Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center

Looking back at 2019, we, at the museum, feel a sense of accomplishment. We received an Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History for our short documentary film, Love Song for the Dead, received two major grants from New Mexico Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and we completed some much-needed renovations to the museum. Some of the renovations were planned—and cosmetic; some were brought on by the record snowfall which collapsed part of our roof. This last event made us all the more motivated to find a more modern space in 2020. 

So, despite being semi-closed for several months, we kept very busy. 

In January, TV station KRQE came out to do a story on our Lines Across Time phone booth (a collaboration between UNM Arts and Medicine and our museum). 

During the coldest months, we catalogued our over 1,700 books and folios in the online Library Thing data base and took possession of several collections of WWI and WWII artifacts and photos. We conducted several spouse and veteran focus groups at the museum, participated in a face-to-face veteran’s sensing session with New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, and actively participated in local and regional Chambers of Commerce events.

In March, novelist Andria Williams visited the museum as well as did memoirist Candace George Thompson.  In April, we held our first naturalization ceremony of the year. (We host several such ceremonies every year.) We had our grand re-opening in April, and unveiled two new exhibits:Military Kids’ Lives and Together We Serve: The Modern Military Spouse. 

In May, the Poco Quatros car club visited, and their Model A’s parked in front of the museum made a lovely photo. Director Circe visited the West Baton Rouge Museum to finally meet the team she’d been collaborating with remotely. The museum was featured on KOB TV, and Cabinet Secretary Judy Griego and County Commissioner Charlene Pyskoty opened the museum’s exhibit, Still Shouting! We spoke at the Memorial Day Ceremony at the Sandoval County Vietnam Veterans Memorial and completed our walking path in the museum’s Memory Garden. And the month ended with a front-page Memorial Day article about MAMF in the Albuquerque Journal.”

The Route 66 automobile tour stopped at the museum as it crossed the state on the “Mother Road” in June— just in time to admire our brown attraction sign courtesy of the New Mexico Department of Transportation.  And, Arizona State Graduate student Sarah created and led a wonderful theater workshop for military kids in the area. Musican Jason Moon presented us with several music CDs for our collection. June was also the month in which MAMF Artist- in-Residence Lora finished up her project—a completed play—with a reading of it at TheatreLab in Richmond, VA.

In July, we swapped out Still Shouting, for our exhibit GI Jokes, and we received a grant to add ramps to our exterior doorways to make them wheelchair accessible. The Museum was accepted into the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s National Veterans Intermediary, and our East Mountain Veteran Families Collaborative was formed. The collaborative meets monthly and will focus on issues (and solutions) important to rural military families. 

July also brought more than a hundred former Defense Department teachers and administrators to our museum as part of their attendance at the annual Dodds Reunion held this year in Albuquerque. After his visit to the museum, along with his communications director, the DoDDS Director told the entire reunion of more than 800 former teachers from all over the country about the importance of our work and is now considering establishing a DoDDS-MAMF partnership.

In August, the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services —  — and the museum– held a community outreach event, with vendors and helping agencies on site to assist veterans and family members with benefits, healthcare referrals, information, etc. We held our second outreach in October. 

In September, author Kathleen Rogers came to visit. (She’s featured in our Modern Military Spouse exhibit). The Museum hosted the monthly meeting of the Albuquerque Museum Collaborative Council, a group of museum professionals representing all the major museums in the city. It was great to show off the museum to our peers, many of whom were seeing it for the first time. 

A group of Brats on an OASIS excursion came to the museum for a two-hour tour, but as what typically happens, once the stories started flowing, and connections made, the two hours extended to three…then four, and finally, we had to send them packing!

In November, we broadcasted KUNM’s “Children’s Hour” radio show live from the museum. In December,ber we will present a one-day exhibit and program “A GI’s Christmas Carol: Tokyo Army Hospital, 1954”.

These instant community moments happen often at the museum—and is at the heart of our mission and vision. We bring people with “shared and converging paths together as community, inspiring a sense of place and history. As a repository for their stories, we shape the future by preserving our heritage, recording its evolution, and inviting dialogue by sharing our experiences with the world.”

Daily, family members drop off mementoes, letters, photographs, and artifacts knowing that they will find a caring and lasting “home” for items they treasure and want to share with others. Often, the donor leaves our museum feeling relieved and proud that their loved one’s legacy will live on.

This is why we do what we do. Military families—the parents, spouses and children’s sacrifices, service, and support are often overlooked. We shine a light on the family’s accomplishments, struggles, and pride through our exhibits, workshops, publications, and programming. 

Like many nonprofits, we are gearing up for #GivingTuesday, which is celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. If you are planning to partake in this “Global Day of Giving,” we hope you consider our small, but mighty museum! 

We have big things planned for 2020 — continuing with our programs and exhibits, as well as procuring our own permanent building. That, of course, will come with a big price tag, and so we will be rolling up our sleeves and striding out in January. We will need to raise around $350,000 to make our dream a reality; and, we owe it to our military families to move to a bigger and more accessible location to ensure their legacy is preserved.

To donate to our museum’s building fund, please donate at: https://www.facebook.com/fund/MuseumoftheAmericanMilitaryFamily/

For further information please contact:

Military Kid Art Project

2600 Hull St. Richmond VA 23224

Lora Beldon

LKBeldon@hotmail.com

804-614-8478

Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center

546B State Route 333, Tijeras, NM  87059
info@militaryfamilymuseum.org

TheatreLab

(804) 506-3533
info@heatrelabrva.org

Real stories from real people:
LGBTQ+ Veterans and Family Members of the U.S. Military Services.

Playwright and Director: Melissa Rayford
Producers: Lora Beldon and DeeJay Gray

SHOUT!  is an ensemble production which includes compilations of true LGBTQ+ Military Family stories – from multiple generations and military branches, spanning rank, race, gender, and socio-economic backgrounds. 

Sponsored by the New Mexico-based Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center (MAMF), SHOUT! is a collaboration between Lora Beldon, Director of Military Kid Art Project, the Transgender Veterans Support Group of Richmond, and TheatreLab. Funding for the project came through a generous grant by the ARCUS Foundation. 

SHOUT!  The play began as one story told by Theresa Duke, a trans-woman veteran for the museum’s anthology, SHOUT! Sharing Our Truth: An Anthology of Writing by LGBT Veterans and Family Members of the U.S. Military Services.  Lora Beldon, MAMF Artist-in-Residence, and MAMF Director Circe Olson Woessner were the anthology’s co-editors. 

That piece, titled Inner Voices, had such strong descriptive dialogue, editors Beldon and Woessner agreed the story would translate well on stage. The play quickly grew to include many voices and stories from LGBTQ+ Military personnel and families and evolved into SHOUT! the play. 

Beldon says, “MAMF has done, and is doing, pioneer work in telling the story of the LGBTQ+ military veteran and family members through exhibits and publications at the museum and out in the community. Dr. Woessner is a visionary, who has maintained from the beginning that the museum would tell the stories of ALL military families and be inclusive of all. 

Shared stories are what help build and define our identity, shared stories are what help communities learn from each other, and by listening to these particular stories, people who haven’t experienced what LGBTQ veterans or their families have– just their listening and learning is a gift.”

Playwright Melissa Rayford seamlessly wove together multiple stories contributed by service members, military spouses, brats, and allies into a strong, thought-provoking and poignant piece. Five Richmond actors, assuming multiple roles, bring the piece to life. Shout! is at once funny, sad, defiant, and whimsical. 

One story’s author shares, “Those fantasies of aliens coming down from space to switch your body with the neighbor girl’s body, those were mine.” 

Woessner says, “This play is exceptionally timely because of recent announcements from the White House regarding transgender citizens serving in the military, and the subsequent legal and political actions around that; and it also discusses how the military impacted the lives of LGBTQ spouses and children. As always, we want to focus on family stories.”

Ambitious future plans are in the works for Beldon and Woessner: to package the play for greater circulation and to create educational materials based on LGBT military history and stories in the play. Playwright Mellissa Rayford says, “It is our hope as a group that we create a production to be used by any theatre group wishing to produce this subject matter.” 

SHOUT! will be traveling to Boston and to Albuquerque in late 2019. 

TheatreLab, located in The Basement, 300 East Broad Street

Richmond, VA 23219, is known as Richmond’s home for unexpected and evocative performances. Link for tickets: https://tlab-internet.choicecrm.net/templates/TLAB/#/events

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Sunday, September 22 and Monday, September 23, 2019.  Each night doors open 7:00pm, General admission Tickets $20. There are discounts available for pre-sale, students, teachers, military and senior all with ID.

Contact:  Ron Bassford                                                          For Immediate Release

Public Affairs Specialist                                                                 September 6, 2019

NMVAHCS to Host 2nd Annual Suicide Prevention Motorcycle Ride

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center will be hosting its second annual New Mexico Veterans S.A.V.E. Motorcycle Ride to help promote suicide prevention awareness throughout our state. 

“Suicide is something I have personally experienced. A high school friend committed suicide, and when I was in my early 20s, another good friend took his life,” said Richardo Vallejos, State Road Captain for the American Legion Riders, Chapter 22. 

This years’ ride will take place in Northern and Southern New Mexico. Approximately 50 motorcyclists from Albuquerque through the northern route; Tijeras, Espanola, and Taos, around the “Enchanted Circle,” and the ride’s final stop will be in Angel Fire, New Mexico. Approximately 50 more motorcyclists will also participate in the southern route which will start at the American Legion Post 10 and wind itself around Las Cruces and end at the local Veterans Memorial Park.  At each stop, suicide prevention information will be available to both riders and members of the local community. 

The American Legion Riders of New Mexico will be coordinating the route/s. 

The 2nd Annual motorcycle ride from Albuquerque to Angel Fire will take place on Saturday, September 7, starting at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center, with a kick-off ceremony at 730 a.m. and kickstands up at 8 a.m.  There will be a remembrance service on Sunday morning at the Angel Fire Vietnam Memorial. The motorcycle ride in Las Cruces will be on September 8, starting at the American Legion Post 10 (1185 E Madrid Ave.), with the kick-off ceremony at 830 am and kickstands up at 0900. The ride will end at Veterans Memorial Park and will be followed by a memorial.

“With this ride open to the public, we hope to increase awareness that suicide can be prevented, and services are available to veterans across New Mexico,” said Christina Camacho, NMVAHCS Social Worker. 

This ride also coincides with September being suicide prevention month and the Department of Veterans Affairs campaign of #BeThereserves as a reminder that we all have a role to play in preventing Veteran suicide.

For more information/questions about the S.A.V.E. motorcycle ride, volunteer opportunities, or to donate, please contact Christina Camacho at (505) 265-1711, ext. 3056.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Circe Olson Woessner

Circe@militaryfamilymuseum.org

505-504-6830

August 30, 2019

Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center awarded funding by NEH to further collections preservation

Tijeras’ Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center has done it again with yet another award.  

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded funding to the Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center to begin long-term preservation projects for its diverse collection of artifacts and documents. 

Dr. Allen Dale Olson, who is the museum’s secretary, says, “Our grant’s project title is, ‘We Also Served: Safeguarding our Heritage.’ Receiving a federal grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities indicates, to us, that the NEH believes that our collection is of national importance.”

The NEH grant will support the purchase of display and storage containers for letters and documents dating back to WWI and the restoration of an antique tiger skin, which is part of the Dorothy Cox collection of special artifacts. 

 The collections preservation award is timely as the museum recently survived a minor catastrophe when, due to heavy snow and ice, part of the gallery’s ceiling collapsed at the beginning of the year. All the artifacts survived damage, but it was a grim reminder of how important it is to preserve and protect precious objects and treasured keepsakes.

The Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center was one of only three organizations in New Mexico to receive a Humanities Grant in this cycle—and one of only 215 awardees nation-wide.

Director Dr. Circe Olson Woessner says, “While the museum is locally operated and staffed, it is national in scope, and much more than an array of artifacts, exhibits, and documents. It has also become a research center, a host for college interns, and a multidisciplinary collaborative site. It’s a community hub where veterans and family members can gather and reflect together on their collective identity over a century’s span of military deployment. It’s important that we preserve our collections properly. We have a Purple Heart, citation and dog tag from a World War I soldier, donated by his niece who is now in her 90s. There is no way one can assign a value to that, and it has become a charge for us to preserve and keep that soldier’s memory alive—as well as every other individual represented in our museum.”

It is the only museum completely dedicated to military family history, from all branches and eras.

Most of the artifacts have been donated since the museum’s inception in 2011. 

The museum has a collection of over 1,600 items, including coins, textiles, patches, paintings, pottery, photographs, letters, documents, and audiovisual materials that tell the history on the home front and abroad of American military families. The Dorothy Cox collection remains one of the museum’s star attractions because of its unique carvings and musical instruments from Africa and the Philippines, leather work and brass items from Turkey and Libya and a Victorian-era insect collection—and of, course, the tiger skin.

The museum’s special collections library has become a research destination for scholars and students around the world seeking more information about military spouses or children, or the DOD world-wide school systems.

San Francisco State University Professor Deborah Cohler, who has visited the museum multiple times, says, “The Museum of the American Military Family is not only a space of active community engagement and an important archival site, it also engages with the social, political, and intellectual stakes of public history and material culture. The museum has a substantial archival mission: it not only amasses material artifacts of military families, but its director and board actively solicit and collect oral histories, memoirs, and informal as well as formal narratives by members of military families.” 

This grant comes at the heels of several other awards of national scope, the latest being a sizable arts grant to provide workshops to military families in recovery from addiction, and another to create a ten-minute documentary film, “Love Song For the Dead,” which weaves together first- hand stories of wartime family sacrifices in a compelling reflection of such loss. In 2018, the museum received the American Association of State and Local History’s Albert B. Cory Prize, and this year, it received an Excellence in Leadership national award. 

The Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center is an all-volunteer non-profit honoring the men, women, and children who serve beside America’s service members. As a repository of artifacts, letters, documents and photos, it tells their stories, showing history through a different lens. 

The museum is located at 546B State Highway 333 (Old 66, right next to Molly’s Bar.) It is open 10:30-5:00 Saturday through Wednesday and by appointment.

For more information, email info@militaryfamilymuseum.orgor phone (505) 504-6830