New exhibit:
Meet the Producer:
Jinglebob Land & Cattle LLC
The rotating Meet the Producer exhibit in the Museum's Horse & Cattle Barn now features the Jinglebob Land & Cattle LLC in Anthony, N.M. John and Keri Guldemann are natives of El Paso and met in 1976 while attending Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. After managing ranches in both New Mexico and Texas, they purchased half of the Criollo cows and bullsfrom the Diamond A ranch and started their own ranching enterprise, Jinglebob LTD, a registered cow calf operation selling heifer bulls. In order for their son to attend public school, they left the Big Bend Ranch State Park in 1991 and moved to Marfa, Texas to ranch and eventually landed near Animas, New Mexico in 1995.
This move to New Mexico opened up a new market for their Criollo cattle to the team roping industry which was a fast growing sport in America at the time. Leasing roping cattle provides an income from the livestock while they are young, and later the steer or heifer can be sold or retained for the beef cattle market.
After many years of ranching, the Guldemanns decided to return to the area and settle in Anthony where they now finish and market Criollo cattle. They have created their own market selling their product at farmer's markets. You can find them at the Las Cruces Farmer's Market or the Arovino's Desert Crossings Famer's Market in Sunland Park.
Crafts for Kids:
Something for Mom
May 5, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Children are invited to come make a craft for Mother's Day. The activity is free with regular paid Museum admission, and no registration required. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, $3 for children 4 to 17, and free for children 3 and under.
The Museum's 20th Anniversary Celebration
Blessing of the Fields
May 15, 10-11 a.m.
The Museum celebrates an old, historical tradition with the annual Blessing of the Fields. The procession is the start of a weeklong celebration commemorating the opening of the Museum on May 17, 1998. Visitors can join the colorful, music-filled procession around the Museum's campus as the livestock, plants, water, and bread are blessed in the tradition of the day. Piñata making (and busting) also is part of the fun. Admission to participate in the procession is free.
Brown Bag Lunch & History Talk
May 17, 12-1 p.m.
As part of the weeklong celebration of the Museum's 20th Anniversary, the public is invited to a brown bag lunch and history talk featuring a local historian. Drinks and dessert will be provided for this free program inside the Museum's Organ View Terrace, but participants must bring their own lunch. This program is in lieu of the regular, monthly Culture Series.
New Mexico Vintage Iron
May 18, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
As part of the weeklong activities celebrating the Museum's 20th Anniversary, the New Mexico Vintage Iron tractor club will be on site May 18-19. The group will have antique tractors on display, as well as lawn tractors, hit-and-miss engines, a grist mill and rope making. They also will have lawn and garden tractor sled pulls, as well as parades and cart rides. Regular Museum admission is required on May 18: $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, $3 for children 4 to 17, and free for children 3 and under, as well as Museum Friends members.
'Sodbuster, San Isidro' Sculpture Reception
May 18, 5-8 p.m.
This reception and lecture are part of the weeklong celebration of the Museum's 20th Anniversary. The Museum's new lobby showpiece is the Luis Jiménez sculpture, "Sodbuster, San Isidro." The unveiling and reception will include drinks and hors d'oeuvres.
Following the early portion of the reception, Christian Waguespack, the Curator of 20th Century Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, will speak in the Theater about the late artist and his work, including this dramatic, fiberglass sculpture.
Jiménez, who died in 2006 at his studio in Hondo, N.M., was born in El Paso in 1940. He was best known for his large-scale, brightly colored sculptures steeped in the Mexican-American culture of New Mexico and Texas. Jiménez used fiberglass and spray paint in much of his work. Jiménez's works were considered controversial by the art world yet respected in Hispanic communities for his ability to poignantly represent a different perspective and narrative of the history and culture of Mexico and the Southwest.
His works are in the collections of the Albuquerque Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the El Paso Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others.
Admission is free to the reception and lecture.
20th Anniversary Celebration Day
May 19, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A day of fun wraps up the weeklong activities celebrating the opening of the Museum 20 years ago. The 20th Anniversary Celebration Day features tractors from New Mexico Vintage Iron, the Parade of Breeds cattle program, demonstrations, the Museum's chuck wagon, pony rides, living history characters, food vendors, children's games, a plant sale, and all of the Museum's usual offerings.
New Mexico Vintage Iron will have antique tractors on display, as well as lawn tractors, hit-and-miss engines, a grist mill and rope making. They also will have lawn and garden tractor sled pulls, as well as parades and cart rides.
The special admission rate for this day is only $5 per carload.
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum
4100 Dripping Springs Road
Las Cruces, NM 88011
(575) 522-4100
www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org
A Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs