Albuquerque Museum presents a new exhibit celebrating New Mexico’s history of jewelry making. The exhibit features more than 300 spectacular objects from all aspects of jewelry adornment from prehistory to the present. Rather than focusing on a single culture group, individual artist, time period, or medium as have most jewelry exhibitions and publications, American Jewelry from New Mexico tells the stories of diverse heritages simultaneously, as artists live, in concert, trade, and adaptation with their neighbors.

American Jewelry from New Mexico opens to the public on Saturday, June 2 and runs through October 14.

Public Opening: https://www.abqtodo.com/event/public-opening-american-jewelry-new-mexico/

Exhibit: https://www.abqtodo.com/event/american-jewelry-new-mexico/

Each piece is thoughtfully placed making every turn through the exhibit a surprise. As you first step into the exhibit you are presented with a number of traditional pieces that simply represent New Mexican jewelry in America. It’s as you continue through the exhibit that you will find more diverse and unique pieces that do not easily fit into any category of “New Mexican” jewelry. Therefore a new, more appropriate identity for this work is found in calling it all “American jewelry.”

More information on the exhibit can be found at, https://www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/albuquerque-museum/exhibitions/american-jewelry

ABQtodo had the privilege of taking a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibit during the installation. Here’s what we saw.

Photos by Ricky Garcia. ABQtodo.