Estella García / Fabric Artists: Women of the WPA

Even her dates are missing; the researcher who wrote this panel in 2009 was still looking for them. What can be traced is the work. Her Melrose class made large theater curtains for Melrose High School, the Carrie Tingley Hospital and Albuquerque's playhouse, and their colcha went to New Deal exhibitions as far off as Bloomingdale's in New York. One curtain lent to a WPA exhibition was never returned. A 1936 piece by García and her class is in the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, and a class photograph names one student, Rita Rodríguez Chávez.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Estella García (Dates Unknown) Fabric Artists: Women of the WPA Estella García taught colcha embroidery at Melrose, New Mexico, for the Federal Arts Program in the 1930s. Anglo and Hispana women in García's class collaborated to design and produce embroidered theater curtains, wall hangings, and seat coverings for institutions across the state including the Albuquerque Little Theatre. García is one of the few Hispanic women artists recorded in FAP documents. Unfortunately, few examples of her work remain. (continued on back) Official Scenic Historic Marker Fabric Artists: Women of the Works Progress Administration Under the umbrella of the WPA, the National Youth Administration, and the Federal Arts Program, instructors and students were recruited to work in community-based art centers that produced fabric arts, including weaving, colcha embroidery, and lace-making. While the artistic creativity of these mostly unrecognized women was considered "women's work for home use" by WPA administrators, this now popular New Mexican art form has been revitalized.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blackwater Draw — 18 mi
  The site between Clovis and Portales that gave the Clovis culture its name, found by a nineteen-year-old in 1929 and dug for decades inside a working gravel pit.

More markers nearby

• Llano Estacado — 8.7 mi
• Norman Petty Recording Studios Clovis — 20 mi
• Ida O. Jackson — 21 mi
• Explosion Rocks Tolar — 22 mi