The late 1920's was the golden age of movie palaces, those elaborate showcases for films and stage shows. Albuquerque got one in 1927, the KiMo , which this month celebrates its 90th birthday. But the KiMo was different from other movie palaces, with a style all its own: architecture and decoration unique to the Southwest. Professor Chris Wilson, from the UNM School of Architecture & Planning's Landscape Architecture Department , joins us to discuss "Pueblo Deco," the popular but short-lived

A new contemporary art museum is looking for an innovative light fixture to welcome visitors into its lobby. That was the fictional problem posed to design students at universities throughout the country in the 2017 Robert Bruce Thompson Student Light Fixture Design Competition . Two of the top three honors in the competition went to students at the University of New Mexico's School of Architecture & Planning , Madison Wickstrom and Arjun Bhakta. Madison, who graduated this spring, joined us

"One forges one's style on the terrible anvil of deadlines." So said prolific writer Émile Zola. Albuquerque's Blackout Theatre Company challenges local theater artists to a 24-hour deadline -- they have just one day to write and stage a new one-act play. The various results, 24/7, will be performed for the public on August 12. Blackout company member Heather Yeo says the short deadline encourages the participants to "take artistic risks, big choices, that they might talk themselves out of if

One of the ways in which the University of New Mexico collaborates with the City of Albuquerque is through the City's Public Art Urban Enhancement Division, which supports Albuquerque's fine arts projects. The Division and UNM joined forces in 2015 to create an off-campus gallery that showcases student artists alongside local artists. The College of Fine Arts (CFA) Downtown Studio is located just off Central at 4th and Copper. Directing the gallery and performance space is UNM graduate student,

For the past five years, young composers who are out on their own for the first time and discovering what it means to be professional have found themselves invited to spend a week at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival . The seven-day workshop centers on a string quartet that each young composer has written especially for Santa Fe, and also includes rehearsals and discussions with the Flux Quartet and finally performances of the new works in a Festival concert .

The world thrives on innovation, but what role can innovation play in an art form based on tradition? Folk art is about traditional materials, traditional techniques, and generations-old ideas of craft and style. The organizers of The International Folk Art Market | Santa Fe struck a balance between innovation and tradition by creating a new section for the 2017 Market, taking place July 14-16 on Museum Hill. Judith Espinar, who co-founded the event in 2004, says that this new section,

Subhankar Banerjee is an internationally known writer, environmental activist and scholar. He is also an extraordinary photographer and has said that photography, for him, is a portal to activism and knowledge. Several of his large-scale photographs of Arctic Alaska are now on display in Long Environmentalism in the Near North, Subhankar Banerjee: Activism – Photographs – Writing at the UNM Art Museum in Albuquerque. Banerjee heads the Land Arts of the American West program at UNM, where he also

Four years ago, the Santa Fe Symphony collaborated with the local think tank, the Santa Fe Institute , on a program for all ages that combined music with entertaining educational demonstrations. The Majesty of Music & Mathematics caused a lot of excitement and it will return to the Lensic Center on June 19. The performance will be taped for broadcast on New Mexico PBS. Back in 2013, the host of the program, Santa Fe Institute mathematician and scientist Dr. Cris Moore, explained to KUNM that

With digital projections and multi-channel videos, electronic artist Marcus Zúñiga is offering us a unique look at the cosmos. His installation Ya Veo (Spanish for "I see") is on view June 10 and 11 at the No Land Art Space on the Santa Fe Plaza, as part of the opening weekend for the 2017 Currents New Media Festival. For Marcus, a 2013 UNM graduate, inspiration comes from the imagery, drawings and codices of Aztec astronomy. He hopes that Ya Veo will help visitors "learn something new about

Distinguished Professor of History at the University of New Mexico Dr. Paul A. Hutton specializes in U.S. history and history of the American West. But he is also a scholar of film and popular culture, and he has curated an exhibit on view through August at the Albuquerque Museum, Hollywood Southwest: New Mexico in Film and Television . Dr. Hutton explains that New Mexico's brilliant light and reliably good weather, along with a variety of usable locations, have drawn filmmakers to the state