Maxwell Museum of Anthropology

10/18/2026

Fall Family Day at the Maxwell Museum: Pueblo Pottery! Join us next Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10:00am to 12:00pm in the courtyard and galleries of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM. Free, with fun and informative activities for all ages!

This semester, we’re celebrating Pueblo pottery: the knowledge and processes behind it, and the role of clay in Pueblo life. Explore our newest exhibit, Coiling Kin: The Life of Pueblo Pottery, where 25 Pueblo curators share their voices on clay and its respectful use, from raw earth to finished work.

Watch live pottery-making demonstrations from Coiling Kin co-curators:

✨ Claudia Mitchell, Haa’ku (Acoma Pueblo), who continues pottery making as a family legacy
✨ Dolores Lewis Garcia, Haak’u (Acoma Pueblo), daughter of renowned potter Lucy M. Lewis (1900–1992)
✨ Ryan Roller, Kha’p’o Owinge (Santa Clara Pueblo), a seventh-generation potter

Then make and decorate your own pottery, and more!

Learn about the exhibit: https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/exhibits/temporary/coiling-kin-life-pueblo-pottery

10/16/2026

Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana! With an ethnological collection of over 20,000 objects, the Maxwell Museum houses objects from across the globe. As this Hispanic Heritage Month draws to an end, we celebrate a few items that did not travel very far to make it into our collections.

In the mid-1800s, tinwork became increasingly popular in New Mexico. As the US Army marched west into Santa Fe, they brought with them tin cans of lard, kerosene, and water. The high cost and shortage of silver led resourceful Hispanic New Mexicans to switch to tin as their material of choice. Talleres, small family workshops, used tin to create sconces, crosses, nichos (niches), baulitos (decorative boxes), and tin frames with depictions of saints and holy people. New Mexican tinwork often features scalloped borders, floral designs, and punched dot work made with leather-working or sheet metal tools.

The Maxwell Museum holds many tinwork pieces in its collection, including works from the esteemed Romero Family. In 1987, Emilio and Senaida Romero were awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts for their traditional Hispanic tinwork and their commitment to passing the tradition on to their children. Emilio and Senaida’s daughter Anita Romero Jones was also a masterful carver and tinsmith, passing her knowledge to her own children, including daughters Leslie Romero Jones and Donna Wright de Romero. Tinwork is found throughout New Mexico and is a beautiful reminder of the impact of Hispanic artists and traditions.

10/13/2026

Pottery by Coiling Kin Curators in the Maxwell Museum gift shop.

“There’s this one special person out there for each piece of pottery we create,” Elizabeth Medina.

The Maxwell Museum’s exhibition Coiling Kin: The Life of Pueblo Pottery features pottery from the Museum’s collections as viewed through the perspectives of 25 Pueblo artist-curators. We are honored to offer some of the artists’ work in the Maxwell Museum gift shop.

Today we feature the work of Elizabeth and Marcellus Medina from Ts’iya (Zia Pueblo).

Elizabeth spoke of sending her creations into the world: “And it just comes to you when you're when you're working on that piece. So as you build it and you put your design and you paint it and you fire it. So it's something that you as a person created it, so you become the mother of that pottery… And there's always someone out there for that piece of pottery that you've created. And sometimes you take it to an art show, you take it or you have it sitting at home and this one special person comes and just falls in love with that piece of pottery and then whoever purchases it becomes the mother or the father of that piece of pottery and they take it home and they take care of that piece of pottery because that piece of pottery is a living thing.”

Come visit the exhibit and take home a beautiful and unique artwork created by one of its curators. Visit https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/exhibits/temporary/coiling-kin-life-pueblo-pottery to learn more.

10/12/2026

10/07/2026

¡Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana! With an ethnological collection of over 20,000 objects, the Maxwell Museum houses artifacts from across the globe. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate a few items that did not travel very far to make it into our collections.

In 1994, the Maxwell Museum acquired over 50 New Mexican Hispanic traditional santos, which were then featured in the exhibit, Cuando Hablan Los Santos. This exhibit showcased thirteen master santeros who carved, painted, and designed these artistic depictions of saints. It also showcased the work of their children and grandchildren, highlighting the importance of passing down traditions from generation to generation.

Here we feature five santos made by the children and grandchildren of master santeros and learn who taught and inspired them. This month, we celebrate Hispanic culture and the rich traditions that have enriched and continue to enrich the lives of all New Mexicans!

10/06/2026

Long before tequila and mezcal, there was pulque—a milky, slightly tangy fermented drink made from the sap of the agave or maguey (from the Nahuatl word metl) plant. People in central Mexico have been making it for more than 2,000 years.

Harvesters known as tlachiqueros (from the Nahuatl word tlachiqui, "to scrape") carve a cavity into the heart of a mature agave, where a sweet sap called aguamiel ("honey water") collects. Using a long, slender gourd called an acocote—from a word meaning "throat" or "swallow"—they siphon up the nectar and carry it off to ferment. Naturally occurring bacteria give pulque its thick texture, white color, and sour bite.

For the Aztecs, pulque was no ordinary beverage. Agave was considered divine, and pulque a sacred gift from the goddess Mayahuel. Its use was closely tied to ritual and ceremony, and ancient murals show people gathered around vessels of the drink, sharing it together.

The tradition never disappeared. Today, pulquerías—some decorated with colorful murals and some more than a century old—are enjoying a revival in Mexico City and beyond. Visitors can try pulque natural or curado, blended with fruits, nuts, or oats in flavors like guava, pineapple, and pine nut.

Visit the Maxwell Museum to see an acocote from our collection and learn more about the people and plants behind this living tradition.

Curious about all things fermentation? For a perfect follow-up to Entangled Cultures, check out the Albuquerque Fermentation & Fungi FESTival THIS SUNDAY, October 11th! Check out https://dtabqmainstreet.org/fermentation-and-fungi-fest or visit our our friends for more info!

Image 1: "Acocote" display (artifact is a gift of Dr. Karl H. Schwerin, 2012.95.4) by Toni Gentilli; Image 2: A tlachiquero siphoning the aguamiel from an agave; Image 3: "Replica of 'The Drinkers' mural from Cholula - Teotihuacán - National Museum of Anthropology - Mexico 2024" by José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro; Image 4. A depiction The depictions of Mayahuel in the Codex Borgia shows the deity perched upon an agave.

10/03/2026

It's Balloon Fiesta! Are you looking for fun things to do in ABQ between morning ascension and evening glow? Visit Albuquerque's first museum --the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology -- on the beautiful University of New Mexico campus!

FREE admission, FREE parking, and exciting exhibits that share our human story from the deep past until today in the Southwest and the world! Show your Balloon Fiesta ticket in the gift shop and receive a 10% discount on Native American and local art and fair trade objects.

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 am to 4 pm. Visit maxwellmuseum.unm.edu for more information.

09/30/2026

Meet the Co-Curators of COILING KIN: THE LIFE OF PUEBLO POTTERY now on view at the UNM Maxwell Museum of Anthropology

Lea S. McChesney, PhD, Curator of Ethnology (retired) and Lead Exhibit Curator

“Coiling Kin took shape over the span of four years, motivated by the Maxwell’s history of community collaboration and my longstanding focus on relational curation and Pueblo pottery. Over this time, we developed an exhibit of the museum’s collections that speaks to the continuity of Pueblo pottery as presented through the voices, experiences, and practices of 25 artist co-curators from 14 Pueblo communities. We are grateful for funding from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Program in American Art and UNM’s Center for Regional Studies, and for support and approval of the project from the artists’ communities.

This was a complex project, involving staff across all areas of the Museum: in administration, collections, archives, education, public programs, and our extraordinary exhibit team in the design, fabrication, and installation of one of the largest temporary exhibits the museum has mounted.

For artists and their communities, the project aids in the preservation of knowledge and practice that encodes experiences and ways of knowing that are at risk of loss. It fostered inter-generational and intercultural knowledge sharing among the participants, providing opportunities to learn from each other. Importantly, it fostered a sense of camaraderie among staff and community curators that will carry over into future museum projects and collaborative relationships.

As my “swan song” at the Maxwell Museum, Coiling Kin is chief among the many rewarding experiences of my long career in museum anthropology. I am grateful to all of the artists, their communities and representatives, our funders, and of course to all of the museum staff whose dedicated efforts brought the world of Coiling Kin to life, and who will sustain it long after my departure.”

To learn more about the exhibit visit

09/26/2026

Yesterday the Maxwell Museum student members visited the ancestral village of Kuaua Pueblo, just north of Albuquerque in Bernalillo—and what a morning it was!
Thank you to our incredible guide for sharing their knowledge and perspective so generously and thanks, too, to our students from the Museum Studies Program, Anthropology, and beyond, for showing up with such curiosity and great questions.

And a heartfelt thank you to our non-student museum members! Your dues are what make these free social and educational experiences possible for UNM & CNM students—the van rental, the guided tour, the lunch afterward, all of it. You may not have been on the van with us, but you were very much part of the day.

Here's to the next one! 🌵

09/25/2026

¡Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana! This Hispanic Heritage Month, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology is celebrating a tradition that has been close to our hearts for many years: the UNM Curanderismo Program.

Curanderismo, the traditional healing practice that began in rural Mexico and spread across the Southwest and beyond, carries generations of knowledge about plants, ritual, and caring for body and spirit. In 2013, the Maxwell opened Curanderismo: Healing and Ritual, the first exhibition in the US devoted to this practice. Visitors explored the herbs of the desert Southwest, learned about limpias (spiritual cleansings), and heard directly from curanderas, herbalists, and ethnobotanists.

More than a decade later, the UNM Curanderismo:Traditional Medicine without Borders Program and its traditional health fair are stronger than ever. Each year they draw more healers, students, and community members, in our museum and beyond its walls, to learn, share, and keep these living traditions thriving.

We are honored and proud to support this work and the people who carry it forward. Here's to la sabiduría de nuestros antepasados and to the many generations still to come. 💚