66 local artists showcase Route 66 heritage at Gallup gallery
Sixty-six local artists turned ART123 Gallery into a Route 66 stop, pairing handmade souvenirs with Gallup’s downtown economy and Native art visibility.
GallupARTS has turned the Route 66 centennial into a downtown Gallup showcase, bringing 66 local artists into ART123 Gallery at 123 W. Coal Ave. for a two-month mix of art sale and souvenir shop. The show, 66 Artists on Route 66, opened June 6 and runs through Aug. 8, putting Churro wool Navajo weaving, handcrafted katsinas, silver and beaded jewelry, photography, paintings, mixed media, bag charms, stickers and small figurines on display in the heart of Historic Route 66.
The project is built around local makers rather than a standard gallery hang, and that matters in a city where Route 66 still drives identity and traffic. Visit Gallup described the exhibit as a downtown showcase meant to honor “a century of culture, confluence, and community,” while GallupARTS called it a pop-up art show and handmade souvenir shop celebrating the centennial of the Mother Road. In that setting, ART123 is doing double duty as an exhibition space and a retail floor, giving artists a place to sell work while giving visitors something small and locally made to carry home.
Rose Eason, the executive director of GallupARTS, said the goal was to make sure Gallup was part of the centennial celebrations “in an authentic way.” That idea shows up in the work itself. Diné artist Jerry Brown said the exhibit gave him a chance to celebrate beauty, history and the spirit of the Southwest, while Andrea Sparks of Ramah said the Route 66 theme pushed her to revisit old photographs and memories from road trips along the corridor. Those are the kinds of personal connections that give the show its local force, tying family memory, regional landscape and Native tradition to a corridor that has long shaped Gallup’s economy.
GallupARTS extended gallery hours for the run of the show, opening Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It also held late openings for Gallup ArtsCrawl on June 13 and will do so again July 11 and Aug. 8, staying open until 9 p.m. The gallery’s role as a hub for Native and non-Native artists, with solo and group shows, demos and workshops, makes the centennial exhibit more than a commemorative display. It is another sign that Gallup is using Route 66 not just as nostalgia, but as a live market for artists, downtown businesses and the families who depend on both.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
