This curriculum focuses on the architecture of the Spanish Colonial Period in New Mexico. The mission churches were the most significant architecture during this period, and they have been painted and photographed by numerous artists over the years.

Protest, civil disobedience, war, and the right to a free press are all threads that are woven through the tapestry of United States history. This curriculum uses samples from the New Mexico Museum of Art’s photography collection to tug on those threads through documentary photography.

This guided exploration investigates the links between poetry and visual art, through deep looking and study of information surrounding William Penhallow Henderson’s drawing and Walt Whitman’s poem of the same name: When Lilacs Last in the Door Yard Bloom’d, as well as the historical event that inspired Whitman’s work.