The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at 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 photography exhibition and museological project featuring the work of Diné photographer and curator Rapheal Begay.
The project is also supported by an award from the Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies at UNM. It 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.
"ALL REZ" is a collaboration between the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Rapheal Begay, Axle Contemporary (a mobile art space based in Santa Fe), and Lillia McEnaney, an independent curator and museum anthropologist. The Maxwell Museum expressed its pleasure in continuing to build 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 described as a multifaceted community storytelling project with ongoing installations at both the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and in the Axle Contemporary mobile art space. Through July 27, the Maxwell will feature an installation of Begay’s photography documenting his perspectives on land, home, kinship, and life related to his home Diné Bikéyah.
The traveling portion of "ALL REZ" will take Begay’s photographs to multiple locations across the Navajo Nation in Axle Contemporary's mobile gallery. Stops include community gathering spaces in Crownpoint, Gallup, 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 about connections to home, sense of place, and sense of self. As the exhibition travels, Maxwell staff will post regular updates so that visitors can follow its journey; updates are also available on 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,” 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 through investments in art and design."
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement visit arts.gov/news or www.allrez.net.
