KC Counts speaks with Diana LeMarbe about the upcoming exhibit and how anyone can participate. Their conversation begins with some history of the Deming Art Center and the artists who gathered before the building came along:
Diana:
I was still living in Columbus at the time and there were a lot of artists in the area, but we didn't really know each other. But every year we would try and figure out and get it together and we would rent an empty building in Deming for a week or for two weeks or something like that. Then all the artists would come together and go in and clean it all up, and then we'd set up a show and we would show our work for however long we had managed to get that building for. And that was the only way we were able to show here in Luna County up until about 1989, something like that. And then we received the building that it we're in now on the corner of Pine and gold. And it was given to us through a grant kind of thing and right now I can't pull the woman's name up. But she did this all over the country for the arts. Sometimes it was for music, sometimes it was just for arts in general and trying to keep it alive throughout the country and Deming received that building that way and it's been going ever since.
KC:
Well, what does that mean to the community?
Diana:
Well, as far as I'm concerned, it is the backbone of the community, but you're talking to one of the artists, so I'm a little bit biased. We try and cover all of the different kinds of arts. We cover children and the school. There's a school month every year that the high school puts a show together and that's what's been there currently. And Oh my goodness, they have wonderful teachers here at the school. But the work that those students put out - every year I go and look at it and I think, my gosh, when I was in college and looking at people that were working on their masters degrees and you know, it's like you find that amount of ability in high school students. Wow. So I feel like it's really the backbone of our community.
KC:
And coming up for the month of May, it's the Latino cultural exhibit which is supported by New Mexico art. And by the National Endowment for the Arts. So tell us about what kind of art you're actually still looking for and what kind of exhibit people can expect.
Diana:
Well, the kind of art we're looking for is anything that has to do with the Hispanic cultural history of our area. And I mean, we're going back a long way, like to the conquistadores. The work that will hopefully come in will be - there'll be music - people that would like to come and play their music can come on the opening day of our reception and play. But if they would like to have their music there, if they'll bring it in on a CD, we will accept that as an entry, and that music will be played throughout the days that the show is open, which is a full month. And one lady came in and she said I've still got the dress that my mother made for me when I was a tiny child. That was for a special event. Could I enter that dress? Well, yes. It might be serapes, it might be weavings. It could be drawings, paintings, you name it. And you do not have to be of Latino heritage or you can bring your art and you are of Latino heritage and maybe you're putting a whole new idea and a different kind of art. So it is so wide open. We want to celebrate Latino arts.
