Wednesday, Aug 26, 6:30 PM - Wednesday, Aug 26, 8:00 PM
Following your Passion: A Woman’s Fly-fishing Journey" Wednesday, August 26 6:30-8:00 p.m. Center of Southwest Studies - Lyceum (room 120) Free + Open to All! Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 swcenter.fortlewis.edu *Hosted by the Center of Southwest Studies* Librarian by trade and angler at heart, Shelley Walchak gravitated towards fly-fishing later in life and was inspired in 2012 to leave her post at the Colorado State Library to take up the challenge of fishing a river a week for an entire year. Seven Rocky Mountain states and 52 rivers later, Shelley released her book "52 Rivers" in 2014 documenting her adventures and the life-lessons along the way. Now, over a decade later, Shelley is still traveling and angling and is ready to share an epilogue to 52 Rivers, which at its core is about chasing dreams, embracing the unknown, and finding inner joy along the way. Shelley Walchak retired from 40 years of librarian service, including past director of the Pine River Library District (Bayfield, CO) and senior consultant with the Colorado State Library (Denver, CO). She currently serves as board secretary to the Maria’s Literary Foundation, as well as board President of the Southwest Colorado Humanities Roundtable History Live! event series and still travels and fishes every chance she gets.
Wednesday, Sep 02, 6:30 PM - Wednesday, Sep 02, 8:00 PM
Deadly Fun Learning: Mysteries that Champion Our National Parks" Wednesday, September 2, 2026 6:30-7:30 p.m. Center of Southwest Studies - Lyceum (Room 120) Free + Open to All Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 https://tinyurl.com/CSWS-Upcoming-Events Scott Graham, National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of the National Park Mystery Series, will share the writing and development over the last decade of his successful National Park Mystery Series, published by nonprofit environmental and social justice publisher Torrey House Press. Newly released book ten in the series is GREAT SAND DUNES MASSACRE, set in southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Book nine in the series, DEATH VALLEY DUEL, was a finalist for the 2025 Colorado Book Award. It features a villainous ultra-trail race across the Mojave Desert based in part on the annual Hardrock 100 ultra-trail race in Silverton. Scott is based in Durango, CO and, in addition to a thriving writing career, is an avid outdoorsman and advocate for public lands. In addition to his mysteries, Scott is the author of five nonfiction books, including Extreme Kids, and winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. Scott has worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, radio disk jockey, and coal-shoveling fireman on the steam-powered Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. This is a featured event of the 2026 Southwest Colorado Humanities Roundtable History Live!
Thursday, Sep 24, 6:00 PM - Thursday, Sep 24, 9:30 PM
Woven Landscapes: An Artist Talk with Darby Raymond-Overstreet" Thursday, September 24 6:00-7:30 p.m. Center of Southwest Studies - Lyceum (Room 120) Free + Open to All Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 Hosted by the Center of Southwest Studies Join us for a special presentation by, Darby Raymond-Overstreet, a featured artist in the Center of Southwest Studies’ current exhibition, Constellations of Place. Darby, born in Tuba City and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona, is an award-winning Diné artist who specializes in digital collage and printmaking to create powerful portraits, landscapes, and abstract forms inspired by and derived from traditional Diné textiles, with particular interest in pieces woven in the late 1800’s-1950’s. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, art markets, and exhibitions, including Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Dine Textiles at the Museum of Indian arts and Crafts (Santa Fe, NM), The Force is With Our People at the Museum of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff, AZ), and the The Return of the Force at the Center of Southwest Studies. Darby earned BA degrees in both Psychology and Studio Art, graduating with Honors from Dartmouth College, and currently resides in Chimayó, NM. “I am a Diné/Navajo artist inspired by the strength and resilience of the generations that came before me and by the lands that have been home to my people for countless generations. Through my practice of incorporating historic weaving in my digital works, I acknowledge the strength and resilience that my ancestors maintained in the face of immense adversity brought on by a shifting world propelled by colonial ideals and values. I aim to highlight how their legacies empower current generations to confront today’s challenges for a better future. My work addresses themes of identity and belonging, and examines the interdependent relationship that exists between land, art, and people.” Constellations of Place is made possible with generous support from the Belonging Colorado initiative of The Denver Foundation and the Greater Good Science Center and is in partnership with the America 250-Colorado 150 Southwest regional “Power of Place” initiative.
Tuesday, Sep 29, 6:00 PM
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Weaving a Partnership: The Cedar Mesa Perishables Project Tuesday, September 29, 2026 6:00-7:30 p.m. CSWS Lyceum (Room 120) Free + Open to All! Hosted by the Center of Southwest Studies Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 Website: https://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/exhibits-events/upcoming-events/weaving-a-partnership-the-cedar-mesa-perishables-project Join us at the Center of Southwest Studies for an insightful presentation and documentary film screening about the Cedar Mesa Perishables Project. Since 2011, the project has engaged the expertise of Pueblo fiber artists in its documentation of some 4,000 ancient textiles, baskets, wooden implements, and other organic cultural items excavated from dry caves in the greater Cedar Mesa of southeastern Utah. In this presentation, anthropologist, textile consultant, and project director Dr. Laurie Webster, together with Zuni fiber artist and team member Christopher Lewis (member of the Badger Clan and a child of the Corn Clan), will trace the project’s collaborative path and discuss how this approach has enriched archaeological understanding of ancestral Pueblo perishable technologies while also advocating for the preservation and revitalization of the Pueblo fiber arts. The presentation will also include a screening of Languages of the Landscape: The Cedar Mesa Perishables Project, a 30-minute documentary produced by Cloudy Ridge Productions. This is a featured event of the 2026 Southwest Colorado Humanities Roundtable History Live!
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Wednesday, Oct 21, 6:00 PM - Wednesday, Oct 21, 7:30 PM
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Imagined Futures: An Artist Talk with Tyrrell Tapaha Wednesday, October 21 , 2026 6:00-7:30 p.m. CSWS Lyceum (Room 120) Free + Open to All! Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 Website: https://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/exhibits-events/upcoming-events/imagined-futures160an-artist-talk-with160tyrrell-tapaha The Center of Southwest Studies will host an artist talk with Diné weaver, fiber artist, and sixth-generation sheepherder, Tyrrell Tapaha (he/they), who is featured in the Center’s current exhibition Constellations of Place. Raised in the Carrizo Mountains of northeastern Arizona, Tyrrell’s work encapsulates the intergenerational agro-pastoral living handed down to them through their grandfather, great-grandmother, and other relatives willing to teach. Working as a sheepherder, Tyrrell’s practice begins with the raising of sheep and finishes on the loom. Their textiles, installations, and mixed-media work are intimately interwoven with their feelings and memories, illuminating the complexity of their lived experience, the rich history of their Diné community, and imagined futures. “...being on the land, working with the land, ecology, hydrology, migrating, grazing the animals, and thinking about and breeding for better fleece. I spend a lot of time looking at the minuscule and larger details of this lifestyle, and my weavings are a glimpse of that.” Tyrrell has exhibited widely, including at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ), Coconino Center for the Arts (Flagstaff, AZ), Museum of Contemporary Art Flagstaff (Flagstaff, AZ), Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (Santa Fe, NM), and they were featured in the film “Weaving the Future” by Shaun Price. They have lectured and engaged in archival and curatorial work at the Fowler Museum (Los Angeles, CA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), and served as cultural advisor to major weaving exhibitions, including Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest at Bard Graduate Center (New York, NY) and Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (Santa Fe, NM). In 2022, they were the recipient of the Brandford/Elliott Award for Excellence in Fiber Art by the Textile Society of America. Tyrrell continues to live and work in the Four Corners region of Diné Bikeyah. Tyrrell Tapaha is a featured artist in Constellations of Place, an exhibition made possible with generous support from the Belonging Colorado initiative of The Denver Foundation and the Greater Good Science Center and is in partnership with the America 250-Colorado 150 Southwest regional “Power of Place”project.
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Thursday, Oct 29, 4:30 PM - Thursday, Oct 29, 6:30 PM
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Artist Talk: Herstory Printmaking Collective Thursday, October 29, 2026 4:30-6:00 p.m. CSWS Lyceum (Room 120) Free + Open to All! Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 https://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/exhibits-events/upcoming-events herstory/noun/ -- history viewed from a female or specifically feminist perspective with a special attention to the experience of women. Join us for a special presentation by members of the Herstory Printmaking Collective, a collaborative artist group based in Albuquerque, NM that creates portrait murals of influential women who have impacted how we see and understand the world. Using an accessible relief printmaking technique to make bold and compelling images printed onto newsprint for wheat pasting, Herstory has lead workshops, live printmaking demos, and installed murals in venues across the Southwest, including the Santa Fe Railyard, the Beehive Building in Mancos, University of New Mexico’s Masley Art Gallery, at the Southwest Printmaking Fiesta in Silver City, and on the mobile Axle Contemporary Gallery among other sites. This fall, the Center of Southwest Studies will partner with Herstory Printmaking Collective to facilitate a printmaking workshop with Fort Lewis College Art & Design students, inspired by important women figures sourced from the Center’s archival and museum collections. The resulting portraits of “Women of the Southwest” will be installed in the Center for an ongoing exhibition.
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Thursday, Nov 12, 6:00 PM - Thursday, Nov 12, 7:30 PM
Artist Talk & Film Screenings: Charine Pilar Gonzales Thursday, November 12, 2026 6:00-7:30 p.m. CSWS Lyceum (Room 120) Free + Open to All! Contact: Cristie Scott, cmscott@fortlewis.edu, 970-247-7333 https://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/exhibits-events/upcoming-events/artist-talk-film-screening160charine160pilar-gonzales Join us for an evening of storytelling and film with Charine Pilar Gonzales, Fort Lewis College alum and featured artist in the Center of Southwest Studies’ current exhibition, Constellations of Place. Charine’s presentation will share her creative journey and approach to community-based filmmaking that intertwines memories, dreams, and truths through vivid story. During her presentation, Charine will screen two of her acclaimed short films: River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh), which is the first narrative fiction film approved by San Ildefonso Pueblo to be filmed on Tribal lands since the 1980’s, and is told using an Indigenous story structure, inspired by traditional Tewa stories. Her second film, This Land Carries Us, is a reflection of Tewa people and land that was produced for the recent exhibition ‘Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country’ at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. Charine Pilar Gonzales is a Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her Tewa name is “Ku’yan Povi” which means Turquoise Flower. She is a 2024 Sundance Institute Native Lab Fellow for her episodic project, NDN Time. Her esteemed short doc Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez (2022) premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was acquired by AT&T, Comcast Xfinity, Millicent Rogers Museum, and The Heard Museum. Charine’s debut narrative fiction short film, River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh), received the Achievement in Short Filmmaking Award at the 2023 LA SKINS FEST. She is a Producer for the Native Lens project, a crowdsourced collaboration by KSUT Tribal Radio and Rocky Mountain PBS. She owns the multimedia production company, Povi Studios, and is represented by Rain Management Group. Charine is a proud alum of Fort Lewis College, earning a BA in English-Communication, and currently attends the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA Creative Writing program with a focus in Screenwriting. Charine’s short film Mesa Memory that is featured in Constellations of Place is made possible with generous support from the Belonging Colorado initiative of The Denver Foundation and the Greater Good Science Center and is in partnership with the America 250-Colorado 150 Southwest regional “Power of Place” initiative. This is a featured event for the Four Corners Water Center’s annual Water Week series of lectures and presentations. Learn more about Water Week events.