Pueblo Baseball: Stitching Our Community Together

Showing in the South Gallery March 9, 2024 – October 27, 2024

The exhibition, Pueblo Baseball: Stitching Our Community Together, celebrates the central role that Pueblo Baseball has played and continues to play in many community members’ lives at the 19 Pueblos. It tells stories of Pueblo Baseball in looking at the past, present, and future through interviews, photographs, videos, and memorabilia. Critical skills in athletics, judgment, adaptation, and perception as pitchers, batters, runners, catchers, and umpires are passed down through the generations. Pueblo Baseball games carry on a legacy more than 100+ years old with male team members from 15-55 years old playing together at once.

There are now two divisions, Northern Pueblos League and Southern Pueblos League, and a healthy competition and desire to succeed stays constant—especially in the end of season games. Aunties, grandparents, and younger siblings join in the fun at the sidelines, in cars, and at concession stands. Pueblo Baseball teaches community members a culture of playing and being present no matter what and their importance as role models for each other. It’s a culture of resilience, camaraderie, learning, and mentorship that runs deep within the community fabric of the 19 Pueblos.

Through image, text, sound, video, and tactile displays, the exhibition highlights a critical aspect of Pueblo identities and Pueblo communities’ evolving histories through first-hand recollections that connect past with present and future through passing on the legacy of Pueblo Baseball. In creating a space for Pueblo communities to be in dialogue with each other about this century-old tradition, the exhibition, at once, serves as an introduction to the ways that Pueblo Baseball shapes Pueblo identities and reflects Pueblo value systems to all audiences.

Many Pueblo community members have contributed to the stories in this exhibition. Historical to 21^st century contexts that inform the future of Pueblo Baseball will be presented through short videos of Pueblo Baseball games with interviews with Pueblo Baseball players and related community members. Archival photographs from personal and institutional collections at small, medium, and large-scale will also be included to activate multisensory memory and storytelling. A timeline of important events in Pueblo Baseball history and present-day activities will provide details of the Pueblo Baseball season to visitors. An interactive area will facilitate a space where Pueblo community members can contribute their stories and photographs. A spring reception will take place on Friday, April 19, prior to the Pueblo Baseball season’s Mother’s Day weekend opening games. During the run of the exhibition, the IPCC will be offering a Baseball Card making activity to school groups. The IPCC team will also be coordinating a panel discussion program with Pueblo Baseball players and families.