Hometown News

The women featured in this exhibit are scientists, artists, ranchers, farmers,  athletes, authors, and educators including: Danise Coon (Research Specialist Associate at the Chile Pepper Institute), Agueda Martínez (weaver), Fita Witte (cattle rancher), Felicia Thal (cattle rancher), Emma Jean Cervantes (chile farmer), Kara Bobroff (Executive Director of Indigenous Farm Hub), Joyce Shelley Loomis-Kernek (barrel racer), and Fabiola Cabeza de Baca (educator and author).  

The Governor’s Gallery is an outreach facility of the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Department of Cultural Affairs. The gallery presents an average of six exhibitions per year including the annual Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts.  This gallery can be found in the lobby of the Office of the Governor on the 4th floor of the State Capitol (490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87501) and is free to the public 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday.

In June, Emma Jean Cervantes will be featured in “Her Land” at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. Known as the “Queen of Cayenne,” Cervantes was a champion of chile who grew up in La Mesa, earned the Phillip Leyendecker Agriculturist of Distinction award for New Mexico State University, and was a nurse. Cervantes served on many community boards and was one of the original founders of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum.