New Mexico Historic Sites Fiscal Year Feats
History is our best teacher
$9,000
A Year of Unexpected Engagement
$6,000
When it came to connecting would-be visitors with the New Mexico Historic Sites during the COVID-19 shutdown at the end of fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020), it’s hard to see how site staff could have handled the situation any better.
raised for exhibitions
raised for education
$75,000
From 25 Virtual Classroom programs and a wildly successful Virtual Summer Camp series to an episode of A&E’s “Ghost Hunters” at Fort Stanton, all eight sites managed to capture the attention of audiences in New Mexico and across state lines.
$19,000
“Our main job has always been interacting with people, and if we can’t do that face to face, we’re going to do it online,” says Matthew Barbour, manager at Coronado and Jemez historic sites. Barbour says the Our Fair New Mexico virtual concert filmed live at Jemez on May 6, featuring Instructional Coordinator Marlon Magdalena and his array of flutes, has since been viewed by more than 40,000 people.
received in grants
in endowment payouts
100+
summer camp activity kits distributed from Los Luceros
150
take home kits for Virtual Summer Camp at Fort Sumner
40,000
views of Marlon Magdalena’s virtual concert at Jemez
A safety net of public-private support—$127,000 raised by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation in FY2020 —shored up the sites. A slew of exciting new hires also expanded their programmatic potential. Two new managers, Ethan Ortega and Wesley Meiss, joined the teams at Los Luceros and Lincoln/Fort Stanton, respectively, in January. Before that, in July 2019, Tim Roberts and Kristine Navarro-McElhany were named deputy directors of the division. “Now that we are fully staffed with two skilled professionals positioned as deputy directors, New Mexico Historic Sites will see direct benefit in our fiscal and facilities management,” Patrick Moore, New Mexico Historic Sites executive director, said at the time of their appointments.
“We want to be engaging with people, and we found great means to do that during the shutdown.” Expanding Stories of Place Managers are looking to 2021 to continue improvements that will bolster the valuable stories imparted by each place. Highlights include digital tours available via smartphone to enhance either virtual or in-person
14 museumfoundation.org
