Current Exhibits

(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.

(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.