Weld a dragon from salvaged bicycle parts; punch a copper sheet to create a salamander; build a working camera out of cardboard, then print your photograph on fabric. The Artist-in-Residence Program is one of the many features of Yaxche that makes the school a colorful and dynamic environment. Working with world-class artists in a variety of media, Yaxche learners have the unique experience of being exposed to a degree of skill in creative expression rarely found in most educational settings.

Each year, numerous artists apply for the program. Once selected, each artist maintains a working schedule to benefit all student learners. Typically, an artist works with each learning group for 6 to 8 weeks, creating works of art and exposing learners to exciting mediums and art forms. Yaxche’s visiting artists have included welders, silversmiths, playwrights and actors, musicians and poets, filmmakers, and sculptors.

Each artist-in-residence also produces an original piece of artwork that joins the Yaxche Campus Gallery—a collection of works from previous Artists in Residence.

Now, meet four fabulous recent Artists-in-Residence, and read about their sessions at Yaxche:

AL BELLEVUE, THE RECYCLE SCULPTURE KING

Al Bellevue resides in the north woods of Minnesota and has been an Artist-in-Residence for two consecutive years. His charming way with junk has been a Yaxche school favorite. Haunting dumpsites and old local arroyos, on the lookout for interesting metal scrap, Al creates magic with students from all levels, beginning with the question, “Who lives in this junk pile?” Imagination and creativity soar as each student identifies objects to be reshaped and welded. Nondescript raw materials transform into whimsical, kinetic sculpture. During Al’s residency, each grade level collaborated to create a one-of-a-kind, brilliantly painted sculpture as a permanent installation on our school grounds. To strengthen partnership in community, Yaxche invited several classes from Enos Garcia Elementary School to work with Al. The results of our neighboring school’s work took shape in a life-size, fanciful metal bull. Al’s refreshing vision and his strong belief in the vast abilities of children to handle tools and materials lead him to favored mentor status among young ones. He leads eager students into wondrous realms of creativity and high-level accomplishment.

LARRY HERRERA, SILVERWORK

Larry Herrera, of Taos, is an award-winning master jeweler. Larry conducted an Artist-in-Residence program in the art of silversmithing with Yaxche students of all levels. He provided students with hands-on activities to teach the proper use of silversmithing tools and to enable students to create their own unique designs. In the lower levels, K-5, students stamped leather with tooling stamps for key chains. Students also strung beads and practiced punching metal with stamping tools. Larry gave older students in grades 6-8 the option of creating a silver ring with stone inset, belt buckle, or concha belt. He instructed students in the art of pattern design, silver cutting, soldering, buffing, and setting stones. Students created treasures that they proudly wore themselves or gave to family members. Recently, Larry has been honored with a first prize for artistic excellence in the Taos Invites Taos Exhibition.

JENNY LYNN Mc NUTT, PERFORMANCE ART, GRUPO CUERPO

Jenny Lynn Mc Nutt, an instructor with the Pratt Institute of Art in NYC, arrived in Taos as a multimedia performing artist, at the invitation of the Harwood Museum of Art. She is the founder of GRUPO CUERPO, a performance collaboration of young people from Tunisia, Brazil, New York, and Taos. Jenny is also an accomplished filmmaker and has spent extended time in West Africa documenting and studying sacred dance. During her tenure as Yaxche Artist-in-Residence, Jenny worked with children in levels K-8 to enable them to express their feelings through movement, to develop concepts for costume design, to film individual students as well as the group, and to create a performance for inclusion in GRUPO CUERPO’s worldwide video documentation/collaboration. The combination of film, bodies as screen, and movement as expression rather than voice crosses the realms of reality into a mystical, surreal experience.

MARIAN MOORE, WORKS IN TIN

Marian Moore owns and operates Taos Tin, a successful local gallery. Her one-of-a-kind creations are highly prized by fine art collectors and homeowners like. At Yaxche, Marian hosted workshops in the regional history of tin as an art form. She engaged students at levels K-8 in a tin shrine workshop, with each student creating a personal shrine made of shapes cut from tin, copper, and brass. Each student sketched a design for a theme and painted a wooden rectangle—their shrine blank—in a vibrant color. Students then traced their designs onto metal and cut the metals into complementary shapes. They punched delicate patterns on the metal with hammer and nail as embellishment and attached them to their shrine. The outstandingly imaginative shrines were displayed in an exhibition at the Western Sky Café. Ginny Greeno, the café owner, hosted a well-attended opening for enthusiastic Yaxche students.

Artist-in-Residence Program Applications
Applications for the Artist-in-Residence Program are available in January of each year and are due to Yaxche by the first week of April. Please phone our main office at (505) 751-4419 or email administration@yaxche.org for deadlines and additional information on how you can become an Artist-in-Residence.