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Current Exhibits
Changing Pass: People, Land & Memory
Permanent Signature Exhibit
The opening of Changing Pass, the permanent installation at EPMH, marks a new chapter for the institution. While Changing Pass is not technically a new exhibit for the museum, the approach to its curation and narrative are reflective of EPMH’s new direction and leadership.
For many, Changing Pass is their first introduction to El Paso history. The exhibit serves as a learning tool for classrooms and organizations throughout the area as well as an attraction for those visiting from out of town. In its new location on the first floor gallery, Changing Pass immediately greets visitors who walk through the door, inviting them to explore and reconsider what the borderlands are all about.
Covering more than 400 years of El Paso del Norte region history, Changing Pass begins with early Indigenous settlers and concludes with ASARCO in the 20th century. As visitors move through different exhibits, they are invited to explore how the El Paso del Norte area, along both sides of the Mexico-United States border, has been defined not only by the unique Chihuahuan desert but by the different groups, countries, and empires who sought to control it. New artifacts, interactive displays, and text panels encourage guests to examine how El Paso’s political, economic, social, environmental, cultural, and religious past has evolved across centuries.
This commemorative exhibition celebrates EPCC's 50th Anniversary and history of providing high quality, affordable education that has transformed our region. Come visit us to learn more about the El Paso Community College and its impact on our community.
From Fire and Earth: Pottery traditions of the Casas Grandes Medio period.
Friday, Feb 22, 2019 - Sunday, Sep 22, 2019
The El Paso Museum of History and El Paso Museum of Archaeology are proud to present this exhibition of Casas Grandes ceramics that flourished during their Medio Period (AD 1200 – 1450) in the northwest corner of modern-day Chihuahua, Mexico. Pottery, as perhaps no other medium, reflects the culture of its maker. This exhibition shows the art expressions of the Casas Grandes people who would become prolific potters producing some of the finest pottery of the Pre-Columbian world. The Mata Ortiz pottery that we know today is one of the richest and most diverse pottery producing regions in the world.
This ceramic revival has spurred national and international interest in the Casas Grandes region over the past few decades, as well as rekindled in the local population an appreciation for tradition and their cultural heritage. Mata Ortiz pottery is recognized as some of the finest hand crafted ceramics produced in the world today.
In the mid 1970’s, Juan Quezada and others from Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico launched a new era in Casas Grandes pottery. Inspired by the sherds and other artifacts that they found in this region, they began making pottery using only natural elements.
The El Paso Museum of History invites you to view this exhibition that features many examples of Casas Grandes and Mata Ortiz ceramics from the permanent collections of the El Paso Museum of Archaeology and the El Paso Museum of Art. These art pieces show not only the ancient art of pottery, but also an appreciation of Southwest cultures influenced by Mesoamerica.
The exhibition will remain from February 22, 2019 to September 22. Come visit and enjoy this exhibition at El Paso Museum of History.
Gifts and Prayers: The Romanovs and Their Subjects
COMING SOON September 28, 2019 - March 8, 2020
Appearing for the first time in the American Southwest, Gifts and Prayers: The Romanovs and Their Subjects exhibits an exquisite collection of objects from the Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia) including rare historic artifacts and sacred art from across centuries of the imperial family's rule (CE 1613-1917). Diamond-encrusted swords, intricate military medals, gilded statuettes, ornate icons, and Fabergé-produced objects will adorn the museum, immersing the public in the opulent splendor of the Romanov era. Assembled by a single private collector, the collection has been virtually unknown for decades and has been rarely seen.
Pride Cinema: Queer Film and Culture in the Twenty and Twenty-First Centuries
June 2019 to November 2019
The exhibition features films focused on LGBTQ+ issues in the 20th and 21st Century. The films in the exhibit, Milk, Paris is Burning, Longtime Companion and others, share the adversities, benchmarks and successes of LBGTQ+ people with a broader audience. Local El Paso and Juarez LGBTQ+ histories are paired with these films highlighting the reality of these issues as they are ever-present within the borderland community. In addition to the exhibit, the museum will display two panels from the 1987 NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt throughout June.
EPMH has partnered with the Borderland Rainbow Center (BRC), a local non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources for the El Paso LGBTQ+ community and its allies, to exhibit two sections from the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Individuals seeking to memorialize their loved ones who died from AIDS can create a quilt panel and submit to the NAMES Project Foundation. The Quilt was displayed in the fall of 1987 across the National Mall in Washington D.C. and was composed of 1,920 individual panels spanning the length of a football field. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is recognized as a monumental legacy to bringing awareness to the AIDS/HIV pandemic.
Bases Loaded: El Paso and Beyond
July 11, 2019- January 5, 2020
Materials for the exhibit have been sourced from across El Paso’s enthusiastic baseball community. Many of the artifacts for Bases Loaded have been provided by Fernando Grado, an El Paso native and baseball enthusiast. His personal collection, which he began in his youth, includes local memorabilia from the Browns and Diablos as well as collectibles from eminent players like Jackie Robinson and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. Also on display are items borrowed from the El Paso Chihuahuas’ own archive.
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