MOIFA Presents Música Buena Gallery Concert with Lara Manzanares

October 22nd, 2019

(Santa Fe, New Mexico) – In association with the ongoing exhibit Música Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico, the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) presents a special 1 hour gallery concert with Lara Manzanares on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 from 2 – 3 p.m. at 706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. Lara is an award-winning bilingual singer-songwriter whose musical style blends traditional New Mexican folk music and indie country, folk, and rock with a talent for poignant and comedic storytelling.

Free with Museum Admission. Wednesdays are always free for New Mexico Seniors.

About Lara Manzanares

Lara Manzanares is a bilingual singer-songwriter of Northern New Mexican heritage. In addition to singing the traditional New Mexican canciones of her sheep-ranching childhood, Lara also composes her own style of music in both English and Spanish. Through a combination of storytelling and songs both playful and sincere, Lara draws on her rural New Mexican roots and her urban experiences across the U.S. and abroad as she sings about love, loss, a sense of place, and her own connection to the land.

After several years spent living across the U.S., Lara returned to New Mexico in 2016 with her guitar and several original songs in tow. In 2017 she recorded her first original album at Santa Fe’s The Kitchen Sink Studios with producer and sound engineer Jono Manson, backed by a phenomenal cast of musicians including Mark Clark, Justin Bransford, Jono Manson, Jordan Wax, Char Rothschild, Felix Peralta, and Rafael Herrera. The album, Land Baby, contains original songs in both English and Spanish. It received several nominations at the 2018 New Mexico Music Awards and went on to win Album of the Year.

Just like Lara’s upbringing and New Mexico itself, her music is a complex yet deeply cohesive mixture of cultures and sounds: deeply rooted but never still, heartfelt and humorous, simultaneously ancient and innovative. She continues to explore her New Mexican musical heritage and write and record songs while living in the Albuquerque area. Her most recent single, "Dear John," was nominated as a finalist in the Americana category at the 2019 New Mexico Music Awards. You can listen to her music learn more about Lara by visiting her website, laramanzanares.com.

About the Museum of International Folk Art

The Museum of International Folk Art is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Board of Regents for the Museum of New Mexico. Programs and exhibits are generously supported by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, through the generous support of donors.

Founded in 1953 by Florence Dibell Bartlett, the Museum of International Folk Art’s mission is to shape a humane world by connecting people through creative expression and artistic traditions. The museum holds the world’s largest international folk art collection of more than 150,000 objects from six continents and over 150 nations, representing a broad range of global artists whose artistic expressions make Santa Fe an international crossroads of culture. For many visitors, fascination with folk art begins upon seeing the whimsical toys and traditional objects within the Girard Collection. For others, the international textiles, ceramics, carvings and other cultural treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide the allure.  The museum’s historic and contemporary Latino and Hispano folk art collections, spanning the Spanish Colonial period to modern-day New Mexico, reflect how artists respond to their time and place in ways both delightful and sobering. In 2010, the museum opened the Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn Gallery of Conscience, where exhibitions encourage visitors to exchange ideas on complex issues of human rights and social justice.

706 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, NM 87505. (505) 476-1200. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April, closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Events, news releases and images about activities at the Museum of International Folk Art and other divisions in the Department of Cultural Affairs can be accessed at media.newmexicoculture.org/.