Sky City Cultural Center features food exhibit
Smithsonian's 'Key Ingredients' focuses on historical, cultural nature of food

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

PUEBLO OF ACOMA — A traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, "Key Ingredients: America by Food," is now on exhibit at the Haak'u Museum, in the Sky City Cultural Center on the Pueblo of Acoma.

"Key Ingredients" focuses on the historical and cultural nature of food in the United States. Part of the exhibit has been devoted to traditional Native American food, such as the food prepared, cooked and eaten by Acomas.

"This is the first location in New Mexico to host the exhibit," Phil Robertson, spokesman for Acoma Business Enterprises, said.

"After it leaves here on Aug. 3, it will travel to other sites in the state," he said.

The exhibit offers an insight into food that is eaten by Americans and what food means to us and to Acomas and other Native American communities in the country.

An interactive component accompanies the exhibit which has traditional Southwest Native American items and artifacts on display.

A farming project is under way at the museum, where students from the Acoma Boys and Girls Club are planting vegetables in the garden outside the cultural center and museum. These items will be harvested in late September or early October, depending on weather and growth.

"Key Ingredients includes such traditional American food as pizza and hot dogs as well as blue corn enchiladas from Acoma," Robertson said.

The exhibit is on display in the museum from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., every day.

Admission to the exhibit is $4 per person. Pueblo tours of Sky City, the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America are available at $12 per person, Robertson said.

The exhibit was developed by the Museum on Main Street, an organization that has partnered with the Smithsonian Institution.

A diverse selection of photographs, illustrations and artifacts depicts how the American kitchen has evolved and how food industries have responded to technological advancements allowing and increasing variety of frozen, prepared and fresh foods to be available to Americans, the Website states.

Haak'u Museum and Sky City Cultural Center are an easy 18 minute drive south on Interstate 40.

To get there, take exit 102 south, follow the road five miles to a sign indicating Sky City is to the left, drive five miles to the T intersection and take a left. Five miles later you are at the museum and center on the floor of a beautiful valley at the base of the 365 foot high mesa that houses Sky City.

On the Net
www.keyingredients.org.

For information, call 1-800-747-0181.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or fax (505) 287-2581.