Philadelphia's Center for Architecture and Design hosts an annual competition for design students at universities around the world. This year, the Center's challenge was to find new ways for Philadelphia to connect its residents and visitors with the city's cultural and natural resources. The first prize went to Sam Fantaye, a third-year student in the graduate Landscape Architecture program at the University of New Mexico's School of Architecture and Planning .

After striking it rich in the 1870's with a mine outside Silver City, prospector H. B. Ailman built a grand mansion in the downtown. The house traded hands many times over the years, then fell into disrepair. Restored by the city in 1967, it became the home of the Silver City Museum , whose collection documents the history of the city and southwestern New Mexico with over 40,000 historical photographs and objects.

Soon after graduating from college in 2008, Francisco Cantú joined the United States Border Patrol. He spent the next four years as an agent, mostly in the field along the U.S./Mexico borders of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. His very personal memoir of that time, and its aftermath, is The Line Becomes A River, Dispatches From The Border , just published by Penguin's Riverhead Books.

The kids of the Santa Fe Youth Symphony will be given unique access this month to some distinquished professional musicians. The Harlem Quartet , currently in residence at London's Royal College of Music, will lead a week-long series of workshops for the young musicians along with Cuban composer and pianist Aldo López-Gavilán . The week culminates on March 3 in a collaborative concert in Santa Fe , a benefit for the Youth Symphony Association.

In 1929, students and faculty at the University of New Mexico established a separate school in Albuquerque where students of all ages and skill levels could study and appreciate the fine arts. Ninety years later, the New Mexico Art League is one of the oldest organizations in the United States offering serious arts training to the community. It also sponsors exhibitions for New Mexico artists, and the current exhibit, Biologique , runs through February 24.

He has said that he exists in, and in between, two worlds -- that he is neither Mexican nor American, but rather Mexican-American. Composer Héctor Armienta explores these bi-cultural roots in his music. In 2015, he received permission to adapt Rudolfo Anaya's beloved novel of the Mexican-American experience, Bless Me, Ultima . The opera premieres this month in Albuquerque, a co-production of the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Opera Southwest .

Just before Christmas, a special vocal ensemble made its debut at the annual Festival of the Trees in Albuquerque, a fundraiser for the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation. Comprised of individuals recovering from brain injury, alongside family members and supporters, the Neuro Choir was organized by Jessica Richardson , Assistant Professor in UNM's Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences .

For ten years now, kids in the Española Valley have been traveling after school up to fifty miles roundtrip for the opportunity to study dance, drama, music and visual arts. The non-profit Moving Arts Española offers classes to kids ages 3 to 18. Two years ago, the school took over its neighbor, the former Ohkay Owingeh Casino, to create a 6,000 sq. ft. performing arts space.

The format calls for eight consecutive hours of live music, with audience members invited to come and go as they please. Starting at noon on January 13, dozens of local musicians will gather at Albuquerque's St. John's United Methodist Church to raise money for Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless . Classical musicians, jazz ensembles, singer-songwriters, choirs, and solo performers will take part in the Midwinter Music Marathon . "A big event like this lends itself to being thought of as a

The story takes place "on a night of a million stars and a million dreams." A young boy falls asleep, then illustrator and author Joel Nakamura takes him on a journey of shifting identities, landscapes and experiences. I Dreamed I Was A Dog is Nakamura's follow-up to Go West , his award-winning children's book from 2015. I Dreamed I Was A Dog is available at bookstores from the local Leaf Storm Press .