BRANIGAN CULTURAL CENTER

The Branigan Cultural Center hosts changing cultural exhibits, as well as educational programs, classes, and other special events. The building is on the National and State Registries of Historic Buildings.

FREE ADMISSION

PARKING

Parking is at 500 N Water Street on the north end of Main Street Downtown, next to the Museum of Art.

Landscape photo of the Branigan Cultural Center Building

TOUR INFORMATION

To book a tour, please email Museum Education or call the tour coordinator at (575) 528-3330.

Exhibits

cactus with a backdrop of dirt and rocks with exhibit title at the top

Desierto Arte Archivo

October 7th - December 31, 2022

This exhibit displays a compilation of art from sixteen artists who have interacted with the Chihuahuan Desert and created a series of individual and collective arts-based inquiries based on their experiences. The participating artists interpreted the desert as a holistic lifeway where all desert dwellers- human, animal, and plant- comingle and inform each other. 


Black & white image of a woman hand carving details on wooden furniture.

Honesty of Construction: The WPA and Spanish Colonial Style Furniture 

Nov 29, 2022-Summer 2023

This exhibit examines the Works Progress Administration-era vocational training program in New Mexico that drew upon Spanish Colonial furniture to teach young men and women a marketable trade in woodworking. Drawings from the University Museum collection at New Mexico State University, the exhibit features fifteen furniture pieces made through a 1930s community vocational program that was established in Las Cruces at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now New Mexico State University).