ART | NEW MEXICO
Route 66 Centennial Traveling Exhibit explores the Mother Road
Published
Get your kicks at the Route 66 Centennial Traveling Exhibit, which will be making four stops in the Land of Enchantment.
The exhibit comes from director Katrina Parks鈥� docuseries 鈥淩oute 66 Women: The Untold Story of the Mother Road,鈥� breaking scenes into shorter segments and arranging them on panels. Information on how to stream the docuseries can be found at route66women.com.
鈥淲e wanted to make something that was engaging and really designed to capture people of all ages,鈥� Parks said.
There are 22 panels, created by Parks鈥� colleague, with the bottom half of each panel geared toward children. The panels include an activity like asking them to draw, solve a math problem, or find a clue and answer a question.
Parks was inspired to start her docuseries by the stories of the Harvey Girls, one of the first all-female American labor forces.
One story that stood out to her was a woman from Laguna Pueblo who went to the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Indian School, one of the many Native American boarding schools from that time. After she graduated, she went on to be a Harvey Girl.
鈥淲e tried to pick stories too that tied to the history of places where we鈥檙e taking the exhibit,鈥� Parks said.
Parks said the exhibit has stories from Gallup, sa国际传媒官网网页入口, Grants and Santa Fe. A goal for the exhibit was to allow smaller towns that might not have the means to throw big celebrations to share their history during the centennial year of Route 66.
鈥淲e wanted to sort of fill that niche,鈥� Parks said.
She hopes visitors will view Route 66 as an American symbol with international resonance, she said.
鈥淲e want people to both celebrate our American story, but also to think about its complexity and how it resonates today,鈥� Parks said.
Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.
