During our visit to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised with their newest permanent exhibit, called Only in Albuquerque: History Gallery. In my years away from my beloved hometown, my love for this strange, beautiful, unique place only grew, eventually leading me back to it. This new exhibit did an excellent job of celebrating all of the things that make Albuquerque so singular and so marvelous.
The exhibit opens up to a gorgeous round room, the ceiling displays both the open night skies and exquisite sunsets that lie above this town. The floor was an actual satellite image of Albuquerque and it’s outer limits. Our little one even managed to help me find our neighborhood!
After a changing screen display of images from the region, the gallery then continues into four separate galleries: Innovative, Resourceful, Spirited, and Courageous, each named for the best attributes of the citizens, past, present, and future, of this great city. Each gallery was interactive, informative, and a maze of history and beauty. Containing locally relevant and world class historical artifacts, the galleries told the story of a simple desert villa burgeoning into an urban desert oasis.
This tapestry bearing the coat of arms for the Duke of Alburqurque which the city was named for, is actually older than the city itself.
An advertisiment for one of the first housing developments in Albuquerque