Albuquerque – The fifth biennial Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta, May 26 - 28, at the Expo New Mexico (fairgrounds) promises to  be a glorious celebration of spring in all its fabulous beauty recreated in fabric arts. Over  400 judged and juried exhibits from across the country will be on exhibit: Quilts, wearable art, embroidery, lacework, beadwork, sculptured dolls, weavings, knitting, crochet, hooked rugs and silk paintings. 

Two special traveling exhibits, daily fashion shows and knitted art by featured artist Valentina Devine add to the festive affair with 60 vendor booths of fashion fabrics, art-to-wear, ethnic textiles,  hand-dyed yarn, weavings, embellishments and quilting supplies offering a rare market of high quality and quantity.  Hosted by 14  fiber art guilds and the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council, Inc., this event is one you’ll not want to miss. The Fiber Arts Fiesta will be in the  Creative Arts Building, Expo New Mexico fairgrounds from Thursday and Friday, 10a.m. -  7p.m. and Saturday, 10a.m. -  5p.m

Special events include Thursday, May 26th “Elegant Evenings” Fashion Show at 5:30 p.m. On Friday, May 27th  “Suited for Business” Fashion Show at 11:00 a.m. and the “Mixed Media” Fashion Show at 5:30 p.m.

On Saturday, May 28th  “Casual Weekends” Fashion Show at 11:00 a.m. and

“Here Come the Kids” Fashion Show at 1:00 p.m.  (A first time fashion show of young people 19 and under modeling their own creations on the runway!)

Special exhibits include the Hoffman Challenge 2004 Doll Exhibit, the Sulky 2004 Challenge Exhibit and the Winners’ Circle Showcase.

Admission is $4 with 12 and under free. Multiple passes are available. For information: call (505) 281-5993 or see www.fiberartsfiesta.org.

Special to Steppin’ Out

The Village of Fort Sumner has always had a wild west gunslinger kind of image, thanks to Billy the Kid, whose gravesite is there. It also has a state park fit for frolicking and fishing, brightening up Highway 60’s east side.

Now there’s a  new facility at Fort Sumner that gives the village a whole new, but solemn aura. It’s the Bosque Redondo Memorial on the Pecos River, a part of Fort Sumner State Monument.

“Thousands of the Navajo people died when they were rounded up by the U.S. Army and forced to march from their Four Corners homeland, across most of New Mexico, to Bosque Redondo,” said State Monuments Director José Cisneros. “About 3,000 people, a third of the population at Bosque Redondo, succumbed to pneumonia, dysentery, exposure, starvation and heartbreak.”

 “Children often lost both parents; parents lost their children,” Cisneros said. The memorial recognizes Navajo suffering during the infamous Long Walk from the Four Corners area to a makeshift Indian Reservation set up in 1862 to contain them, and their subsequent hardship until they gained their freedom in 1868.

The Mescalero Apache, whose homeland was much closer to Fort Sumner, was part of the  population, too, and the Sierra Blanca tribe is also recognized in the memorial’s design as well as its exhibits. It will formally open Saturday, June 4, 11 a.m., and hundreds are expected to attend the ceremonies, which will include Mescalero Apache and Navajo Nation leaders.

The memorial is a 6,345-square-foot structure including a visitor center and exhibits, and was designed by Navajo architect David N. Sloan, who was born in Rehoboth.

Cisneros believes the memorial, funded by the federal government, the state and the Village of Fort Sumner, was long overdue. “It didn’t get the attention it deserved when it happened, nor has its significance been much noted since outside of the Southwest,” said Cisneros. “Now we have a memorial that is a fitting tribute to the enduring suffering of the Navajo from 1863 to 1868, and to the Mescalero Apache, who shared their plight.

Architect Sloan agrees with Cisneros. “There was little to indicate that the Navajo had ever been to Bosque Redondo, when I first visited Bosque Redondo in 1979,” he said. “There was nothing that welcomed Navajo visitors.”

Today Sloan and his project manager, Delbert Billy, believe Bosque Redondo has been imbued with a long absent “spirit of place,” as a result of creative landscaping and a  building with subtle features that give comfort to Native Americans.  The building’s elevated, octagonal entrance faces the rising sun of the winter solstice, signaling rebirth.  Its features include such cultural symbols as circular patterns and markers for the cardinal directions. A circular pathway from the parking area funnels visitors clockwise through a grove of cottonwoods, to the entrance. The trees were cloned from a cottonwood planted by the captives.

 “The physical landscape, and the plants and animals, dominate the perception of how all tribal groups see themselves in life,” said Sloan. An observation deck allows visitors to enjoy vistas.