A beautiful new exhibit at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum will have people looking at quilts in a whole new way.

“Elements from the Front Range Contemporary Quilters” features 35 quilts created by an organization of artists primarily from Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas. 

The show opens Dec. 15 and continues through Feb. 8 in the Traditions Gallery. The museum has added some traditional quilts from its collections that are displayed in the North Corridor outside the gallery.

Inspired by the themes and atmosphere of the West, these artists explore the concept of elements from a wide array of perspectives. Their quilts allude to earth, air, fire, and water, as well as to environmental degradation, seasonal change, day and night, and the chemical makeup of the planet on which we live. 

These contemporary quilters are a continuation of the art quilt movement of the 1970s, when pioneering artists moved quilted textiles from the bed to the wall, declaring that fiber arts were valuable and worthy of notice as fine art. These quilts incorporate the accessible and familiar with the new and edgy, using a media that has become, for many artists, a strong avenue for contemporary expression.

The Front Range Contemporary Quilters was established in Colorado in 1988 to educate, inform, and celebrate the art quilt. From its eight-member beginning, the organization has grown to more than 200 members and provides a dynamic forum for education, mentorship, and support for the contemporary quilter.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and $2 for children 5 to 17. For more information, please call (575) 522-4100.

Additional things to do in Las Cruces New Mexico: White Sands, Old Mesilla