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ENC S23-16:The Food Depot: Northern New Mexico’s Food Bank
Kira Howard & Mary Ferguson
Tues, Jan 17 1:00-3:00 pm
In-Person Only $20
The Food Depot is northern New Mexico’s food bank. Now in our 29th year, The Food Depot is the backbone of hunger relief in nine counties in northern New Mexico. Half of our operations are devoted to serving 81 partner agencies in 143 locations with the food their clients need; the other half is direct service programs we design and staff ourselves. Come learn more about our history, our robust volunteer program, and the vital role we play in food insecurity.
Kira Howard (BA, Ph.D., The University of Melbourne in Australia, MA University of Washington) serves as The Food Depot Director of Development, where she is responsible for fundraising, including individual, business, legacy, and foundation giving, The Food Depot volunteer Mary Ferguson (BA in History, MA in Public Administration, Indiana University) worked in marketing at Quaker Oats, Citibank, and Dish Network. Mary organized the 2022 Neighbor-to-Neighbor Fund Drive benefitting The Food Depot.
ENC S23-19: Celebrating The New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary
Mark White
Tues, Jan 17 3:15-5:15 pm
In-Person Only $20
Located in Santa Fe’s historic Railyard District, the Vladem Contemporary is one of North America’s most innovative spaces for creating, learning about, and appreciating contemporary art. The new space includes an education center, flexible exhibition space, an artist-in-residence program, exterior displays, and outdoor spaces for community gatherings. Executive Director Dr. Mark White describes and displays images of the Vladem’s inaugural exhibition and discusses the educational and social programming planned for the Vladem’s first year.
New Mexico Museum of Art Executive Director Mark Andrew White (PhD in Art History, University of Kansas) joined the New Mexico Museum of Art in 2020. He spent 11 years at the Fred J. Jones Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, including as Director from 2015-2020. Mark also taught Art History at Oklahoma State University for eight years.
ENC S23-18: The Sky Center/New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project: Meeting the Challenge of Youth Suicide through Resiliency, Courage, Connection, and Hope
Carlotta Saiz
Wed, Jan 18 10 am-12 noon
In-Person Only $20
For over 20 years, the Sky Center/NMSIP has addressed the risk of youth suicide in Santa Fe and northern New Mexico. This presentation will look at the high rate of youth suicide by providing an overview of our programs, ranging from prevention to early intervention to postvention. We will also cover the Sky Center’s Toolkit for Wellbeing, our unique approach to reduce risk and increase protection by enhancing wellbeing.
Carlotta Saiz, LPCC, a graduate of Southwestern College, serves as the Clinical Program Director at the Sky Center/The New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project. She spent the first half of her career in Chicago, where she worked with at-risk youth and their families and taught mental health first aid to community members. She has spoken on the topic of youth suicide prevention to various audiences throughout New Mexico.
ENC S23-03: Benedictine Monastics in New Mexico: Continuing a 15-Century Tradition
Brother Chrysostom
Mon, Jan 23 1:00-3:00 pm
In-Person Only $20
Founded in 1964, the Monastery of Christ in the Desert near Abiquiu provides the home for a community of Benedictine monks, as well as a guesthouse for private retreats. This presentation details the origins, history, and current status of the Monastery. The instructor will also examine the origins, history, and current reality of Benedictine monasticism. Finally, Brother Chrysostom will discuss what it means to be a monk, including vows, roles, and daily life.
ART S23-08: Textile Fiestas of Mexico
Sheri Brautigam
Wednesday, Jan 18 1:00-3:00 pm
In-Person $20
This course will follow the format of Sheri Brautigam’s guidebook, Textile Fiestas of Mexico, that explores the most popular celebrations and artisan fairs in the Mexican states of Michoacan, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. The course will introduce students to traditional textiles still produced by skilled artisans, textiles that are important indicators of their indigenous identities. The instructor visited these fairs over a five-year period. With her guidance and countless images of places, people, and textiles, the student will experience the culture, dances, ceremonies, and markets of these beautiful celebrations. Let’s GO!!
Sheri Brautigam (MA, Teaching Language) began her adult education studying Latin American History in Mexico City, where her passion for Mexican culture and textiles began. Sheri had a textile design studio in San Francisco for 20 years and taught marketing and design to other textile artists. After moving to New Mexico 30 years ago, Sheri embraced interests in travel and collecting and taught English as a Second Language for Adults at SFCC. She received an English Language Fellowship with the US State Department and trained Mexican English teachers in Central Mexico. During this four-year period, she rediscovered traditional Mexican textiles. Sheri is eager to share her journey.
THR S23-02: Four Plays About Sex
Mark Tiarks
Mon, Jan 23, 30, Feb 6, 13 10:00 am-12:00 In-Person, $80
In this course, students will discuss four plays on this popular subject dating from 411 BCE to 2015. In Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (411 BCE), the women of Athens join to withhold sex from their husbands and boyfriends until they end the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. In William Wycherley’s comedy The Country Wife (1675), Harry Horner falsely claims to be impotent, thus gaining easy access to seduce the wives of several friends. Before becoming a blond bombshell in Hollywood films, Mae West wrote and starred in Sex, a play centered on a group of pimps and prostitutes, which was so racy the police shut it down and judges sentenced West to ten days in the workhouse. Finally, in Indecent (2015), Paula Vogel recounts the controversy around the 1925 Broadway staging of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, the first American Broadway play to depict a lesbian relationship onstage.
Mark Tiarks writes on cultural issues for The Santa Fe New Mexican and has taught RENESAN classes on opera, musical theater, film, and literature. He has served as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater and Producing Director of Chicago’s Court Theatre. He majored in dramatic literature at Carleton College, studied theater and opera for a year as a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellow, and was the Producing Director of Chicago’s Court Theatre, which specialized in classic drama.
HIS S23-02 or HIS S23-02-Z: Mikhail Gorbachev: His Life & Legacy, 1931–2022
K Paul Jones
Thurs, Jan 19, 26 10 am–noon
Hybrid (ZOOM or In-Person), $40
Mikhail Gorbachev’s death last August awakened interest in his role in both the collapse of the Soviet satellite empire in 1989 and then the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
This course will focus on those years but will begin with his early life, followed by his rise to national prominence and selection as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Students will then examine Gorbachev’s efforts to transform the Soviet Union via glasnost and perestroika and his efforts to end the Cold War by replacing the Soviet empire with what he called a “European Common House.” What resulted was not what he had hoped to achieve, but he remained proud of his legacy.
K. Paul Jones, retired professor of Modern European History, has enjoyed teaching for RENESAN since 2006. He has offered several courses about Russia from Stalin to Putin. Last semester he lectured on Ukraine & Russia: A Troubled Relationship—From Imperial Russia to Vladimir Putin.
CE S23-01: Moving Upstream: Sexual Violence Prevention in New Mexico
Jess Clark
Thurs, Jan 19 1–3 pm
In-Person $20
Sexual violence prevention is a relatively new field within the larger anti-sexual violence movement. Because of the field’s youth, New Mexico is still learning how to implement effective prevention strategies responsive to our state’s specific needs. Many community members lack context, direction, and a role to play. In this discussion class, the instructor will guide participants through prevention theory, explore how we move beyond barriers to social change, discuss the landscape of prevention programming in NM, and show students how we can all use story-telling to engage our own communities in prevention efforts. This presentation will help participants understand the role they can play and will leave them with hope for the future of sexual violence prevention.
Jess Clark is the Director of Sexual Violence Prevention for the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, a consultant for Catharsis Productions in Chicago, IL, a transgender education consultant, and the host of Both/And: A Sexual Violence Prevention Podcast. His work over the last decade has focused on increasing youth capacity to interrogate systems of oppression, exploring queer and trans masculinities as sites of violence prevention, supporting organizations to better serve transgender communities through developing policies and best practices, and learning to be like his grandma.
