University Museum
Exhibition Archive
Past Exhibits
"The Pasternack Collection of African Art"
February 8 through June 23, 2007
This unique exhibit shows selected art pieces collected by the late Steve Pasternack, who taught at NMSU for twenty-one years in the Journalism and Mass Communications Department, serving as head of the department from 1994 to 2002.
The pieces were collected by Steve during numerous travels to Rwanda and elsewhere trying to help African universities establish good journalistic practices. The pieces include masks, sculptures, baskets and various other representations of African peoples’ life and culture.
A reception with refreshments will be held in the Museum lobby Thursday evening, February 8 at 6:00 pm, followed by a talk celebrating Steve Pasternack’s passion for Africa.
"Africa: From Eritrea with Love"
February 8 through June 23, 2007
This exciting exhibit is a collection of 13 paintings by Betty LaDuke, an Ashland, Oregon author and artist who traveled to East Africa numerous times capturing the essence of traditional aspects of African lives in modern times.
Betty’s vibrant and colorful paintings are based on sketches made during eight journeys to Eritrea, a small nation on the Horn of Africa, from 1994 to 1998. The rhythms of life and cultural diversity of the proud, dynamic people of Eritrea, one of Africa's newest nations, inspired this series of painting.
Throughout her career, LaDuke has traveled extensively and experiences with cultural diversity form the basis of her art work.
Neanderthals
This exhibit explores a unique fossil human’s place in our family tree. Displays include a Neanderthal burial as well as the stone tools that weremade and used by this species. The exhibit presents the controversy about whether Neanderthals are our direct ancestors or a close relative, but one that we are not descended from. Curated by Dyanna Morkun, M.A. Anthropology candidate at NMSU.
Temple of the Warriors: Rebuilding a Maya Monument
A traveling exhibit presented by the University Colorado Museum of Natural History offers a look at life on an excavation and the dedicated individuals who undertook this work.
In 1924, archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris became part of an unparalleled restoration effort in the heart of the Yucatan peninsula. Embedded in acolossal mound of earth in the ancient city of Chichén Itzá lay the majestic Temple of the Warriors. Over the next four years, stone by stone, the grand edifice of the Temple was restored. In a landmark agreement with the Mexican government, only scientific information would be gathered, leaving all cultural material at the site. Upon completion, knowledge gained through excavation provided an unprecedented insight into one of the greatest ancient civilizations of the Americas. "...of all the places I have been and...things I have seen, nothing exceeds...the years I spent in the steaming Yucatan jungles where great white temples rise from tangled deep green forests, lonely and desolated since the day Columbus sighted first land of the New World."– Ann Morris
Kipp Ruin: a Prehistoric Mogollon Pueblo
This exhibit features pottery, stone tools, and other artifacts from a pueblo eight miles east of Deming, NM that is being investigated by NMSU Anthropology professor, Dr. William H. Walker. Kipp Ruin sits on the banks of the now dry lower Mimbres River and was inhabited for 2,000 years, at its earliest by pithouse dwelling farmers to the last occupants, adobe pueblo dwellers of the Casas Grandes culture period (1300-1450). This exhibit, curated by Amanda Stroud, M.A. Anthropology candidate at NMSU, was designed for the visually impaired.