More info + download application PDF HERE!
“Luz es Vida” Banners Up!
We are very excited (as you can see!) to announce that the “Luz es Vida” Banners have been installed in the local RTD Bus Stops in and around Questa. If you’re local, check them out next time you drive by!
Dan Simon, from RTD, joined us as we installed the first banner across from the Alta Vista School sign in Questa. He is pictured along with us, Joan Long and Claire Coté, below.
See a press release about the banners from RTD here: “Questa Students Bus Stop Banners.”
Click on the images below to view as a slideshow.
Students Shine at OCHO on Earth Day!
On April 22 – Earth Day, there was a full house at OCHO Art + Event Space. Bursting with youth creativity, color and light, the “Luz es Vida Earth Day Youth Performance Café” was full to capacity in more ways than one! Five large, brightly painted banners as well as some wonderful smaller works greeted guests as they entered the gallery space . Each one reflected the “Luz es Vida – Light is Life” theme in its own unique way through the creativity of the many youth hands (over 220!) that worked on them. (See photos of the making of the banners here.)
As the café tables and chairs filled with eager families and students from all three Questa District schools, teen volunteers circulated serving savory and sweet treats to audience members. The round, face-painting table occupied one corner of the room, where kids lined up to receive fun Earth-Day and Luz es Vida face designs on their faces. In the opposite corner was a craft table and buffet of recycled paper and crafting supplies.
Rio Costilla Learning Academy kicked off the performances with shadow and recycled puppet shows accompanied by songs, followed by Earth Day-themed songs, with some even original compositions, performed by Roots & Wings Community School Music program and a solo piano performance by one of its students. Next up was an El Rito homeschooler who dramatically recited a poem, followed by Alta Vista Intermediate students reading their own poems entitled “Where I am From” and “If I Ruled the World.” A collective, participatory rhythm-based rainmaking exercise punctuated by a student-made “rainbow” concluded the evening. Prompting the audience between acts was Gabe Rael with an “applause” sign. Another fun element was that besides our excellent MC for the event, students introduced their performances and provided information about their schools.
Click on images below for slideshow view; double click on slideshow to return to post.
A deep thank you to all of the dedicated volunteers for helping to make the event such a success; to Lynn Gitter and the banner-prep team, to Diane DeFremery and the art-workshop team; to kitchen master, Gaea McGahee, and our teen volunteers, to Olga Gressot and Starr for the delicious sweet treats, to Genevieve deVellis and Lillian Thibedeau for facilitating the recycled craft table, to stage management duo Alberta Bouyer and Jean Frey, to Tim Long – sound-man and event MC, and to Lisa Fox and Pete Mellon for the use of the café tables. Thanks also to the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area Fund (NRGNHAF) and Questa Economic Development Fund (QEDF) and individual donors as well as local businesses and “Luz es Vida” coalition partners for helping to promote the event. Big thanks to the teachers and school administrators for working with us and warm congratulations and gratitude to all of the students for sharing their creative visual and performative accomplishments with us. It takes a village to raise and Earth Day event!
LEAP Project leaders, Claire Coté and Joan long, feel that they can report without a doubt, that the event and project in general was a great success!
Keep your eyes out for the banners, soon to be relocated and installed in local NCRTD Blue Bus stops…..and don’t forget to mark your calendars for our other upcoming Luz es Vida Events in Questa!
“Luz es Vida” Earth Day Youth Performance Café
Join us for an Earth Day, Youth-Centered Celebration at OCHO Art + Event Space!
“Luz es Vida – Light is Life” banners painted by local students will illuminate the room while puppetry, live music and poetry light up the stage in this fun, family-friendly event celebrating the beautiful planet we live on! Participating students come from Alta Vista Elementary and Intermediate School, Costilla Academy, Roots & Wings Community School, as well as some local homeschooling families. Face-painting and a DIY recycled crafts table will round out the fun for the whole family. OCHO is a beautiful gallery, event and community space in downtown Questa, across from the Questa Visitors Center located in the old Centinel Bank building. The event is free and refreshments will be served. With this event the whole community is invited to join local students and their families in celebrating the creativity of our kids!
During March and April over 220 students from Alta Vista, Costilla Academy and Roots and Wings Schools have been busy painting large, 4 ft. x 9 ft. banners in workshops facilitated by LEAP (Land, Experience and Art of Place) project leaders and volunteers. The workshops were driven by the “Luz es Vida – Light is Life” theme, while students determined the content of their collaborative art. The banners will be unveiled at the Earth Day Performance Café at OCHO and will then be installed at the five bus stops in Questa and the surrounding communities of Lama, Costilla and Cerro.
The first Earth Day was celebrated 45 years ago on April 22, 1970. This holiday was created to mark the importance of keeping our planet healthy and to renew our commitment to make positive changes in our community. The Youth Performance Café continues this tradition right here in Questa in 2015.
See more here.
Luz es Vida: International Year of Light
It’s 2015 – The International Year of Light!
In proclaiming an International Year focusing on Light, UNESCO has recognized that light plays a vital role in our daily lives and is an important cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. On the most fundamental level through photosynthesis, light is necessary to the existence of life itself, and the many applications of light have revolutionized society through medicine, communications, entertainment and culture. Light-based technologies have opened up international communication via the Internet and continue to be central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society.
This year LEAP and its collaborators are putting a regional spin on this international theme: Luz es Vida – Light is Life. Light gives life everywhere, but especially here in northern New Mexico! Light supports our agricultural heritage, heats our homes, and is muse to many. Let’s not forget how our stunning NM light across sagebrush stopped a couple of artists in their tracks a hundred years ago. (They stayed in the Taos area and started the Taos arts colony!)
We hope you’ll join us for some of the Luz es Vida events and programs!
Luz es Vida Event + Program Schedule
March 9 – April 18: “Luz es Vida” painted banner workshops
Taking place at Questa Alta Vista Elementary and Intermediate School, Rio Costilla Southwest Learning Academy and Roots & Wings Community School.
June – September: Youth Wilderness Field Trips + Luz es Vida Workshops
Wilderness Field trips for local students, paired with innovative STEM + Art workshops. Students will interface with their environment in creative ways and expand their ideas about light.
April 22, 6 – 8 pm: Luz es Vida Earth Day Youth Performance Café
OCHO Art + Event Space, #8 State Hwy 38 (across from Questa Visitor Center)
Community Event showcasing “Luz es Vida” banners and performances by local students, in celebration of the Earth and this year’s event theme, “Luz es Vida” – Light is Life. FREE
June 5 – July 5: Luz es Vida Art Show: Light is Life – Small Works
OCHO Art + Event Space, #8 State Hwy 38, Questa
An open exhibition of small works by local, regional, traditional and experimental artists exploring the meaning of “Light.” Open Fridays – Sundays, 11 – 5 pm and by appointment. FREE
June 6, 5 – 8 pm: Opening Reception “Luz es Vida Art Show: Light is Life – Small Works”
OCHO Art + Event Space, #8 State Hwy 38, Questa
Reception kick-off for the new exhibition of small works by local and regional artists exploring the meaning of “Light”; live music, refreshments + event surprises FREE
July 18, 7 – 10 pm: “Luz es Vida: 20 Images x 20 Seconds + Many Stories” (PechaKucha)
Wild Rivers Visitor Amphitheater, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, Cerro
An evening of audio-visual shorts and creativity: presenters have 20 slides/20 seconds each to showcase local stories related to “Light.” $7/ticket + extra for optional, light, pre-show meal.
September 12, Afternoon – Evening: NeoRio 2015: Light is Life
Wild Rivers, RGDN National Monument
NeoRio featured artist lecture and artwork by optical + light artist, Ethan Jackson followed by an art-filled evening celebration; music, poetry + traditional local feast on the rim of the gorge. FREE
September 21 – December 11: Luz es Vida Rotating Youth Community Art Shows
Various locations in Questa
Artworks by local youth displayed in unexpected venues. FREE
October 3: Public Lands Day Volunteering + Eagle Rock Lake Reopening Celebration
Eagle Rock Lake, Questa
Morning beautification volunteering; midday meal, live music, + ribbon cutting ceremony. FREE
Sept. 6 – NeoRio 2014: Thinking Wilderness
Visit the NeoRio 2014 page for more details and to see the event press release!
Get directions and google map here.
Thinking Wilderness: The Art Show!
LEAP’s “Thinking Wilderness” event series in Questa, turns its attention, this month, to the visual arts!
Throughout history, artists have played an important role in defining our relationship with nature and “wilderness.” Prior to the 1800’s, most Western art was of religious scenes, allegory, or portraiture. Artists such as painters J. M. W. Turner and John Constable in Great Britain, began to rearrange the entire value system of Western culture, adding an element of awe and reverence for the inherent value of nature. In the United States, the work of nineteenth-century painters such as Albert Beirstadt, and Thomas Moran, inspired pride in America’s wild landscapes and an interest in preserving them.
Many artists today continue to build an appreciation for wilderness, offering emotional insights into the legacy of stewardship that is so important to the very self-image of Americans, and certainly to those of us in New Mexico. “Thinking Wilderness: The Art Show” shines a spotlight on this continuing legacy.
Join us for an evening of concise and diverse audio-visual presentations and storytelling following the popular “PechaKucha” format, which is sweeping the globe. Read more…
Calling ALL Wilderness Thinkers!
1964 to 2014: Marking the 50th anniversary of the USA’s Wilderness Act, LEAP’s new “Wilderness Thinkers in Residence” is a year-long, online residency project featuring diverse voices and creative works reflecting on Wilderness.
The residency program is actively seeking participants: there is no limit to how many people can participate; “Thinkers” can be from anywhere; and the only requirement is that creative works (essays, poems, songs, stories, drawings, paintings, videos, interviews etc.) relate to Wilderness. All Wilderness Thinkers’ reflections and creations will be archived on the project website and fifty-two people will be chosen as Featured Thinkers in Residence whose works will be highlighted and posted online weekly from September 3, 2014 – September 2, 2015. Register HERE!
The project is inspired by the succinct and poetic definition found in the Wilderness Act:
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
Seeding on Earth Day!
This year, LEAP is joining in the nationwide 50th anniversary celebration of the Wilderness Act with the theme “Thinking Wilderness” – including an online residency program and year-long series of local events.
“Thinking Wilderness” kicks-off on Earth Day with the “Seeds: Time Capsules of Wilderness” youth art show at OCHO, exploring the wild world of seeds as seen through young eyes. The show features works by over 270 students, preschool through sixth grade, from Questa Alta Vista Elementary, Rio Costilla Southwest Learning Academy, and Arroyos del Norte Elementary schools. The exhibition is the result of in-class workshops that we led in collaboration with SEED. (We are excited about this blossoming collaboration!)
“I don’t think kids tend to see seeds as a vital part of our lives and here they got to touch them and see them up close and I think that was really helpful for them,” says Mariquita Rael, Questa Alta Vista Elementary School Teacher, about the recent program in her classroom.
LEAP 
