Show for the youth

Virginia Chama has spent a lifetime selling her wares at the Palace of the Governors. And now, twice each year, she relishes sitting back and watching her granddaughters take center stage.

Chama, a potter who has spent decades honing her craft, gladly yields to members of the next generation who will be participating in the Native American Portal Artisans’ Youth Show Saturday, July 15, and

Sunday, July 16.

“We have three generations coming,” says

Chama of the event held in the Palace of the

Governors courtyard. “My two granddaughters are coming. And I have a third granddaughter coming down. The oldest granddaughter, I think, is getting better than me.”

Chama says she’s been coming to the Palace of the Governors since she was about 6 or 7 years old, learning to throw clay at her mother’s side. Decades ago, she says, there was no organized program to develop youth participation in the arts.

“There were no rules or regulations,” she says. “We could come, and we could bring our brothers and sisters. We used to come from Jemez, and we would sleep under the benches because we didn’t have a ride.”

The artists in the youth show range in age from 5 to 17, and many of them are children or grandchildren of participants in the museum’s Portal Program. Chama is one of 10 members of the Portal Program Committee and adds that her grandchildren got started in pottery late.

“They’re always sitting by me. That’s how they got interested,” she says. “I said, ‘You’re watching me. If you want to, whatever you want to make, you can watch me.’ And they did. I kind of guided them too, because that’s what you need in the beginning. You don’t just sit down and make whatever you want to make. I guided them, and then I said, ‘OK, you’re on your own.’”

When she was young, Chama says, her family only made wedding vases and bowls. But now they make ornaments and figurines, and her grandchildren are branching out into houses and flower platters.

“Pottery is pottery,” she says. “At that time, we hardly had anything. Now there’s tools you can use and sponges you can use. At that time, we had to use nothing but our own hands. And now I don’t even use the tools because I’m so used to using my hands.” — S.F.

Below: Virginia Chama (left) is a committee member and artist with the New Mexico History Museum’s Native American Artisans Portal Program. Pictured with her at the 2022 Winter Youth Show at NMHM are her grandchildren Cassandra Chama (from right), Krista Marie Tenorio, and Erin Christine Tenorio.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16 New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue Free

505-476-5200; nmhistorymuseum.org