The Center of Southwest Studies, the elder statesman in a consortium of institutions with similar interests, faces a busy year leading up to the celebration of its 50th anniversary in October.
The center – its modest first collections stored in a lean-to attached to Berndt Hall – has become a serious institution with a remarkable textile collection. The Delaney Research Library houses historic maps, photographs, newspapers, films and documents that researchers find invaluable.
The 48,000-square-foot, $8 million building, includes 4,400 square feet of galleries. The collections are now worth $8 million, said Andrew Gulliford, a history professor at the college.
FLC eliminated southwest studies as a major in 2010 but moved most classes into other departments. Now, a new major in public history fits nicely with the center, giving students an opportunity to intern at the center and work with the collections, Gulliford said.
As the center expanded, the early collections and administrative offices were moved to the campus library to which a third floor had been added for the express purpose. They remained there until 2001 when the current center opened.
Behind the creation and expansion of the center were the vision and energy of Morley and Arthur Ballantine, publishers of The Durango Herald, who, with A.P. Camp, founder of the First National Bank of Durango, donated probably $10,000, at the maximum, in 1964 to create the center, current director Jay Harrison said.
Grants from such sources as the National Endowment for the Humanities followed. Community members also donated artifacts.
“We’re a regional cultural studies institute,” Harrison said. “We serve the interests of the greater Southwest.”
He has a doctorate in cultural history from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He specializes in the Franciscan and Jesuit missions of colonial Mexico and the Southwest. He also worked as an engineering manager for 17 years.
Officially, the center’s Golden Anniversary is Oct. 9, but the opening reception is six months earlier, with many events packed in between.
“We’ll build up to the October celebration,” said Harrison, who, in August 2012, arrived at FLC.
“We are the oldest of nine schools that offer some form of Southwest studies,” Harrison said. “We have a museum, archives and public programming while the others in the Consortium of Southwest Studies Centers may limit their activities to such endeavors as publishing books and holding seminars.”
Among upcoming celebratory events:
The April 10 opening reception that features an exhibit of Rio Grande textiles from the Durango Collection.
Rio Grande is a broad term because among the weavings of Hispanic artisans are examples from Colorado and New Mexico that were produced – and still are – for local markets.
Robin Farwell Gavin, chief curator at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., will be the keynote speaker.
An exhibit of contemporary Native American fashion – clothing and accessories – that highlight the creations of a pair of Native Americans from Santa Fe who have been recognized for their work.
The 61st annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American Studies, which attracts some 200 scholars. The organization is the oldest of its kind in Western Hemisphere. Harrison is president this year.
A lecture series on aspects of the Southwest from the second half of June through August, organized by Judith Reynolds, a longtime center supporter.
A 10-lecture series to mark the Wilderness Act, which also is marking its 50th anniversary. Among sponsoring partners are the San Juan Mountains Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, the Mountain Studies Institute and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The October birthday party will put the spotlight on the Durango Collection, the most notable and widely admired of the center’s treasures, which is now on exhibit in Santa Fe.
Jackson Clark, Sr., an early owner of the now third-generation Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango, and Mark Winter, an expert in historic textiles and rug genealogy, gathered the textiles – Navajo, Pueblo and Hispanic – over at least a decade.
The collection in its entirety, about 200 items, was donated by Richard and Mary Lynn Ballantine and Mark Winter to the college through the Fort Lewis College Foundation. Richard is the son of Morley and Arthur; he is the recently retired publisher of Ballantine Communications Inc.
“The center and its collections have always been recognized for their value among academics,” Jackson Clark, Jr., said. “But the center has come to be recognized as a premier institution by the public, as well, and is visited by people from all over the world.”
Clark, who followed his father as owner of Toh-Atin, said that when he meets people in his travels who have something that would complement the center’s collections, he urges them to get in touch with the center.
Telford “Bud” Davis, 81, a retired physician, volunteers at the center one day a week.
“I’ve done it since the day it opened,” Davis said. “I have an unabiding love of history, and I work with wonderful people.
“Now, we’re trying to make items in the collections available to the public by computer,” Davis said. “Imagine, I get to handle stuff 1,000 years old.”
Joel Jones, who was president of FLC for 10 years starting in 1988, was instrumental in the construction of the Center of Southwest Studies.
“It’s one of the real strengths of the college,” Jones said. “It holds an extraordinary collection of material, both artifactual and archival, that the college and community should be proud of.”
daler@durangoherald.com
