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Encounter Culture

Encounter Culture

Written by: New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
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 New Mexico's deep artistic traditions have long engaged with the multifaceted histories and cultures of the state. At Encounter Culture, we talk with artists, historians, scientists, museum curators, and writers who are all a part of New Mexico's centuries' old lineage of helping us understand the places and people who make the Land of Enchantment so unique. https://podcast.nmculture.org/2021-2025, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary World
Episodes
  • Chisme at the Museum: Rebuilding Community and Nurturing Tradition with Elena Baca and Jana Gottshalk

    Chisme at the Museum: Rebuilding Community and Nurturing Tradition with Elena Baca and Jana Gottshalk
    Feb 25 2026

    Some of New Mexico's most prominent artists are passing traditional Nuevo Mexicano art forms like colcha embroidery, retablos and bultos, tinwork, and straw applique down to the next generation. These artists include Jean Anaya Moya, Vanessa Zamora, Vincente Telles, Arthur Lopez, Eric Romero, Vanessa Alvarado, Rhonda Crispin, and Cleo Romero.

    Elena Baca, education program manager at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (Albuquerque), and Jana Gottshalk, curator and director at the Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum (Santa Fe), create spaces where these traditions stay alive and where kids can explore and express themselves freely.

    Discover more:

    National Hispanic Cultural Center Learning programming

    National Hispanic Cultural Center Museum

    Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum ongoing programming

    Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum

    Wonders on Wheels

    Read more in El Palacio:

    "Art and Activism at Highlands University," by Myrriah Gόmez, in Winter 2025 issue of El Palacio magazine

    Learn more:

    Traditional Spanish Market

    Contemporary Hispanic Market

    We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. You can write a regular email or record a short voice memo and attach it for us to listen to.

    Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

    Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

    If you love New Mexico, you'll love El Palacio Magazine! Subscribe to El Palacio today.

    Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

    Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
    Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
    Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
    Recording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
    Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
    Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
    Theme Music: D'Santi Nava
    Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine
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    48 mins
  • Button Box Dreams & Repair-Shop Flair: Mastering the Art of Accordions with Tony Tomei and Antonio Maestas

    Button Box Dreams & Repair-Shop Flair: Mastering the Art of Accordions with Tony Tomei and Antonio Maestas
    Feb 11 2026

    Accordions are woven into New Mexico's soundscape—at fiestas, on plazas, and in the musical storytelling traditions that travel across generations. In this episode of Encounter Culture, host Emily Withnall talks with Tony Tomei and Antonio Maestas, a master-and-apprentice duo who completed the New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2024, focusing on accordion restoration and traditional New Mexico tunings.

    Tony and Antonio fell in love with the accordion in different decades and play different styles. Tony first encountered the accordion as a child in the 1950s, growing up in an ethnically diverse community where the instrument was central to social life.  "And that was before the Beatles came in the sixties and basically wreaked havoc with the accordion and everybody switched over to the guitars," Tony laughs.

    Discover more:

    New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program

     New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs on YouTube

    Hear more on Encounter Culture:

    The American Mystique of the Cowboy Boot with Deana McGuffin and Jes Márquez

    Learn more:

    Hohner

    Albuquerque Accordion Club

    We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. You can write a regular email or record a short voice memo and attach it for us to listen to.

    Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

    Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

    If you love New Mexico, you'll love El Palacio Magazine! Subscribe to El Palacio today.

    Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

    Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
    Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
    Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
    Recording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
    Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
    Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
    Theme Music: D'Santi Nava


    Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine
    Show More Show Less
    49 mins
  • Boosterism, Broken Narratives, and What the Camera Sells: The Mullarky Collection, New Mexico History Museum Photo Archives

    Boosterism, Broken Narratives, and What the Camera Sells: The Mullarky Collection, New Mexico History Museum Photo Archives
    Jan 28 2026
    Photos can obscure as much as they reveal. When we encounter historic photographs, it can feel like we've entered the past through a portal. But like contemporary photographs, what is left out of the frame is as interesting and puzzling as what we can observe. Still, the donation of historic photos to any archive can only help to add to our knowledge and expand the questions we need to ask. This is certainly the case for the William Thomas Mullarky photo collection at the New Mexico History Museum's Palace of the Governors Photo Archive. The Mullarky collection has never been accessible until recently and they provide unusual and unexpected windows into 1930s Gallup, New Mexico. For the Fall 2025 issue of El Palacio, University of New Mexico professor and labor historian, David Correia, wrote an article about the Gallup Coal Wars of 1933-35. Mullarky's photos of the events in Gallup at the time accompany Correia's words. For this episode of Encounter Culture, however, Correia talks about who Mullarky was and what makes his photos so out of the ordinary. Discover more: New Mexico History Museum Palace of the Governors Photo Archive William Thomas Mullarky Photographs of the Gallup Coal War Hear more on Encounter Culture: A History of Genízaro Identity in the Heart of New Mexico with Dr. Gregorio Gonzales The Promise of a Photo with Anthropologist Robert Quintana Hopkins and Archivist Hannah Abelbeck, New Mexico History Museum Read more in El Palacio: "Strike and Struggle: The Great Gallup Coal War, 1933-35," by David Correia Fall 2025 issue of El Palacio Learn more: An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents over Three Centuries, by David Correia Edward Curtis photographs (as example of "frontier photography") Simeon Schwemberger photo collection at The University of New Mexico J.R. Willis Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Center for Southwest Research at The University of New Mexico The Myth of Santa Fe, by Chris Wilson (UNM Press) *** We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. You can write a regular email or record a short voice memo and attach it for us to listen to. Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more. Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online! If you love New Mexico, you'll love El Palacio Magazine! Subscribe to El Palacio today. Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios. Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio MagazineExecutive Producer: Daniel Zillmann Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. RuizRecording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa FeEditor & Production Manager: Alex RieglerAssociate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota) Theme Music: D'Santi Nava Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine
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    51 mins
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