Cowgirls

On September 13, 2009 we opened a new traveling exhibit, “Cowgirls: Contemporary Portraits of the American West” A program of Exhibits USA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts, and a new in-house temporary exhibit, “Cowgirls: Ranchers, Ropers, and Rodeo Queens”. In conjunction with these openings we hosted a forum under the same name as our temporary exhibit, “Cowgirls: Ranchers, Ropers, and Rodeo Queens”.

The traveling exhibit, “Cowgirls: Contemporary Portraits of the American West” is from Exhibits USA. We chose this exhibit to exemplify and honor the lifestyle of the ranchers that we have living in our own community. Without the ranchers, both men and women, this area would not be the same. The traveling exhibit contains 30 black and white photographs by Ronnie Farley with accompanying quotes and text. Farley's work focuses on both ranchers and rodeo contestants, both of which we know something about in this area. The photographs are of women all over the west from Wyoming to the National Rodeo Circuit. Farley captured the grit and determination of the lives of these inspiring women. While the photographs show life all over the West, it does not show life in Southeastern New Mexico; it does, however, contain a picture of a group of cowgirls one of which is Fern Sawyer who is an inductee to the Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame. Even though the focus of the photography is not New Mexico, it is still interesting to see the lives of these women. How are their lives different? What kind of work is different? How do they survive those intense winters in Wyoming or South Dakota? The photographs can be seen in many different ways: as art, as a story, as inspiration, or as a glimpse into another culture whether that be the cowgirls' lives in general or just looking at a different area of the country. Learning about other areas of the country and of the world allows us to open our horizons, to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes, and to appreciate the life that we have.

Because of the fact that the photographs are of different parts of the country we have put up a temporary in-house exhibit called "Cowgirls: Ranchers, Ropers, and Rodeo Queens" that focuses on the amazing women in our own community. We used objects from our own collections and supplemented them with objects on loan from women in the community to showcase some of our own local cowgirls. Some of the women of whom you can learn more about in the exhibit are pioneer and rancher Thelma Linam Webber, rancher and previous trick-rider Mary Dobry, rodeo queen Rae Lynn Dunlap, and rodeo champion Betty Gale Cooper Ratliff. The displays contain dresses, photos, plaques, boots, and more. I hope you will get the chance to come out to the Museum and learn more about these amazing women.

To honor our local women even more and to supplement the exhibit with stories and histories we hosted a forum under the same name. 11 women from the community gathered to share their stories and memories. We wanted to focus on the fact that the modern West has changed from the "old West" so we invited ladies from different generations to compare how life has changed on the ranch. Because of the general term of "cowgirl" we invited ranchers, ladies involved in the rodeo, as well as a recent rodeo queen. Our panelists consisted of Billie Pearson and Crill Allen, Suzanne and Debbie Jones, Pat and Margo Smith, Mary Dobry and Mary Denise Rice, La Jean Burnett, Rae Lynn Dunlap, and Pat Lee. With questions moderated by Calvin Smith and Lisa Seed, the forum was a big hit. Because of the importance of capturing these local stories we recorded the forum and began what we hope to make a continuing series. Oral history is an important topic and the stories of our local folk need to be recorded. With the success of this Cowgirl forum, we are hoping to move on to other topics including local survivors of World War II and so on. For now, however, we are focusing on the amazing and inspiring lives of our local women, "Cowgirls: Ranchers, Ropers, and Rodeo Queens". Both of the exhibits will be open until November 14, 2009.