University Art Museum has July 25 lecture/discussion, children’s workshop

The University Art Museum (UAM) has two events scheduled this Saturday.

• Mama Create-Ups #3: The Facts About the Family Medical Leave Act

1 p.m., Saturday, July 25, via Zoom

Register: www.nmsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwpc-GtqTgvEteD3aTOgNLjCz7mXemvvTx2

This is UAM’s third in its Mama Create-Ups online series. It focuses on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) with Dr. Dulcinea Lara, an associate professor in the New Mexico State University Criminal Justice Department and director of the Borderlands & Ethnic Studies Program.

In this part lecture, part discussion and collaborative project, Lara will give a basic overview of FMLA and its formation and evolution, as well as exploring motherhood from the vantage point of scarcity vs. abundance. Lara will lead a discussion on the power of creative making as a platform for optimism, compassion and love and will end with an invitation to create a community, “We Are Poem,” UAM said in a news release.

Lara identifies as Chicana Indigena, honoring her Apache and Rarámuri ancestry that is deeply rooted in southern New Mexico. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from University of California-Berkeley. Lara’s teaching and research center on the critical viewing and questioning of systems that advance some people/groups while creating obstructions for others.

Lara’s scholarship is multi-method and multi-media. She collaborated in the creation of an interactive, bilingual UAM exhibition, Trotando Pasos Ajenos, in 2017, about social justice and inequalities in the region.

Lara’s current book project details the story of teachers Nadine and Patsy Cordova and their reasonable-radical commitment to a social justice-centered education in Vaughn, N.M., in the late 1990s.

• OutsmART Children’s Program: Radial Patterns

1 p.m. Saturday, July 25, an online and offline self-directed workshop

The project description and material list will be released at www.uam.nmsu.edu/outsmart/ July 25, before the Mama Create-up event.

The workshop will be prepared by Zoe Spiliotis, a local artist, arts educator and mother of two young artists and will explore the use of radial symmetry and pattern to create designs inspired by mandalas (geometric configurations of symbols).

With simple materials -- including paper, pencils, black permanent marker, a ruler and coloring materials such as colored pencils, crayons, markers or watercolor paint -- children will be able to design their own symmetrical artwork. 

For those who do not have access to materials, UAM will provide a limited amount of kits that will be safely prepared and sterilized. The kits can be picked up via drive-up, 10-11 a.m. Saturday, July 25, in the UAM parking lot on the east side of Devasthali Hall, 1308 E. University Avenue, near the intersection of University and Solano Drive.  Call 575-646-2545 for more information.

For more information, contact UAM at 575-646-2545 and artmuseum@nmsu.edu. Visit uam.nmsu.edu.