Community Calendar

In the display case in August and September, VGPL features John Segell, a Santa Fe potter and member of the Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association. Segell crafts decorative and functional high-temperature stoneware fired to cone 10 (2350 degrees) in his own hand-built sprung arch kiln. Segell received a BFA in Ceramics from University of Wisconsin, studying for four years under Don Reitz. After moving to Santa Fe in 1980 and raising a family, John continued his enthusiasm for ceramics continuing to throw pots -- to the benefit of friends and family, while working in the hospitality industry. Now retired, he is focused on renewing his love of clay and working full time in his studio (#46 on the Eldorado Studio Tour). Visit the artist’s website to see more of his work.

We are often told that as we age, our bodies will become tight, limited, and less capable. What if that’s just a myth?

With Hanna Somatics we see that human bodies are resilient and capable of staying limber, strong, and graceful at any age. Inspired by Thomas Hanna’s lessons on the “myth of aging”, this 6-week series will guide you through gentle, slow, Hanna Somatic movements that will help you decrease chronic tension, movement limitation, and pain and increase your coordination and balance.

Students who attend the full series will receive an audio download of a short Hanna Somatics daily practice. Drop-ins are welcome for students who cannot make the whole series. Classes are verbally guided and will be taught in reclined positions on the floor.

The Language of Place is a group exhibition featuring mixed media painting by Heidi Brandow (Diné & Kānaka Maoli); photography by Shaarbek Amankul (Indigenous Kyrgyz); beadwork and photography by Thomas Jones (Ho-Chunk); Indigenous Kyrgyzstani textiles designed by Amankul and Brandow and made by Kyrgyzstani artisans; and a pair of moccasins handmade by Clementine Bordeaux (Sičáŋǧu Lakótapi [Rosebud Sioux Tribe]). Co-curated by Amankul and Brandow, this exhibition examines how land, history, and cultural knowledge inform and shape the creative processes of four artists whose practices are intricately embedded in their relationships with land and environment.

Markings from Fire is an exhibition of wood-fired ceramics, charcoal drawings, 3-D printed flasks, and a sound installation by multimedia artist and former United States Forest Service firefighter Avi Farber. In this exhibition, Farber brings his experience of working in the burn scar of the most devastating fire in New Mexico’s history, the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, and its aftermath, to form & concept to better understand humanity’s role within the natural world. Through ceramic works made from prehistoric minerals, ruins, locally sourced clays, and wood preserved using a burning technique similar to the Japanese practice of shou sugi ban, Farber creates a portrait of fire’s direct and obtuse impacts on public land, private residences, and natural and man-made landscapes. Together, these works invite viewers to reflect on themes of impermanence and existential meaning on various scales of time, from a single human’s experience of a tragic event to Earth’s genesis and its eons of environmental transformation that impact us all and call for deep collective reflection.

In the display case in August and September, VGPL features John Segell, a Santa Fe potter and member of the Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association. Segell crafts decorative and functional high-temperature stoneware fired to cone 10 (2350 degrees) in his own hand-built sprung arch kiln. Segell received a BFA in Ceramics from University of Wisconsin, studying for four years under Don Reitz. After moving to Santa Fe in 1980 and raising a family, John continued his enthusiasm for ceramics continuing to throw pots -- to the benefit of friends and family, while working in the hospitality industry. Now retired, he is focused on renewing his love of clay and working full time in his studio (#46 on the Eldorado Studio Tour). Visit the artist’s website to see more of his work.

We are often told that as we age, our bodies will become tight, limited, and less capable. What if that’s just a myth?

With Hanna Somatics we see that human bodies are resilient and capable of staying limber, strong, and graceful at any age. Inspired by Thomas Hanna’s lessons on the “myth of aging”, this 6-week series will guide you through gentle, slow, Hanna Somatic movements that will help you decrease chronic tension, movement limitation, and pain and increase your coordination and balance.

Students who attend the full series will receive an audio download of a short Hanna Somatics daily practice. Drop-ins are welcome for students who cannot make the whole series. Classes are verbally guided and will be taught in reclined positions on the floor.

This is an SFCC event jointly sponsored by the SFCC Creative Writing program and the SFCC library.

Participants only need to register once and will be registered for every event in the series.
Register: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WriGenFall2025

All sessions will take place online and the URL for each session will be sent out the morning of each event. The events are free and are open to anyone who would like to attend.

September 17 & 24, 2025
Reading & Creative Session with Rowena Alegría

Rowena Alegría Artist Statement

Adopted at birth, inheritance and identity fascinate me. I knew the woman who gave me light only in the sharing of fluids and nutrients. For nine months, I experienced her tears, her rabia, her indecision. I heard her words in languages I would learn long afterward. I imagine her intimations wait like timed bombs in my consciousness and go off as whispered intuition. From her, I inherited a love of learning and a passion for words and justice. Surrendered at birth, I marvel at how I know so little of her in artifact or experience, as she walked on before my search, but how so much of her – learned from her poems and dissertation, from her survivors, those who loved her but didn’t know her well enough to know I existed – survives in my genes.

My work in progress, a novel titled “500 Springs,” takes a particular interest in these ideas coupled with the legacy of colonialism on the indigenous and mestizo peoples of what is now Mexico and the southwestern United States, which includes my home state of Colorado. The novel explores the potential of souls carrying over generations the unresolved pain of the past as well as unfulfilled love and promises.

Read more: http://www.RowenaAlegria.com

The Language of Place is a group exhibition featuring mixed media painting by Heidi Brandow (Diné & Kānaka Maoli); photography by Shaarbek Amankul (Indigenous Kyrgyz); beadwork and photography by Thomas Jones (Ho-Chunk); Indigenous Kyrgyzstani textiles designed by Amankul and Brandow and made by Kyrgyzstani artisans; and a pair of moccasins handmade by Clementine Bordeaux (Sičáŋǧu Lakótapi [Rosebud Sioux Tribe]). Co-curated by Amankul and Brandow, this exhibition examines how land, history, and cultural knowledge inform and shape the creative processes of four artists whose practices are intricately embedded in their relationships with land and environment.

Markings from Fire is an exhibition of wood-fired ceramics, charcoal drawings, 3-D printed flasks, and a sound installation by multimedia artist and former United States Forest Service firefighter Avi Farber. In this exhibition, Farber brings his experience of working in the burn scar of the most devastating fire in New Mexico’s history, the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, and its aftermath, to form & concept to better understand humanity’s role within the natural world. Through ceramic works made from prehistoric minerals, ruins, locally sourced clays, and wood preserved using a burning technique similar to the Japanese practice of shou sugi ban, Farber creates a portrait of fire’s direct and obtuse impacts on public land, private residences, and natural and man-made landscapes. Together, these works invite viewers to reflect on themes of impermanence and existential meaning on various scales of time, from a single human’s experience of a tragic event to Earth’s genesis and its eons of environmental transformation that impact us all and call for deep collective reflection.

In the display case in August and September, VGPL features John Segell, a Santa Fe potter and member of the Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association. Segell crafts decorative and functional high-temperature stoneware fired to cone 10 (2350 degrees) in his own hand-built sprung arch kiln. Segell received a BFA in Ceramics from University of Wisconsin, studying for four years under Don Reitz. After moving to Santa Fe in 1980 and raising a family, John continued his enthusiasm for ceramics continuing to throw pots -- to the benefit of friends and family, while working in the hospitality industry. Now retired, he is focused on renewing his love of clay and working full time in his studio (#46 on the Eldorado Studio Tour). Visit the artist’s website to see more of his work.