Monuments, Monumentality & Memory: Public Art at UNM (Walking Tour)

People often envision artists as lone workers toiling away in a studio as their individual perspectives come to life. But public art—including sculptures, monuments, and memorials—has long been crafted, selected, and erected by groups of people in order to define themselves and shape the future. Archaeologists often study ancient monuments—from rock art to tombstones, from shrines to megaliths—as material expressions of the cultures who created them about who they were, who they hoped to be, and the memories they hoped to last into the future. But the same perspectives and methods of study can be applied to modern public art, including the large amount of public art erected around the UNM campus. Join Honors Professor and Archaeologist Troy Lovata on a walking tour of some of the most impactful, forgotten, meaningful, and misunderstood public art that attempts, succeeds, and fails to capture what it means to be a Lobo.