TAOS HISTORIC MUSEUMS

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2008

CONTACT:
Sara Jenkins Programs Officer, Taos Historic Museums
575-758-0505; programs@taoshistoricmuseums.org

CHILDREN’S HACIENDA HERITAGE GARDEN

Taos, NM– This summer Taos Historic Museums is offering an interactive
gardening and arts-based education program at the Hacienda de los
Martinez.  This free museum program centers upon a small, traditional
garden of corn, beans and squash to be planted and tended by children.  A
pumpkin patch will also be planted and cultivated for pumpkins for the
second annual Haunted Hacienda on Thursday, October 23.

Children will participate in planning the placement of traditional
planting mounds, planting heritage seeds, thinning, weeding, watering, and
harvesting the garden.  Each session consists of an hour of gardening
followed by an arts-based activity.  This multi-generational program is
for children ages 5 to 10 and their caregivers.  The program is on Friday
mornings from 9 am - 11 am beginning June 20 and running through August 15
except for July 4.

During this program, children will learn aspects of Taos’ rich
multi-cultural heritage.  Local artists, musicians, and craftspeople have
been invited to facilitate the Friday sessions.  Some of the planned
activities include red willow basket weaving with Bob Allalunis, retablo
painting with noted santera Lydia Garcia, and music and singing with Jenny
Bird. Other programming features storytelling and writing, making corn
husk dolls, Spanish language and vocabulary.  To culminate the program,
children are invited to participate in the 22nd Annual Taos Trade Fair,
September 20 - 21, to share the fruits of their harvest and their summer
accomplishments with fair-goers.

The Children’s Hacienda Heritage Garden program originated with a need
Taos Historic Museums saw for a museum-based, multi-generational
educational program sharing traditional agricultural and cultural
knowledge with Taos children in an engaging, interactive manner.  La
Hacienda de los Martinez is listed on the New Mexico State Register of
Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places and
represents key elements of the rich agricultural, commercial and cultural
heritage of 19th Century Taos and northern New Mexico.

The museum still needs volunteers and sponsors for this program.  For more
information or to volunteer please contact Sara at 575-758-0505 or email
programs@taoshistoricmuseums.org.

###

–
Morris Witten
Executive Director
Taos Historic Museums
(la Hacienda de los Martinez ~ E.L. Blumenschein Home and Museum ~
Southwest Research Center of NM)

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