Two women face uphill battle to improve Red Rock Museum
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
When Tammi Moe took over the Red Rock Museum in 2018, she couldn’t believe her eyes during her first walk through of the building. The display cases were covered in dust, and there was dirt and insects everywhere.
McKinley County has been in charge of the building that has housed the museum for two years. But during a Nov. 4 city council work session, Moe said the county staff doesn’t know how to properly care for a museum.
“The county doesn’t have an understanding of the value of the [museum’s] collection, the care of the collection, or what it means to have an operational museum and the impact that an operational museum would have on our economy and education here,” Moe said.
A LONG LIST OF ISSUES
The museum is home to artifacts from two defunct non-profits — the Gallup Historical Society and the Red Rock Park Museum. Moe said that when she took over, none of the items were labeled properly, and some of them were scattered around the building’s hallways.
Part of the problem comes from the fact that the museum hasn’t had a curator for the past 20 years.
But that changed a year ago when Alania Nolan moved to Gallup and took on the role. Before moving to Gallup, she was the curator for the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial in Philadelphia, Penn.
Nolan and Moe have spent the past year organizing the museum’s collection by going through handwritten inventories and matching items to their descriptions. Now, Nolan is digitizing that information with the help of a program called CatalogIt.
The museum’s entire collection doesn’t all fit inside the building. Some of it is in storage at the Octavia Fellin Public Library and the Rex Museum.
During the past year’s renovations, Moe and Nolan tore a wall down in the building to create more space for exhibitions, but they say it’s still not enough.
They could have more available space, but four of the building’s rooms are used for county staff offices.
“If we could have control of that entire building, there is enough room to store the entire museum collection together and have a small classroom space,” Nolan said.
BUILDING PROBLEMS
The women and county staff have also butt heads when it comes to the heating of the building.
The building was built in the ‘80s, and it doesn’t have any air conditioning. Nolan said county staff often leave the building’s doors open to create some sort of air flow while they work. But that brings in insects and dirt, which isn’t good for a museum setting.
The poor-quality HVAC system also causes problems. The museum only has heat. They have no air conditioning in the summer months.
“Fluctuations in heat and humidity are the worst thing you can do for pretty much anything in a museum collection,” Nolan said. “The items like stability. But the heat and the dryness actually is particularly bad for the collections that are out there.”
Nolan said many of the collection’s leather items are cracked, all the Indigenous drums are shattered except for one, and a lot of the artwork is ruined since paper doesn’t do well in super dry conditions.
During the Nov. 4 city council work session, City Manager Frank Chiapetti Jr. told the council that he had recently toured the Red Rock Museum. The work session was called to go over the city’s Infrastructure Capital Outlay Improvement Plan.
Chiapetti said he would be asking legislators for $500,000 to improve the Red Rock Museum, starting with their HVAC system. During that part of the presentation, he mentioned how hot the museum can get, comparing it to an oven.
He said the $500,000 would help fund the planning, design, construction, and repair all needed for the museum. He estimated that the total cost to fix everything at the museum would be closer to $1 million.
But $500,000 is a start.
Another problem Norton faces occurs when she tries to get into the building. Right now, the county staff are the only ones with keys. She has to wait for someone from the county to come open the doors.
Norton said she and Moe recently met with the county manager to discuss getting her a set of keys, and he agreed to do so. But two months later, that task has not been accomplished.
The county only uses the building Monday-Friday, which limits the museum’s hours.
Norton said having keys would allow her to open the museum up on Saturdays.
“For most museums — unless you’re huge like a Smithsonian or an attraction where people travel just to come and see you — weekends are your busy time, even for your locals because people work and kids are at school during the week,” Norton said.
Ideally, Norton would like to be open six days a week.
Last but not least, bathrooms remain an issue in the building.
The Sun announced that the Red Rock Park bathrooms would receive a remodel in a May 2023 article. Now, the county is estimating that the project will be complete in January.
Norton said the lack of accessible bathrooms has made running the museum difficult.
“If the bathrooms aren’t open, I am beholden to another county employee to be there to open the event center because we can’t be open all day with no bathrooms,” Norton said.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Moe and Norton’s ultimate goal is to have multiple long-standing exhibitions available at the Red Rock Museum.
Over the past couple years, Moe has put on multiple exhibitions at the museum in an effort to increase activity. Two years ago, she created an exhibit honoring the first 50 years of the Gallup InterTribal Indian Ceremonial to which celebrated its 100th anniversary two years ago. The exhibit was called “Arts and Activism: First 50 Years of the InterTribal Ceremonial.”
In July 2023 the traveling exhibit “World on the Move: 250,000 Years of Human Migration”came to the Red Rock Park Museum thanks to the American Anthropological Association and the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Now that Norton is here in Gallup, she also has some ideas for potential exhibits.
A week before the 43rd Annual Red Rock Balloon Rally, Norton premiered an exhibit that focused on the history of ballooning and the annual Gallup event itself.
Norton said she’s also looking to create a rodeo exhibition that would be available in the spring.
She plans to eventually have three permanent exhibitions at the museum that teach people about three important events in Gallup: Ceremonial, the balloon rally, and rodeos.
“The idea is that when people are at the museum when one of the events isn’t going on they’ll go ‘Oh, I need to inquire and come back for that event!’” Norton explained.
To accomplish everything she wants to achieve, Norton said she needs two things: at least one other museum employee and a discretionary budget. The Red Rock Park Museum has never had its own budget, and ever since Moe took over operations, they’ve used OFPL’s budget to support it.
Moe said that hasn’t been a concern in the past because she wasn’t doing many updates to the museum. She estimated that she only spent $2,000 on the museum last year updating the display cases.
But that’s all going to change now that Norton is onboard and ready to bring some exciting opportunities to the museum.
The two women plan to ask city council for an individual budget once budgetary discussions for the upcoming fiscal year begin in January.
The Red Rock Museum is open Monday-Friday from 8 am to 5 pm.
