Opening Thursday, February 11, 2027
The San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project will present Con amor y paciencia: los bordados en colcha del Valle de San Luis (With Love and Patience: San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery), a major exhibition that will bring together contemporary and historic colcha embroideries, alongside photographs, ephemera, and films that offer a complex portrait of the artists.
Colcha embroidery is a textile practice that came to the San Luis Valley from northern New Mexico in the 19th century during colonization and was originally used to make bedspreads. Revival movements in the 20th century shaped the practice into a pictorial art that often depicts local architecture, landscapes, community traditions, personal narratives, and folklore. Spanish, Anglo, and Indigenous threads are woven together in the artform, illustrating the history of the San Luis Valley.
Con amor y paciencia tells the story of San Luis Valley colcha embroidery’s origins through examining the relationship between New Mexico and Colorado. The 1970s–80s revival, led by Artes del Valle and the Virginia Neal Blue Resource Center for Colorado Women, is rooted in the work of artist and teacher Carmen Benavente de Orrego-Salas in the communities of Ninhue, Chile; Villanueva, New Mexico; and the San Luis Valley. The story is tied back to the early 20th century practices of Carson, New Mexico artists who positioned colcha embroidery to tourists as a heritage craft representative of the region. The fabric of the artform is shaped by painter Rebecca Salsbury James, who learned in Taos to move the tradition from the bed to the wall. The invaluable documentary work of photographer Kathryn Nelson centers the people and landscapes at the heart of the exhibition. The featured contemporary artists celebrate collective commitment to colcha embroidery as a vital means of self expression and community building.
Mavi Valdez-Apodaca’s 2026 artwork Con amor y paciencia la tradición continua (“with love and patience the tradition continues”) captures the slow, devoted nature of the colcha stitch, and speaks to the care taken to keep San Luis Valley colcha embroidery thriving across generations. Con amor y paciencia builds on nine years of San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project research, exhibitions, and support for practicing artists, and features loans from individual artists and other collecting institutinos, alongside selections from Center of Southwest Studies textile collections.
Public programming to include a colcha embroidery workshop, screenings of Los Testamentos: Hispanic Women Folk Artists of the San Luis Valley (1980) by Kathryn Nelson, and artist talks. A catalog for Con amor y paciencia is forthcoming. For more information on the exhibition, please visit swcenter.fortlewis.edu and slvcolchaembroidery.org.
This exhibition is made possible with generous donor support to the Center of Southwest Studies Impact Fund - Donate Today!
Featured artists include Mary Baker, Eufemia Barela, Cathy Baxter, Carmen Benavente de Orrego-Salas, Rebecca Benton, Maruca Bustos, Arnold Chávez, Sandy Dolak, Ester Esquibel de Romero, Hannah Evans, Celso Gallegos, Mary Ann Gallegos, Rosabel Gallegos, Adrienne Garbini, Patsy Garcia, Peggy Garcia Williams, Julia Gomez, Benedict Gonzales, Filomena Gonzales, Rose Mary Gonzales, Margie Gurule, Annette Gutierrez Turk, Rebecca Salsbury James, Tani Kickham, Josephine Lobato, Rita Lobato Crespin, Virginia Lovato, Melanie Lucero, Loretta Rose Lujan, Donna Madrid Hernandez, Aurora Martinez, Lydia Martinez, Mary Martinez, Dorothy Medina, Loyola Medina, Olivia Medina, Julia Mondragón, Kathryn Nelson, Mary Olivas, Daisy Ortega, Sandy Ortega, Marcella Pacheco, Sadie Pacheco, Juana Parra, Marcella Quintana, Nettie Quintana, Virginia Rodriguez, Eforsina ‘Francis’ Russell, Sostena Sandoval de Cleven, Trent Segura, Elmer Shupe, Verde Shupe, Lupe Tafoya, Nyla Orvis Thompson, Evelyn Trujillo, Tiva Trujillo, Julia Valdez, Tina Valdez, Mavi Valdez-Apodaca, Josela Varela, Frances Varos Graves, Sophie Varos Graves, Mary ‘Tiola’ Vialpando, Judy Vigil, Mary Vigil de Rodriguez, Petrita Villanueva, Vicky Walker, and Delores Worley.
ABOUT THE GUEST CURATORS
Adrienne Garbini is an artist, writer, curator, and organizer living in Saguache, Colorado. She is the executive director of NOON Organization, the cultural preservation and educational resources arts non-profit that stewards the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project. Garbini’s art practice spans sculpture, archives, textiles, nonfiction, poetry, photography, video, drawing, and the administrative and legal arts. She co-curates The Range, an artist space in Saguache, and has curated San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project exhibitions at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities and the University of Denver School of Art and Art History. Her preservation interests include artist-built environments, vernacular museums, and adobe building education. Garbini received a BFA in photography and imaging from New York University and a MFA in visual arts from the University of California, San Diego. She has served on the Town of Saguache Historic Preservation Commission since 2015 and is currently its Chair.
Trent Segura is an artist, designer, and researcher based in Denver and Saguache, Colorado. He is the programs manager for NOON Organization and a coordinator of the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project. He is a member of contemporary arts collective M12 Studio. Segura learned colcha embroidery from La Costura de Saguache artist Delores Worley. La Costura de Saguache was a stitching circle in Saguache in the 1970s and 80s that included Segura’s great aunt, Tiva Trujillo. Segura has also received instruction from NEA Heritage Fellow Josephine Lobato. Segura received a BFA in digital design from the University of Colorado, Denver.
IMAGE CAPTIONS
Patsy Garcia, The Turtle Storyteller, 2023. Image courtesy of the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project.
Donna Madrid Hernandez, The History of the Saguache Head Start Building, 2026. Image courtesy of the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project.
Kathryn Nelson, Margie Gurule, 1981. Image courtesy of the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project.