How do you read an image? What do I see? This simple question is a great place to start with…

During the Great Depression, photographers were sent out under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration, in order to take photographs that would drum up support for the program. One of the locations visited by photographers was rural New Mexico, and the photographs that were taken remain a unique snapshot of this era in New Mexican history.

The stock market crash in October 1929 signaled the start of the Great Depression, which lasted for more than a decade. It threw millions of people out of work nationwide, and brought especially hard times to New Mexico’s primarily agrarian population. New Mexico and New Mexicans played a significant role in World War II, signaling a major change in the state’s economy and its recognition worldwide.

After New Mexcio became a territory of the United States, Americans brought in milled posts and trim to make the buildings look more European, and built Greek Revival style buildings with white columns and classical proportions. U.S. military forts and government buildings adopted this style, now known as “Territorial.”

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.

The artwork produced in New Mexico has been influenced by three cultures and by the unique qualities of the region’s communities and natural environment. New Mexico has a rich and distinctive architectural history, from the prehistoric great houses of the Anasazi to the most progressive architects of today.

New Mexico has a rich and distinctive architectural history. From the prehistoric great houses of the Ancestral Pueblo people, to the most progressive architects of today, New Mexican architecture has developed with a strong relationship to place and a strong appreciation for indigenous styles.

Much of the architecture of New Mexico is influenced by multiple cultures. Students living anywhere in the state can see different styles of architecture in their local schools, civic buildings, and main streets. These physical expressions of cultural values and aesthetics and our understanding of them serve to help us understand the cultural history of New Mexico and its connections to the rest of the world.

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.

Route 66 was a highway spawned by the demands of a rapidly changing United States. This curriculum summarizes the origins of the fabled highway and traces its path through New Mexico’s past and present.

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.