer solstice, a spiral of sunlight makes its way across the gallery walls making for a dazzling display. In our annual celebration of summer, the Center of Southwest Studies will provide a light breakfast and music. This event is open to the public, with free admission and parking.

Situated in the upper northeast corner of the exhibit gallery, the Solstice Window is recessed into the wall. Created by Denver artist Scott Parsons as a part of Colorado’s Art in Public Places Program, the window was integrated into the building’s architecture. Parsons designed the window in tribute to the solstice markers of the Ancestral Puebloans of Southwest Colorado. The spiral cast by the Solstice Window is visible for several weeks before and after the summer solstice, but it is sharpest on solstice morning. Moving with the motion of the earth and sun, the spiral makes its journey across the gallery wall, fading as the sun rises higher in the sky. 

Photograph by John Ninnemann

A few spots still available for this Friday's Harris Cabin tour

The Durango Collection® is featured at an exhibit at the Wheelright Museum

The Durango Collection®: Native American Weaving in the Southwest, 1860-1880 exhibit opened at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Saturday, May 11. As expressed by the Center's curator, Jeanne Brako,“A lot of what the exhibit is about is the cross-cultural issues with weaving in the Southwest.” To learn more about this exhibit, read the review in The New Mexican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment & Culture, Pasatiempo: Looming large: the weaving tradition of the American Southwest.

This exhibit will remain up through April 13, 2014.