SHUMLA Announces 2012 Pecos Experience

SHUMLA's next Pecos Experience will offer a fresh, multi-focused learning experience for participants. Dr. James Keyser, a renowned expert in rock art, will work with SHUMLA Executive Director Dr. Carolyn Boyd and SHUMLA Board President Elton Prewitt to showcase important features of regional archeological sites: incised and scratched petroglyphs and pictographs.

Participants will work with SHUMLA's research team to explore the origins, uses and meanings of these fascinating rock art features. They will visit sites throughout the Lower Pecos region, and will engage in discussions about how these archeological features are similar to petroglyphs in the Columbia Plateau region.

Click here to see the 2012 Pecos Experience flyer.

The 2012 session of Field Methods in Rock Art has been scheduled! Each year, SHUMLA offers a hands-on course in rock art recording methodology through the Offices of Extension Studies at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. SHUMLA instructors, Dr. Carolyn Boyd and Elton Prewitt, train undergraduate and graduate students in the archeology of the Lower Pecos, rock art recording and data analysis, field research design, interpretive methods and theories, field laboratory procedures, and mapping. Attendees can earn 3–6 hours of undergraduate or 3 hours of graduate credit.

A flier for the upcoming session is available here.

Since 2003, fourth grade students in the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District (SFDRCISD) have participated in SHUMLA education programs.  Each year, fourth grade classes have attended Knowledge Enriching Youth (KEY) programs.  These discovery-learning programs are both exciting and serve to make learning more accessible for students from this border school district.

For the first time in the program's history, SHUMLA may not be able to offer KEY programs for Del Rio fourth graders.  State budgetary cuts have eliminated the SFDRCISD funds required to maintain SHUMLA's yearly contract, and several foundations have turned down SHUMLA grant proposals, citing the increased pressure of higher-than-normal volumes of applications.

Stalwart SHUMLA supporters such as the Bank and Trust,  the Val Verde Community Foundation, several foundations from Houston and a few private donors have all given generously, but SHUMLA is $40,000 short of its funding goal.

To  ensure that SHUMLA can meet its commitment to these students, staff is reaching out to foundations and private donors, including eNews readers, for assistance.  Any donation can have an impact, so SHUMLA asks that you give generously to support these students.

SHUMLA's canyons make an inspiring backdrop for any lesson.

Readers are encouraged to read these letters from students.

SHUMLA is involved in an ambitious program of recording the rock art of the Pecos-Rio Grande Canyonlands. Read more...