Photos: Mobile museum visits Rio Rancho

A mobile museum program called Wonders on Wheels brought a portable museum exhibit to the Loma Colorado Main Library Wednesday morning.

Wonders on Wheels is a 38-foot RV packed with hands-on and visual learning exhibits brought by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The exhibit travels around New Mexico with a focus on public schools and libraries.

“Every year we visit every single county, and we prioritize rural and especially tribal areas of New Mexico,” Wonders on Wheels program supervisor Jennifer Hasty said.

The exhibit changes yearly, and it is chosen and designed by different brick-and-mortar museums in New Mexico. This year, the New Mexico Museum of Art chose an exhibit that focuses on artist Gustauve Baumann.

This year’s exhibit was implemented in March and features hands-on activities, including a spot where children could play with marionettes that were inspired by Baumann’s hand-carved works.

Hasty said that the Museum of Art chose to do their display on Baumann because he was a “man of the people.”

“He really fell in love with the landscapes of New Mexico, and the peoples and cultures, the diversity of New Mexico,” Hasty said.

In addition to creating landscapes, showcasing cultures and creating marionettes, Baumann was politically active in Pueblo communities and fought for Native American land and water rights.

“He was really an obviously good fit for this kind of exhibit because we want to connect with all people who are living in all these kinds of landscapes and from all of these different cultural backgrounds,” Hasty said.

Wonders on Wheels is based in Santa Fe and is typically on the road for three weeks out of every month. The RV will stop in Placitas on Thursday, and it will visit Corona, Carrizozo, Ruidoso and Albuquerque starting next week.

For more information, visit newmexicoculture.org/museum-resources/wonders-on-wheels or contact the program director at jennifer.hasty@dca.nm.gov.