[music] I'm Alexander Heffner, your host on The Open Mind.

I'm delighted to welcome our guest today, Juniper Leherissey.

She is executive director of the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico.

Welcome, Juniper.

Thank you so much for having me today, Alex.

It's a delight to be on the show.

It's a delight to have you.

I told you off camera that, New Mexico has been an amusement, fascination and great pleasure.

Over the course of my life.

And you are there in a place Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico, at a distinguished museum.

But some of our viewers may never, have heard of Taos, or the Harwood.

So I wanted to give you an opportunity to just to tell us what it's all about.

Yeah.

Taos is definitely a special place.

It's, off the beaten path, so you have to make a special effort to actually come here.

We are about, an hour and a half north of Santa Fe, which, of course, many people have, know about and have been to and a little bit south of the Colorado border.

We're up against the Rocky Mountains.

So, excellent right now for skiing and, just really an amazing place.

Part of it's, you know, aside from the landscape, which is obviously beautiful, it has just a very deep and rich history and culture and artistic culture at that.

So it's very close adjacent, downtown Taos is very close to the original Taos Pueblo, which is one of the longest inhabited, spaces, homes within the United States, within the Americas, well over a thousand years.

And, also a very rich colonial Spanish, Hispanic and, many other kind of, Latino influences.

So we have this rich, deep cultural history that then is layered with over a century of other artists being attracted to that beauty and, coming here to paint, to be artists, to share their work and to contribute to what we are today.

And how would you narrate the evolution of the artistic representation and legacy at the Harwood from its inception to the present?

How has it evolved over time, and what does it represent today?

Yeah.

So the Harwood Museum of Art is, well, is over 100 years old.

We, originated as the home of Burt and Lucy Harwood, hence the name.

And they came in 1916, actually straight from Europe.

They had been expats and studied there as artists at the Academy Julian and taught themselves.

But, they came, obviously from that generation who were painting, more realistic work, academically trained, European trained.

And that really became the beginning of Western art in northern New Mexico.

So the Taos Society of Artists is the group that's often attributed to that.

It starts in the late 1890s, with Joseph Sharp and, E. Ike Couse.

Joseph Sharp came to New Mexico and just really loved it.

Felt, was captivated by the land and the pueblo and the people and enjoyed painting here.

Of course, the light is amazing and it was a very, you know, very unusual place.

So if you're coming from the East coast and you land here, it's unlike anything else you've ever seen.

So he starts to rave about the southwest and what he's seen and says, oh, everyone must go here and paint.

And he was raving in Paris because he was, at the Academy Julian, Burt and Lucy Harwood were there, not exactly contemporaneously, a few years later, when they eloped and, moved there, but, in that early 1890s, you know, Ernest Blumenschein, Bert Phillips, they came out and you might have heard the story of the wagon wheel breaking and those artists landing in Taos.

So anyway, that evolved over the next couple decades to be the Taos Society of Artists, which was founded in 1915.

That really was a promotional group.

It really was.

You know, when you're in rural New Mexico, how do you make a living?

So, getting the word out about the West, they became the poster children for the railroads, kind of promoting, this different view, I would say, of what, the Native American culture, you know, instead of the wild, wild West and kind of the Remington conquering the West.

This was, domestic scenes.

It was, pastoral.

It was touted for the beauty, you know, of course, it's westward expansion.

So kind of that started it.

And so we have this influence of the more European trained realist artists coming.

And, I mean, it was a dusty town.

It still is, but it was a dusty town at that time.

But, the word of it came and really many, many people came despite the challenges of traveling, You think it's hard to get here now.

It was really hard back then.

And then we had this other influence that happened almost at the same time.

So 1916, Mabel Dodge Luhan, who is a name that is maybe not very well known.

However, many people know who Georgia O'Keeffe might be, or DH Lawrence or, Paul Strand or Ansel Adams or, other artists like that.

Well, she was responsible for bringing, you know, Marsden Hartley, Andrew Dasburg, John Marin, just dozens of visual artists, Carl Young, Isadora Duncan, Willa Cather, you know, you name it, she was, very, very influential at who she brought to Taos.

She invited them.

She invited them to come and stay.

She fell in love with, a man from Taos Pueblo, Tony Luhan.

Hence the name.

She did, anglicized it to be an H instead of the J. That's the traditional, Spanish spelling of that.

But she was hugely influential.

So you think of the East Coast of New York and California being the big hubs for art, but because of these different confluences of influences, Taos, all of a sudden early, early in the 20th century, becomes a hub of modernism.

So we have Andrew Dasburg, we have artists that are starting to work in abstraction, you know.

So, Mabel Dodge was influential in the 1913 Armory Show.

So that was a pivotal moment in American art, where abstraction, where we're kind of, you know, what we were claiming as our art, our American art.

And she was one of the curators in there, of course, with, influenced also involved where like, Stieglitz, Alfred Stieglitz, and others.

So unlike, you know, so you think of mid-century modernism and that's almost postwar.

But in Taos, it was actually happening contemporaneously with the movements in New York and in California.

So we are building, you know, artists are being invited by Mabel Dodge Luhan.

Artists are being invited by Harwood, Lucy and Bert Harwood to stay at their home, and then that just keeps layering.

The Harwood came, was a home as I mentioned before, they intentionally created it so that artists could live here for periods of time.

And many did.

You know, it's one of the stories is that when Georgia O'Keeffe got kicked out of Mabel Dodge's, she came over here to stay here.

So, at the Harwood and, so, they were influential in having and starting to build people coming to Taos as artists.

The Harwood, became one of the first nonprofits and also museums and cultural arts spaces.

In 1923, after Bert Harwood passed, Lucy Harwood founded the foundation.

And, we started as a public library because, partially, because she realized that the town didn't have a library.

Artists gathered here.

They critiqued each other's work.

They went out and painted, they started to display work, etc.

we had a small museum, very different, but we are considered the second, oldest museum in New Mexico.

And for the majority of the 20th century, we were publicly known as the Harwood Public Library.

In 1920s, however, 1929, we started an affiliation with the University of New Mexico, and we became the UNM Field School of Art.

So, just like, there's the UNM Field school for, archeology.

We were the parallel for art.

And every summer there were these teachers a lot that Mabel Dodge brought in, like Andrew Dasburg or, you know, Ward Lockwood, etc.

these names may not be known in the global, art canon.

You might see them sometimes because you come to Taos to become unknown sometimes.

But they were amazing teachers.

And so the art, the students from Albuquerque, from the UNM master's program, which was renowned, would come up to Taos and study.

So that started happening in 1920s and went all the way up into the 1950s.

And, really had some very influential artists that participated, including Agnes Martin, who the gallery behind me is, one of our featured, spaces in our, in our museum.

And it's a permanent installation of seven works by Agnes Martin, one of the preeminent, moderns.

She actually is Canadian originally, but lived and worked in the US for many, many years.

And so, these works were gifted by Agnes Martin and are on permanent display.

The Harwood, when we built this building really in the 90s is when we became a museum, and dedicated our entire, mission to being a museum.

So 30 years really, since then.

And, we just continue to try and, evolve and, meet the world, where it is in the art, while still representing some of our historical, art movements.

So one question about your background.

You're enticing our viewers to check out the museum, right?

Or are those the artworks?

Are you or is that white, like just concealing what people would actually see if they came?

Well, they are very subtle work.

So if you're familiar with Agnes Martin, I mean, they probably in an image they, you have to almost see them.

But if you're familiar with Agnes Martin's work, this is somewhat iconic of what she's known for.

She of course, painted many, many things.

But she decided when she hit the grid, that really became her exercise.

And so they're very subtle and, they're blue and white.

You can see the, the marking of her washes, and her pencil lines in them.

So it may not be it's very different from... No I just want to make sure our viewers are not missing anything.

but I can testify to the fact that if you go to the Harwood, if you go to the Anderson Museum in Roswell, and of course, if you go to, any of the museums in Santa Fe, Georgia O'Keeffe, most recognizably it's really extraordinary, like you said, akin to New York, Paris, LA.

it is an oasis, a cultural, artistic oasis.

I was particularly struck because it was more unsung when I visited the Anderson Museum.

The contemporary works there were also pretty stunning, across, decades.

What I want to ask you about, art right now, the art that we interpret, art that inspires us, and art that we want to uphold for generations.

In a society that's so driven now by attachment to digital technology, where do you see as an executive director of an art museum and a distinguished one, where do you see your place in the ecosystem?

In that oasis that is represented in New Mexico for the southwest?

What's your place and what do you think arts place is in the cultural, consciousness of the country right now?

I think there's a few questions in there for sure.

So, you know, I mean, it's in regard to.

So, yes, our society and our world over the last really two decades is just, I mean, three decades, but really the last two decades on hyperspeed, you know, the digital, consumption of, images and objects is really the norm, right?

So to stop and slow down and come into a museum and sit in front of an art object or even paint an object like, we live in a very rapid society, you know, we don't.

It seems like we don't have time to even stop and view work, much less do it.

And, you know, so I don't know, I mean, I think there is an experience in slowing down and walking through a space and, and experiencing history, if you would, through objects which I believe that, part of what we convey when we're installing exhibitions, when we're curating, not me, myself, but my team, is telling a story through objects, right?

There's a lot of nuance in that and you almost have to slow down.

You know, I think also technology has infused our artwork.

It's a tool.

It can be a real tool.

I mean, our entire collection is digitized, that's a tool, with digitization, and there's artwork that is, you know, using generative AI right now that is actually is quite remarkable.

And you couldn't achieve that result with it, and not all of it.

But I think if you use it as a tool rather than a replacement, you are not going to walk into our museum and see everything digitized.

That doesn't mean that we have not had exhibitions that explore contemporary conversations, using digital media and digital art that, you know, we are open to that.

Although we are in a historic building for the most part, we do have some contemporary spaces.

But like, but so, digital, I mean, there's a lot of pieces of this conversation potentially.

But, you know, we're not necessarily going to have, a full digital immersive experience when you walk in right here.

Right?

It's, you're really slowing down and looking at the objects.

However, I think art, digital, technology has influenced art in a, really, you know, in some interesting ways.

And also the access to information, access to visual imagery changes how we, how an artist might present things like that fluidity, cross cultural, just millions and millions and millions of images influence what we produce as a creative culture.

I think the counter to that I might say is, and I think this is maybe happening, more recently, like just even maybe in the last five years, ten years, maybe since Covid, I don't know.

Is maybe a reaction against all that digitization.

I've heard people saying the year, the word of the year analog, you know, the, I've seen young people like my son, you know, picking up the 35 millimeter, you know, Hasselblad, you know, camera to, like, figure out how to do film, you know, so I think there is also a reaction against the digitization and that quick paced to move back to materiality.

I mean, I think we'll see, at least I've seen hints of it now of, a lot of celebration of, older processes.

Going back to making things, you know, making paper from scratch or, doing the entire process.

I mean, of course I've seen it on Instagram, you know, but like of, you know, how to reverse the technology.

And I think some of our upcoming exhibitions also slow down and look at medium, in a different way and kind of go back to materiality.

And I think more specifically, I think about the question of integrity in the art form itself.

And, it sounds like there are two camps, at least two schools of thinking about whether the continued digitization of art is, either, an asset or a hindrance.

And, there's not really, a consensus view on that at the moment.

I think it's, it's both is what I hear you saying.

Yeah, I mean, I don't have a judgment of whether one's better or, you know, or worse.

I think that we do lose something in experience by, you know, always having to experience the world through our phones.

You know, so do we really look in the same way?

Do we really take time to create in the same way?

-I don't know.

You know, -No.

Sometimes.

I think there's things gained and there's things lost, right?

Yeah.

Well, I'm asking you now about this because, one of your exhibitions right now is Pursuit of Happiness, GI Bill in Taos.

And it harkens back to an era when, we were supporting not only aspiring doctors and lawyers, with the GI Bill, but.

But artists who were the beneficiaries of, wanting to, study art and practice art, tell our viewers about this exhibition, this gallery you have opened right now.

Sure.

And it's actually, an entire floor, but multiple galleries.

So, this exhibition came out really, one of the curators of the southwest, MaLin Wilson-Powell, has been dedicating, decades of research to this.

When she realized, really nothing had ever been written on the influence of the GI Bill on the arts, now, thousands of artists benefited from you know, from Ad Reinhardt I mean, there's the list is, actually quite remarkable.

Richard Diebenkorn.

A ton of artists benefited from the GI Bill.

So going back to post-World War two, right?

A ton of individuals.

I mean, more people went internationally and were involved in that war than ever.

It changed what people saw in the world.

And people, you know, all of a sudden people were working together, whether they were rich or poor, African American or Native American.

We had the code talkers.

We had, you know, this mash up of America, you know, in the trenches, in essence.

But when they were coming back, the United States was worried about going back into a Great Depression.

Right?

So we didn't want everyone to be unemployed and come back.

So the solution at that time was and the GI Bill I think still exists, it just is not as prevalent, was to offer an educational stipend to do whatever you wanted.

Whatever eligible school was available, you could go, you could take that stipend and go to school.

Tens of thousands of people went back to school on that stipend, and that included, art schools.

So all of a sudden, instead of people from just higher income backgrounds or, you know, the, basically people who didn't have to work going and studying art abroad in Europe and coming back and being artists.

All of a sudden it opened it up to so many more people who could actually practice art.

And a lot of artists came out of that.

So this story at the Harwood, The Pursuit of Happiness, focuses in on that narrative in Taos.

We, like I mentioned before, you know, there was all this layering of different, individuals hosting artists and whatnot, well there were also these art schools.

So the UNM Field School of Art was one of those located at the Harwood.

So you could use your GI Bill to do that.

You could use your GI Bill to go to the Taos Valley Art school, which was Louis Ribak and B Mandelman, and also the other art school that was here at the time was Emil Bisttram's art school.

Emil Bisttram was a co-founder of the transcendental movement with, Raymond Jonson.

And so, you know, artists like, Agnes Pelton had a big national exhibition recently.

And so she's probably one of those individuals that is now recognized as the transcendental movement artist.

So all of a sudden, so we have these three schools that students from all over, from and even from our local Taos Pueblo, could participate in art school and they are here all together.

You know, it's a small community.

So you're making friends with artists.

You are, you know, there's this exchange.

The Harwood, of course, was at the center of that and being a space for exhibition, and even, you know, the Bisttram, was actually just next door and the UNM field school was in our doors.

So, we were really central to that story.

And, it's really amazing because, a lot of what came out of that was new versions of abstraction, of, you know, think of Jackson Pollock and, kind of the AbEx movement and the like.

So you've got all of a sudden this a lot of cross-pollination of these artists, but mostly in the abstraction.

Also other artists also attended schools, like the Black Mountain College, went to school in Paris, California school, Diebenkorn for instance, was in California then came to UNM.

And so the New Mexico landscape, the New Mexico environment ended up then being the subject matter, or at least the impressionistic subject matter for so many of these artists.

And then, infused back into you may not realize it, but like when you look at paintings, when you're in most museums, they may be influenced by this huge density of artists that ended up studying and working in New Mexico and specifically in Taos.

Before we close, why did you and your curator call it The Pursuit of Happiness or Pursuit of Happiness?

Was that, a nod to, the declaration?

Was that a nod to, the idea that, people's professional lives in their, engagement in artistic life could, you know, coexist, in a way that was durable and livable?

Yeah.

It was a nod to the, to the Declaration of Independence, for sure.

You know, I think one thing I was, referencing in kind of where we are as an institution, but also materiality.

Is in the summer we have a, very significant exhibition that features, one of the things that we try and do as a museum is really be grounded in where we are, but also have, national, international relevance.

And so we have an exhibition coming up, Unearthing Futures, that, showcases five different artists, including, Rafa Esparza, who is, mostly based out of LA, Mexican American.

Gabriel Chaile who's Argentinian, was just in the Venice Biennale.

Ronald Rael, who does, incredible works, in 3D printed Adobe.

The entire theme of this exhibition is Adobe.

So all the artists are working in, that medium and also, but very much rooted in the tradition and history here.

Yeah, well, we're just about out of time.

But I do encourage all of our viewers to check out, the Harwood, make a visit to Taos.

And, to be continued.

Juniper, thank you for your insight today.

And thank you for sharing the story of the Harwood and the art you represent.

Thank you very much.

[music] Please visit the Open Mind website at thirteen.org/openmind.

Download the podcast on Apple and Spotify.

And check us out on X, Instagram, and Facebook.

Continuing production of The Open Mind has been made possible by grants from Vital Projects Fund, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Ploughshares Fund, Angelson Family Foundation, Robert and Kate Niehaus Foundation, Grateful American Foundation, and Draper Foundation.