The Las Cruces Space Festival is about ‘Making Space For Everyone’. In 2019 we added arts and cultural events to the Festival activities. The ‘Our Place In Space- Las Cruces’ exhibit received over 3,000 visitors and was welcomed by the local arts community. This year we are focusing on developing our art activities to be more inclusive and immersive.
We are taking over the Bank of the West building on Main St with a pop-up art experience called ‘Dawn of Discovery’. This multi-media exhibit will feature international and local artists portraying the beauty of the Universe and the excitement of space exploration with sculptures, paintings, astrophotography, animated short films and much more. The exhibit will be open every evening during the Festival week, March 30- April 3, from 5pm and on Saturday April 4 from 10-5pm.
We are excited to include an original movie to the Festival line-up this year. ‘We Choose to go to the Moon’ is an art film captured during the 2019 Las Cruces Space Festival, celebrating the light spectrum, science and the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo missions. NASA started using Kilbourne Hole, just south of Las Cruces, as a training ground for Astronauts on April 9, 1969. We went back on the 50th anniversary to explore how light and color are used in astronomy and space exploration and to remember the greats that had been there before us. The premiere will be held at the Rio Grande Theater on Monday, March 30th at 7pm with a Q&A with the artists to follow. Artists Tim Fitzpatrick and Jeff Erwin will be announcing their 2020 project at this event.
