Projects

Earth Day & Community Connection Days

Intergenerational Days of Service and Celebration
We organize an annual Earth Day event in collaboration with Questa Junior Senior High School and other collaborative days of service and connection.

On April 23, 2021, LEAP (Localogy), Vida del Norte’s Active8 youth, Taos Behavioral Health’s SUCCESS program youth, and the Village of Questa, came together on for a youth-centered park beautification and planning day. The event was such a roaring success, that collaborators decided on the spot to convene similar community-focused work days every month throughout the summer and fall. “Community Connection Days” is what we collaborators are calling this series of intergenerational days of community action, service and celebration. On the 3rd Friday of the month this spring, summer and fall we’re showing up for each other and our community, to show that we care and we want to help tend to and shape the future of our public spaces. They will take place in and around Questa, through October, 2021 on the third Friday of every month. We hope you will join us! Read more on the backstory HERE.

Voices of the Northern Rio Grande – QuestaStories.org

The Purpose of Voices of the Northern Rio Grande, is to establish a local oral history/story archive for North Central New Mexico, particularly for Questa and the surrounding communities, from Arroyo Hondo and Arroyo Seco to the South, to Costilla and Amalia and Garcia to the North.

Taking inspiration from both traditional oral history and ethnographic approaches, as well as less traditional methods – events, conversations and the StoryCorps interview model, we record and archive local stories and traditions through meaningful conversations that link generations and encourage cross-pollination of ideas, perspectives, experiences and understandings.

Enjoy the community archives at QuestaStories.org and Manitos Community Memory Project.

VNRG Archive Activations and Story Collection Events:

“Who Am I Now” Youth Quilts (permanent library acquisition for children’s library) debuted at WPA Photography Exhibition, Questa Library, September, 2024
Weekly Story Boxes archive activation at Questa Farmers Market, Sundays May – September, 2024
“Who Am I Now” Art and Story Workshop 2,3 and 5 Grade at Alta Vista Elementary School April – May, 2024
Weekly Story Boxes archive activation at Questa Farmers Market, Sundays May – September, 2023
Collaboration with E Pluribus Unum: Del Norte
Voices de Aquí weekly broadcast archive activation at Questa Farmers Market, Sundays May – September, 2022
NeoRio 2020: Home – Online Exhibition and Story-sharing
Women’s Tea and Story Sharing, November 16, 2019
Gathering Memory: Object, Photo and Story Workshop
July 8, 2018 Questa VFW Hall
Questa History and Community Trail Guided Walk, Saturday, June 2, 2018, Village Center
Cambalache, Sunday October 1, 2017, Questa Village Center

Oral History Outreach Events in 2016:

“Dia de Muertos” Community Celebration November, 2016
Questa student participation in The PASEO via a STEMarts Workshop
Questa High School participation in Storycorps’ “The Great Listen”

Voices of the Northern Rio Grande (fka Questa Stories) collaborates with Questa Public Library, Cultivo Project, the Manitos Community Memory Project and Questa History Trail

Seed Exchange at the Questa Library 2017 – 2021

There are two beautiful Seed Exchange Stations in Questa, “Auntie Nannie’s Seed Exchange” created by Alianza Agricultura and sponsored by the LOR Foundation. One has been placed at the beautiful Questa Library addition (a lovely upgrade to our temporary DIY system) and one is also available at Rael’s Store. We are so happy to be a part of this larger community project in Questa! Thank you Gillian Joyce and all those at Alianza Agricultura that made this possible and to LOR Foundation for sponsoring the project! Find out more about it HERE.

The Backstory….

We had long wanted to create a Seed Exchange/Library in Questa and we finally created one in 2017, thanks to the very generous collaboration of the Questa Library, which provided a place for it to live. The idea was to make seeds more readily available for people to plant and use in their own gardens and to provide a place for people to share their own, homegrown seeds with others. Seeds that are adapted to “life in the Questa area” are more likely to thrive here in our high desert climate. If you have an over abundance of radish, beans, kale, spinach, carrot, pea, lettuce or squash seeds, please bring them to the Questa Seed Library and share them with you neighbor. Or if you’re cleaning out your collection of seed packets, feel free to share them too. Donations are what keeps the program going. The idea behind the seed library is to encourage us all to get our hands in the dirt and grow more of our own food, herbs and flowers.
Come by the Questa Library and choose some seeds to try out in your garden! (The Questa Seed Library was launched on Earth Day 2017 and was kicked-off by a very generous donation of seeds from Alita Randolph. Also Special thanks to inspiration and wonderful instructions from Nan Fisher on her Taos Seed Exchange Website HERE.)

Northern NM Growers & Makers Exchange – 2016

As residents of northern New Mexico we make, grow, cook, bake and produce for our families and ourselves. When we have abundance – more garden veggies or choke cherries than we know what to do with – we need a solution. The Northern NM Growers and Makers Exchange serves as a local marketplace. Home bakers, jelly makers, gardeners, crafters, artists, cooks, seamstresses, leather and wood workers are invited to sell or exchange their wares. Through this exchange we localized our economic efforts and enlivened the public community space in downtown Questa. 2016 was our first season. In 2017 the Northern NM Growers and Makers became the Questa Farmers Market, it’s own program through Localogy. See the website HERE.

2016: Seasonal, outdoor market in Questa’s Village Center
June 12 – October 2, 2016
This seasonal weekly gathering enabled small-scale producers and makers to offer produce and wares in a central, outdoor setting once a week throughout the 2016 growing season. Read more….