Upcoming Events

Location: Noble 130

Free and open to all!

Join Center of Southwest Studies Director, Dr. Cory Pillen, and Collections Manager & Fort Lewis College NAGPRA Coordinator, Amy Cao, as they discuss the exciting collaboration between The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (The Met) Department of Scientific Research, the Center of Southwest Studies, and the FLC Chemistry Department. Over a week of creative inquiry, faculty, staff, students, and select community partners learned how to conduct materials research locally, building long-term capacity for interdisciplinary teaching and ethical, community-centered collections stewardship in the Southwest.

This event is hosted by the FLC Professional Associates’ Life-Long Learning program. Learn more here.

Image Credit: Evan Benally Atwood, Window Rock, AZ

Location: CSWS Lyceum (Room 120)

Free and open to all.

Celebrating Earth Day & FLC Arts April!

Join us at the Center of Southwest Studies for a special artist talk with Diné photographer, curator, and creative collaborator Rapheal Begay.

Rapheal is a visual storyteller based in Tségháhoodzání (Window Rock, Arizona) who uses cultural landscape photography, Indigenous storytelling traditions, and land-based knowledge to inform his creative practice and to preserve memory and understanding found within the Diné way of life.

Location: Robert Delaney Southwest Research Library and Archives

Free and open to all.

Celebrating Earth Day & FLC Arts April!

Join us for the closing reception of Herpetofauna of the Center: A Collection of Scales, which showcases a selection of objects from the museum collection that feature reptiles and amphibians as subject matter. The pieces represent an array of artistic media, stylistic choices, and cultural contexts. Herpetofauna is curated by recent Fort Lewis College graduate, Lacy Miller, whose aim is to draw attention to the importance of herpetofauna to ecosystems around the globe.

Location: CSWS Gallery

Free and open to all! Light refreshments provided.

Parking on campus is free during the summer, May to August.

Join us in celebrating the summer solstice on Sunday, June 21. At the dawn of the solstice, a spiral of sunlight from the Center's solstice window makes its way across the gallery walls. Arrive early to ensure you don't miss the impressive display.

As the sun reaches the building, you are invited to join us in creating a cyanotype print in the Center’s courtyard!  All supplies will be provided, but bringing personal knickknacks and small objects is encouraged.

Location: CSWS Lyceum (Room 120)

Free and open to all!

Librarian by trade and angler at heart, Shelley Walchak gravitated towards fly-fishing later in life and was inspired in 2012 to leave her post at the Colorado State Library to take up the challenge of fishing a river a week for an entire year. Seven Rocky Mountain states and 52 rivers later, Shelley released her book 52 Rivers in 2014, documenting her adventures and life-lessons learned along the way. Now, over a decade later, Shelley is still traveling and angling and is ready to share an epilogue to 52 Rivers, which at its core is about chasing dreams, embracing the unknown, and finding inner joy along the way.

Location: CSWS Lyceum (Room 120)

Free and open to all!

Scott Graham, National Outdoor Book Award-winning author, will share insights into the writing and development of his successful National Park Mystery Series, published by nonprofit environmental and social justice publisher Torrey House Press.

Darby Raymond-Overstreet (Diné), Woven Landscape: Twilight at Tsé Bit’ a’í, 2025, mixed-media/digital collage. Courtesy of the artist.

Location: CSWS Lyceum (Room 120)

Free and open to all!

Join us for a special presentation by Darby Raymond-Overstreet, a featured artist in the Center of Southwest Studies’ current exhibition Constellations of Place.

Darby, born in Tuba City and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona, is an award-winning Diné artist who specializes in digital collage and printmaking to create powerful portraits, landscapes, and abstract forms inspired by and derived from traditional Diné textiles, with particular interest in pieces woven in the late 1800s-1950s. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, art markets, and exhibitions, including Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (Santa Fe, NM), The Force is With Our People at the Museum of Northern Arizona (Flagstaff, AZ), and The Return of the Force at the Center of Southwest Studies.