The Dinner Party: Multicultural Crossroads in Clay Show at the Branigan Cultural Center
Branigan Cultural Center of Las Cruces held an exhibition, The Dinner Party: Multicultural Crossroads in Clay, from Nov. 1, 2024 - Jan. 18, 2025.
An artist and teacher for over 50 years, John Rawlings was the juror for the city of Las Cruces sponsored show.
Presented by the Potters’ Guild of Las Cruces, the show celebrates the 175th anniversary of Mesilla and Las Cruces, N.M., through utilitarian and sculptural art.
The featured artists of the Potters’ Guild commemorated the 175th anniversary by artistically interpreting the rich history and cultural significance of Las Cruces and Mesilla through the medium of clay.
The exhibit features nine artists who have crafted unique place settings with handmade dinnerware adorned with motifs that capture the spirit of the Southwest. The designs reflect themes such as crosses, crossroads, nature, and the landscape’s influence connecting the region’s past and present.
Drawing inspiration from Judy Chicago’s iconic art piece, “The Dinner Party,” this exhibition showcases the deep-rooted artistic traditions of the region and invites viewers to reflect on the many layers of cultural identity that define Mesilla and Las Cruces.
Founded in 1981, the Potters’ Guild of Las Cruces was born from a small group of southern New Mexico artists. At the time, there was little support for selling pottery or promoting ceramic arts. This motivated and creative core group built a ceramics community from the ground up. Many members have remained active and proud supporters of the Guild for more than a decade, reflecting the diverse talents of the local community.
Guild members include Native American artists, local families with deep roots in Las Cruces, recent retirees from across the country and students just beginning to explore the ceramic arts. Today, the Guild continues to showcase clay as a powerful medium of artistic expression.
Juror John Rawlings Statement
“I’ve been an artist and teacher for 50 years. I have always believed that to teach art with any sense of validity one must be constantly involved in the making of it. What this means is that I have been a practitioner for quite a long time, and the end product is a proficiency and skill level that is predictable; even expected. When I produce a piece of artwork, I simply put these skills to work. After 50 years, I honestly don’t have the faintest idea what creativity means, and don’t have much time for those who speak about creativity and inspiration. I simply go to work.
However, I believe that the ‘spirit’ of art is in every human and is a manifestation of some subconscious knowledge that we are all a part of the one thing… Are connected to this universe that surrounds us. When human beings are touched by beauty, either in the natural world or in the works of artists, they are recognizing this connection, most often unconsciously, and I believe that this reaffirmation is the most important function of the arts.
In my studio, there is a photograph of my son taken when he was visiting Nepal. He is walking along a wall of prayer wheels, spinning them as he passes. This sends the prayer “Om Mani Padme Hum” (May all life live as one) back into the universe, and that because this prayer sustains and nourishes, it MUST be said. Someone must say it. I believe every artwork is in fact a prayer, and no matter how inconsequential and trivial, I believe my efforts produce a prayer that awaits some viewer to come along and spin it.
Someone has to say the prayer.”
Multicultural Dinner Party Entries
1st Place: Safe Passage and Dinner by Janice Cook
2nd Place: You’re Invited to the Party! RSVP by Karen Choate
3rd Place: Square Pegs by David Beattie
Peoples Choice: Broken Dreams by Linda Sanchez
Janice Cook
Safe Passage & Dinner
1st Place Award
Karen Chote
You're Invited to the Party! RSVP
2nd Place Award
David Beattie
Square Pegs 3rd Place Award
Linda Sanchez
Broken Dreams People's Choice Award
Describe some quality or feature of the company. Write a short paragraph about it and choose an appropriate icon.
Kerry O'Neil
Pine Impressions Three Crosses
Coleen O'Donnel
Cross Cultural Crossroads
Jan Archey
A Metate, Mano, Goblet & Stock Tank
Patricia Grace
New Mexico Rivers
Joe Angelo
Celebrate!
Linda Sanchez
Broken Dreams detail
Coleen O'Donnel
Cross-Cultural detail
Karen Choate
You're Invited to the Party! RSVP detail
Celebrating the Founding of Las Cruces NM
2024 celebrated the cultural history of Las Cruces. The Mesquite Street Amigos, neighbors in the Mesquite Street Historic Neighborhood, sponsored by the City of Las Cruces, held an event highlighting the 175 year history of the founding families who settled in the 1849 Las Cruces Original Townsite.
Las Cruces came into existence when the “Alcalde” or Mayor of Doña Ana, Don Pablo Melendres, sought a solution to the overcrowding of his village. He petitioned
the United States troops stationed in Doña Ana to assist in surveying and laying out a new townsite some seven
miles south of Doña Ana. In 1849, Melendres requested Lt. Delos Bennett Sackett lay out a town “in American
fashion” with spaces for a plaza and a church.
Sackett and five military men used a rawhide rope to survey and layout the new town. They found 120 people already living on the land. He created an 84-block plat where each block had four Lots. The 84 blocks were bounded by Water Street (named for the existing acequia that bound the west side) on the west; Tornillo Street on the east; Picacho Avenue (or Pinon) on the north; and Soledad Avenue on the south.
To celebrate the creation of Las Cruces in the 84-Block Plat in 1849, the Mesquite Street Amigos, a replica of the 1849 Original Townsite Plat was drawn in Klein Park.
The celebration began with a land acknowledgement to the First Peoples of the Mesilla Valley and a ceremonial blessing from local members of the Piro-Manso-Tiwa Native American tribe.
Then family members (or current residents of an old house) came forward and virtually occupied their homesites on the replica 1849 Plat.
