MUSEUMS

The Las Cruces Museum System aims to provide a welcoming environment for the curious so they can gain new insights and experience personal and community enrichment. The museums showcase exhibitions on local, national, and global themes to educate and inspire visitors from near and far. Admission is FREE.

Our new Calendar of Events for July to September, 2023, is available in the museums.

For all our programs and classes, you may now sign up online.

Click here to register for museum classes

  1. Painting of a snake with two heads and honeycomb with bees

    "Artistas de las Fronterizas – Borderland Contemporary Artists"

    Join us at the Museum of Art, 491 N. Main St., for our newest exhibition, “Artistas de las Fronterizas – Borderland Contemporary Artists.” Read on...
  2. Women carrying flowers for Day of the Dead

    "A Celebration of Souls: Day of the Dead in Southern Mexico"

    Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main St., announces a new exhibit, “A Celebration of Souls: Day of the Dead in Southern Mexico,” that explores the history, heritage, and traditions of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations in Oaxaca, Mexico. Read on...
  3. Picture of Chinese man

    "The Chinese Experience in the Borderlands" to Open at Branigan Cultural Center

    Join us at Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main St., for a new exhibition “The Chinese Experience in the Borderlands, 1880-1930.” Read on...
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Aerial landscape photo of the Branigan Cultural Center building

BRANIGAN CULTURAL CENTER

The Branigan Cultural Center is dedicated to engaging visitors in the rich heritage of the Southwest and the world-at-large through artistic, cultural and historical exhibitions and programs. Housed in a 1935 Pueblo Revival- style building, it was the first library in Las Cruces.

(Image credits: Southern Methodist University, DeGolyer Library)

The Chinese Experience in the Borderlands,1880-1930

July 7-October 7, 2023

This exhibition tells the little-known story of Chinese immigration in Mexico and the U.S. Borderlands, 1880-1930, using a small Chinese settlement in El Paso and Chinese businesses in Las Cruces and Deming, NM as examples. It examines the use of Chinese immigrant labor in the U.S. and Mexico and the impact it had on regional Chinese settlements. The exhibit addresses anti-Chinese backlash by Borderland citizens and resulting anti-Chinese immigrant laws, in particular the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the New Mexico Alien Land Act of 1921. 

Hands with orange gloves holding Uranium surrounded by uranium

(Image credit: “Uranium” by Shanna Merola)

Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing- A People’s Perspective

July 15-September 23, 2023

This juried exhibition features twenty artists who offer their perspectives, insights, and responses to the effects of nuclear testing, nuclear accidents, and uranium mining on the people, animals, and environment of New Mexico. A wide range of art mediums is represented, ranging from photography and paintings to sculptures and multi-media collages. The exhibit was developed by the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and artists were selected and judged by Marisa Sage, NMSU’s Art Museum Director, and Jasmine Herrera, NMSU’s Art Museum Coordinator. It is supported by an auxiliary exhibit that examines the long-term consequences of the 1945 Trinity test in the Tularosa Basin.

Museum of Art

MUSEUM OF ART

The Museum of Art features juried, invitational, and traveling exhibitions with artwork by nationally and internationally known artists. Through the Studio Program, the Museum offers professional art instruction for youth and adults in drawing, painting, ceramics, and other media.

Current Exhibit

White Bison Maquette on display in the Museum of Art

ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN: Transforming Paper to Sculpture 

June 2–September 23, 2023

This exhibition presents the Japanese art of paper folding through metal sculptures. Each sculpture in the exhibition is inspired by a single, blank piece of paper that has been folded into a specific form. Motivated by capturing the impermanence of paper, the artist Kevin Box found a way of preserving origami’s intricacy by using lost-wax casting methods and museum quality metals.

Photo in the Museum of Art Gallery of the art of Origami In The Garden

ORIGAMI IN THE GARDEN: Transforming Paper to Sculpture consists of several large-scale sculptures and a specialized “Inside Out” display that shows folded paper origami models that are placed alongside cast metal wall hangings that illustrate what the corresponding origami model looks like unfolded.

The exhibition features Kevin Box’s own compositions as well as collaborations with his wife Jennifer and world-renowned origami artists Te Jui Fe, Beth Johnson, Michael G. LaFosse, and Robert L. Lang.


Museum of Nature and Science Sign

MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

The Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, or MoNaS, inspires curiosity about the sciences, facilitates life-long learning, and promotes stewardship of the natural environment of the Chihuahuan Desert and southern New Mexico.

Railroad Museum

RAILROAD MUSEUM

The mission of the Railroad Museum is to preserve the heritage of railroading through a series of miniature representations of New Mexico railroads, as well as research and preserve the history of model railroading.