Mixed-media artists and instructors from around the country will be converging on UNM starting Wednesday, June 9, for a unique five-day event designed to encourage creative collaboration and provide a fertile educational environment at the same time. Art Universe takes place in UNM's swanky new Student Union Building, Dorm Hall and cafeteria. Classes will be held from Thursday, June 10, through Saturday, June 12. Sas Colby, the event's keynote speaker, will give a lecture on Thursday, June 10, at 7 p.m. $15. There will also be an art sale open to the public on Friday, June 11, from 7 to 10 p.m. For details, call Phoenix Forrester at 243-1937 or log onto www.phoenixforrester.com.

Cuentos y Encuentros at the National Hispanic Cultural Center

Ray Martín Abeyta grew up in a tiny northern New Mexican town with a larger-than-life name—La Villa Real de Santa Cruz de la Cañada. As a teenager, Abeyta attended high school in Española, the low rider capital of the universe. Later, he studied art in an academic setting at UNM, and he also traveled extensively in France, Guatemala, Panama and Peru. An upbringing saturated in New Mexico's provincial Hispanic culture combined with a deep exposure to global art affected Abeyta's later work on many complex and subtle levels.

“The brush was burning, yet it was not consumed” by Tom Joyce

Center for Contemporary Arts

In 2001, a vandal damaged approximately 600 books at the San Francisco Public Library. The destroyed books were apparently chosen by topic, those which included gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, HIV, women's health and other "controversial" manuscripts. The vandal reshelved the books, and it took some time before they were noticed. Luckily, the man was caught and sentenced to community service, probation and a fine of $9,600.

Santa Fe artists, including painter/feminist theorist Harmony Hammond and sculptor Tom Joyce, along with 42 other Santa Fe artists, have combined their artistic talents for Insight Out. They have used the books to create something meaningful in the face of blatant disrespect for the written word, and mediums range from figurative art to work that uses the salvaged material as media. A catalog of all the works made for the exhibit has also been produced and will be sold for $20.

Insight Out opens with a public reception at the Center for Contemporary Arts (1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe), June 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. CCA is open noon to 5 p.m. seven days a week. Runs through July 5. (505) 981-1338.

Detail from “Oracle” by Alan Paine

Coleman Gallery

Take three artists who are in the thick of their self-realization phases, put their art together for one grand exhibit, and you'll have a gallery full of abstract beauty that may give a new face to art through the eye of the self.

Robert Hooton-Lovely's contribution to the new exhibit, Twist, is abstract charcoal drawings that were inspired by a walk through the woods. Alan Paine Radebaugh's abstract fragments of memory drawings on oil/canvas will point the exhibit in a slightly different direction and to complete the cycle of self will be Kim Parko with torn paper collages that create overhead views of personal excavation sites. It's always interesting to see how others view themselves and the world around them, but the opportunity to see such personal expressiveness is rare. Now is the perfect chance to witness it firsthand. Twist opens Friday, June 4, with a reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. inside A Nob Hill Art Complex. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Runs through June 26.

An Interview with Historian Marc Simmons

With more than 40 books on the Southwest to his credit, Marc Simmons has been called New Mexico's historian laureate. Although this isn't an official title, it's one he richly deserves. For decades Simmons has dug deep into our region's past and come up with striking and highly readable books on local history.