{"id":119738,"date":"2020-02-25T16:10:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T23:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=119738"},"modified":"2020-02-25T16:11:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T23:11:03","slug":"macaulay-spearheads-national-heritage-fellowship-for-san-luis-valley-folk-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=119738","title":{"rendered":"MacAulay spearheads National Heritage Fellowship for San Luis Valley folk artist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Josephine<\/a>
Josephine Lobato holds one of her Colcha embroidery pieces. Photo by Carol Dass, instructor, Visual and Performing Arts Department<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As professor and chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at UCCS, Suzanne MacAulay<\/a> knows that amazing artistry must be rewarded. That\u2019s why she helped Josephine Lobato<\/a> win a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts last September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than 30 years, Lobato, age 83, has been practicing an art form called Colcha embroidery, a Spanish Colonial style that dates back to the early 19th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to other embroidery styles, the point of Colcha (Spanish for \u201cquilt\u201d or \u201ccover\u201d) is to tell a story by sewing detailed images into textiles, blankets or tapestries. Lobato\u2019s works are so intricate, they almost look like a painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lobato\u2019s love for Colcha came from her time working at the Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center in Fort Garland, Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Headshot<\/a>
Suzanne MacAulay, professor and chair, Visual and Performing Arts Department<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe once told me \u2018I have so much experience working with history, I always thought someday I\u2019ll sit down and write, so my embroidery is sort of a story and sort of a legacy,\u2019\u201d MacAulay says. \u201cShe found a style she was good for and she\u2019s still stitching away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990, MacAulay, who has a Ph.D. in folklore and ethnography from the University of Pennsylvania, traveled to Lobato\u2019s home in the San Luis Valley to complete her dissertation on Colcha embroidery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Situated in Southern Colorado, near the border of New Mexico, the San Luis Valley is home to a long lineage of Spanish and Mexican settlers. At the time of MacAulay\u2019s dissertation, the valley was undergoing an economic revitalization effort fueled by folk art. Many women in the area took to Colcha embroidery, including Lobato. This work was so important to the revitalization, MacAulay decided to write a book about it called \u201cStitching Rites<\/a>\u201d using Lobato as one of her main subjects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, MacAulay decided to honor Lobato by submitting her for consideration to the National Endowment for the Arts. According to MacAulay, the NEA\u2019s National Heritage Award is one of the highest honors a folk artist can get, akin to the Nobel Prize. The award also boasts $25,000 of funding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen one is a folklorist or ethnographer, they don\u2019t get a chance to pay back those who have shared their lives with them,\u201d MacAulay explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For four years, MacAulay went to work gathering evidence to prove that Lobato was worthy of such a prestigious award. To MacAulay, what helped seal the deal were letters she gathered from community members in the San Luis Valley describing the effect Lobato\u2019s work has had on the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last September, MacAulay flew to Washington, D.C., to see Lobato receive the award. Afterward, Lobato told her that the entire trip \u201cfelt like a dream.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For MacAulay and the UCCS Visual and Performing Arts Department, Lobato\u2019s award is a dream come true. Since MacAulay took over as chair in 2004, the department has been integrating different disciplines to revolutionize arts education at UCCS. From these interdisciplinary concepts comes a deeper understanding of how folk traditions can influence art as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re revisioning the way our history should be taught,\u201d MacAulay says. \u201cThere are so many elements of social practice in the arts these days, so storytelling and ethnography \u2014 they all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d show will be interviewing Lobato about her body of work and National Heritage Award. Of course, MacAulay couldn\u2019t be happier to see her friend, and favorite folk art style, get more recognition. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As professor and chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at UCCS, Suzanne MacAulay knows that amazing artistry must be rewarded. That\u2019s why she helped Josephine Lobato win a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":119739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,45],"tags":[53,330,86,332,302,102],"class_list":["post-119738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-arts-and-culture","tag-academic-affairs","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences","tag-more-news","tag-office-of-research","tag-visual-and-performing-arts-department"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/unnamed.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-v9g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119753,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119738\/revisions\/119753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}