Celebrate Hozhoni Days with us on March 25th!

Celebrate Hozhoni Days by joining the Center of Southwest Studies as we open two new exhibits featuring Native American artists!

Center of Southwest Studies - Delaney Library
Friday, March 25, from 3pm – 5pm, just before the Pow-Wow!
Light refreshments will be served.

Virgil Ortiz: Visionary Artist (Left Image)
This exhibit features contemporary native artist Virgil Ortiz, who blends tradition with edgy provocation in his art as well as his fashion designs. This exhibit is developed by student library assistant Emilio Diaz.

World-renown Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz has taken the entire genre of Native American art to new levels. His intricate designs blur the line between the appropriate and provocative and the beautiful and grotesque; making Virgil one of the most unique and talked about artists today.

In honor of Hozhoni Days, Virgil is pleased to extend a 50% savings on any VO Fashion item. Visit http://www.virgilortiz.com/ and enter promo code VOHOZ at the time of checkout – offer only valid March 23–26, 2011 and includes FREE SHIPPING!

Visual Re-Count: A Boarding School Era Retrospective as Seen Through Native Youth (Right Image)
In this art installation, Diné (Navajo) sisters - Ruthie, Sierra, Chamisa and Santana Edd - examine the Federal Indian policy of educating Native American children. These young artists address the disruptions to tribal life when children were removed from homes and placed in government-run boarding schools. For inspiration, they draw upon their own experiences of acculturation as residents of Durango, as well as the boarding school experiences of their grandparents.

To see more work by the Edd Sisters, visit eddgirlart.weebly.com.

The Real Savages opens March 18

The Center of Southwest Studies to present a new exhibit, The Real Savages
DURANGO, CO – March 11, 2011 - The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College will open a new exhibit on March 18th, The Real Savages. This exhibit presents a viewpoint of how propaganda and American stereotypes have influenced and impacted Native American cultures and identities. Juxtaposing stereotypical, visual images with historical facts, this exhibit explores the experience of culture assimilation, identity and knowledge.
The Real Savages began as a Fort Lewis College student independent study project by graphic design major, Babe Lansing, who also Ute Mountain Ute. The project was inspired after a summer semester in Germany studying propaganda in art. Art professor Paul Booth facilitated both the summer semester, and Lansing’s project. What resulted from dedicated research and creativity was a student exhibition, first displayed in the Fort Lewis College Art Department. “My ideas and motives have come from a variety of sources and influences within my own life and culture. I am pleased to see that the overall final product has exceeded by far what I expected when I first started this project,” says Lansing.
Impressed, the Center of Southwest Studies staff invited the exhibit to the Center’s gallery space, in part to augment the story of Indian boarding schools, which is touched upon in the Center’s new exhibit Frontier Blues: The Legacy of Fort Lewis College, also opening on March 18th as a part of the college Centennial celebration.
An opening reception for both exhibits will be held Friday, March 18, from 4:00-6:00pm at the Center of Southwest Studies Gallery, on the campus of Fort Lewis College. The event is free and open to the public, with light refreshments provided.

New exhibit, Frontier Blues: The Legacy of Fort Lewis College, to open March 18th

With the college celebrating its one-hundredth year as an educational institution, the Center of Southwest Studies was compelled to create an exhibit honoring the diverse history of Fort Lewis College and the role it served in early, rural education in the West. The exhibit, Frontier Blues: The Legacy of Fort Lewis College, revisits the school’s unique story, fostering a reconnection to local and regional history, and perhaps answering questions about our educational mission.
Visitors walk through different time periods, representative of the various chapters of the institution’s past. Native peoples of the region used the land near what is now Hesperus, Colorado long before the Army established Fort Lewis on the banks of the La Plata River in 1880. Lasting just over a decade, the military marched out of the area in 1891, and the property was turned into Fort Lewis Indian School. The Indian School era ended in 1910 when the boarding school style of Native education fell out of favor. However that same year, the State of Colorado Congress established the property of Fort Lewis School as an institution of learning, and Native students would be admitted free of charge and on the same terms of equality as white pupils. Twenty students were enrolled in the new Fort Lewis High School by the fall of 1911, offering a range of classes to young people of the region. College level courses were added in 1927, and by 1933 Fort Lewis Junior College was fully established. Fort Lewis A&M moved to Durango in 1956 caused a bit of a stir in town, but made more sense financially and helped to recruit students. Fortitude and hard work would become hallmarks of the school’s heritage.
Today we can celebrate the dedication of so many, allowing the school to grow and prosper as an educational institution these past one hundred years. The opening reception for Frontier Blues: The Legacy of Fort Lewis College will be held Friday, March 18, from 4:00pm-6:00pm, at the Center of Southwest Studies Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.

Call for Entries: Images of the Southwest Photography Show

DURANGO, CO – January 25, 2011 – The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, in partnership with the Durango Arts Center, announces a call for entries for 2011 Images of the Southwest: Juried Photography Show. This year’s theme is Animals Rule! All submissions must fit the theme, whether pet or predator, fur or feathers, tracks or tails. Submissions accepted at the Center’s exhibit gallery during regular business hours, March 14 – 19, 2011, with the final deadline at 4pm on March 19 . Photographers from all levels are welcome to enter. Visit http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu for rules and entry form, or call 970-247-7456 for more information.

Gallery temporarily closed on Saturdays

The Center of Southwest Studies announces the temporary closure of the gallery on Saturdays as staff rotates exhibits. The gallery will remain closed Saturday, January 29th - March 12th, but will reopen with regular hours from 12 noon - 4:00pm on Saturday, March 19th, the day after the public opening of our newest exhibit Frontier Blues: The Legacy of Fort Lewis College.

Center's Holiday Hours

Happy Holidays to all!
The Center of Southwest Studies offers exhibit gallery hours Monday – Friday, 1:00pm – 4:00pm, and Saturdays 12 noon – 4:00pm. However, the gallery will be closed Saturday, November 27, and December 23 – January 2.
The Delaney Research Library offers hours Monday - Friday 10:00am – 4:00pm. However, the Library will close for the holidays November 22 – 26, and December 23 – January 7. To arrange a visit during closed hours, please call Librarian Elayne Silversmith 970-382-6951 or Archives Manager Nik Kendziorski 970-247-7126.

Common Earth Series concludes with "Living with Predators and Prey: Practical Solutions"

DURANGO, CO – October 18, 2010 – The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College and partners conclude this year’s Common Earth Series: People and Predators: Who’s Eating Whom?, with a program on Living with Predators and Prey: Practical Solutions.

This program will feature three presentations throughout the afternoon. Doug Ramsey, columnist for the Durango Herald, will discuss Dogs as Guard Animals; Dr. Peter Stacey, professor of biology at the University of New Mexico, will present Cats, Dogs and Deer: Should They All Roam Free?, and Aran Johnson, who works for the Southern Ute Tribe, will discuss Deer and Driving, with the program ending with a series wrap up and reception with Center of Southwest Studies Director, Dr. Kevin Britz.

This event is free and open to the public. Living with Predators and Prey: Practical Solutions will be held Saturday, October 23rd from at 1:00pm – 4:00pm at the Center of Southwest Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College.

The Common Earth Series has presented informative programs over the last month, from leading experts in the field, with topics ranging from human social evolution, to hunting in the Southwest, to the reintroduction of the Mexican Gray Wolf, for the benefit of the public to understand not only the role of predators in our ecosystem, but also the human aspect, in which to find common ground and solutions in reconnecting citizens with issues relating to the urban/ wilderness interface.

The Common Earth Series is the result of a group of local partners who are interested in finding practical solutions to environmental and social issues facing us today through open public dialog. These partners include the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Durango Nature Studies, the Durango Public Library, La Plata County Living with Wildlife Advisory Board, San Juan Mountains Association, and the San Juan Public Lands Center. The annual series will focus on a different environmental topic each year, bringing in experts in the field, from multiple perspectives. The series coordinators welcome suggestions for topics for 2011.

Please call the Center of Southwest Studies at 970-247-7456 for more information on this event. Please visit http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu for more on the Common Earth Series or the Center of Southwest Studies’ Mountain Lion! exhibit.