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Museum of New Mexico Traveling Exhibitions Program
The practice of traveling museum exhibitions in the United States began in New Mexico in 1909, two years before the New Mexico Territory was granted statehood in 1912. Edgar Lee Hewett, the founding director of the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, who served from 1909 until his death in 1946, left an indelible mark on that institution and the museum profession as a whole with his concept of “education by exhibition”. Up until that time, the main purpose of museums was to collect, preserve, research, and exhibit; education was not universally acknowledged as part of the museum mission. During Hewett’s tenure, the Museum of New Mexico implemented extensive and multi-faceted statewide education and outreach programs. Among them, its traveling exhibitions program was the oldest and longest operating traveling exhibitions program in the nation, from 1909 until its discontinuation by New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Cabinet Secretary Stuart Ashman in 2005.

Early years
In 1909, three years before New Mexico was granted statehood as the 47th state of the United States in 1912, the territorial legislature established the Museum of New Mexico as an agency of the School for American Archaeology (renamed the School of American Research in 1917 and the School for Advanced Research in 2007). SAA Director Edgar L. Hewett was appointed director of both. In that same year, he established the practice of traveling exhibitions. The exhibitions featured artifacts from two archaeological field school excavations operated by SAA at Rito de los Frijoles (now Bandelier National Monument) and Puye. The exhibitions circulated free of charge to public facilities throughout New Mexico, including high schools, chambers of commerce, public libraries, and women’s clubs.

The stated purpose of the traveling exhibitions program at that time was to address the challenge of serving a small population spread over a vast geographic expanse in rural and isolated communities. As early as 1914, Hewett deployed key museum staff members around the state to assist local communities in the formation of archaeological societies that would partner with the Museum of New Mexico in sharing knowledge and providing a wide array of educational programs.

The Museum Extension Program
In 1937, during the Great Depression, the State Legislature voted to establish the Museum Extension Program as part of the Federal Government’s New Deal. The Legislature provided a special appropriation of $10,000 a year for three years. With this “sponsor’s contribution”, the Museum was able to secure federal funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the sum of $50,633. According to the 1938 annual report and article, the objective of the Museum Extension Program was primarily educational, to provide visual learning resources “for the large proportion of New Mexico’s population which finds it extremely difficult to learn through reading.”

In return for participating in this free program, local communities were asked to form autonomous local societies, which would serve as branches of the State Museum. The branches would receive exhibits produced by the State Museum to supplement their permanent displays, as well as rotating exhibits of art, history, and archaeology. The program began with seven circulating exhibitions: watercolors by Donald Beauregard, oil paintings by Donald Beauregard, paintings by Nicholas Roerich from his Tibet work, the New Mexico Mission Series by Carlos Vierra, watercolors, tempera paintings and poster art of Jon Cornin, oil paintings by Jon Cornin, and etchings by Birger Sandzen. As of 1938, branch operations had been established in nine communities: Roswell, Portales, Clovis, Mountainair, Silver City, Farmington, Lincoln, and Santa Fe. The plan was to expand to 15 branches in 1939, and to an eventual total of 24.[3] Although the program was discontinued before reaching its goal, it eventually grew to serve fourteen communities.

At its peak, with the assistance of its WPA program, the Museum hired 45 employees who created models, dioramas, and other permanent exhibits for museums around the state, as well as replicas of objects in the Museum collection that were too fragile to travel. While the primary focus of the permanent exhibits was seen as necessarily local, rotating exhibits were seen as an opportunity to offer “material beyond the fixed scope of the permanent exhibits” that would enhance the role of the branch museum as dynamic forces in their communities. Examples of exhibits in the planning stages included a set of busts of prehistoric man, an exhibition of “bultos” (religious sculptures) representing important “santos” (saints), and a set of paintings of reconstructions of the archaeological ruins at Chaco Canyon.[3] [1]

World War II
The traveling exhibitions program was suspended during the years 1941 to 1943 due to fuel rationing and shortages of money resulting from the war effort. Undeterred from its educational mission, the Museum Extension Service established an extensive film lending library of films from federal and state agencies and private sources, including defense and vocational films. Other wartime activities included a radio broadcast that began in 1943 and continued into the 1950s.

By 1944 museum personnel were once again traveling the state to renew contacts and prepare to revive the branch museum and traveling exhibitions programs. The outcome was the “Museum of New Mexico Traveling Exhibitions” series featuring one-person shows of New Mexico artists. Communities could select two-to-four exhibitions per year for bookings of approximately three weeks on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis. The Museum of New Mexico covered all of the costs of organizing the exhibitions, transportation, insurance and producing invitations and other print materials. Although the branch museum program was not revived, participating communities were required to form fine arts committees to handle local arrangements, hold public openings, and organize school group visits. The series was an immediate success. In its first season (1944-45) ten exhibitions were organized and received 21 bookings in six communities. In the second season, 11 exhibitions received 50 bookings. [Bennett]

In focusing on New Mexico artists, the exhibition series aimed to increase public appreciation of the arts while serving the needs of communities for cultural experiences. At the same time, the program provided a platform for the state's artists to receive wider exposure and to promote the sale of their work. Museum personnel curated the exhibits, but the works were borrowed from the artists, who offered them for purchase. The first exhibitions included Albert Schmidt (10 paintings), Theodore Van Soelen (12 paintings), William Howard Shuster (12 paintings), Jozef Bakos (12 watercolors), Helmuth Naumer (11 pastels), Alfred Morang (12 paintings), and Ernest L. Blumenschein (12 paintings). In addition, museum personnel organized theme exhibitions of material drawn from the collections, including “Sacred Paintings on Skin”, “New Mexican Icons” (12 retablos), “New Mexico Indian Design” (18 pieces), and “New Mexico Domestic Architecture” (36 photographs). [1] [2]

The Department of Fine Arts and Extension
In 1947 the Museum of New Mexico was reorganized. The Museum Extension Services was combined with the newly established Fine Arts Department, and the traveling exhibitions program continued under the auspices of the Department of Fine Arts and Extension. By 1948 the program was serving 22 communities, and by 1949 the program was so popular that each community was limited to three exhibitions per year. In 1948 the Fine Arts Department organized its first nationally traveling exhibition, a selection of 24 paintings from the “Blumenschein Retrospective Exhibition”, which traveled to museums in Kansas City, Missouri, Wichita, Kansas, Dallas, Texas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Omaha, Nebraska, and Laramie, Wyoming. Venues paid transportation and insurance costs. During the 1950s, under the auspices of the Fine Arts Department, the traveling exhibitions program continued to flourish, along with the other extension services, serving 28 communities in 1954.

Museum on Wheels
On June 29, 1956, in what has been called the Greatest Public Works Project in History, the United States began building the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and the era of “Museums on Wheels”, or mobile museums, was not far behind. The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe launched one of the first mobile museums in the nation in 1957. Smaller versions of their on-site exhibitions were traveled throughout the state in a semi trailer truck. The program continued under the auspices of the International Folk Art Foundation until 1974, when it was transferred to the Museum of New Mexico.

Museum of New Mexico Education Division
In 1972, responsibility for traveling exhibits was transferred a newly created centralized Education Unit.[1] In 1985 the Museum of Fine Arts (now the New Mexico Museum of Art) began traveling its own exhibitions program for which it charged rental fees. Exhibitions included Randall Davey (1985), Joseph Fleck (1986-87), Marin Hennings (1987), Churches (1987), Laura Gilpin (1988-89), Paul Caponigro (1989), Ansel Adams (1989-90), Eliot Porter (1989-93), Will Shuster, William Howard Shuster (1990-91), and Art of New Mexico (1990).