Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action—An Interview with Jadira Gurulé

Art is an avenue for activism, allowing people to shed light on important issues. It maintains a provocative purpose in asking an audience to sit, think, and feel. Such a medium could not be more useful for tackling something as large, global, and complex as nuclear disarmament. Luckily, through avenues of faster information dissemination and heightened artist diversity, there are many collections of work in the world approaching the issues within the topic of nuclear disarmament. Ploughshares’ Story Center is designed to uplift personal stories about nuclear issues, and I myself have the opportunity to share my own story about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders and the generations of suffering the first atomic bomb inflicted upon my family.

Now, a new exhibition, Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action, will now also share this story, amongst many others, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in New Mexico. I had the privilege of discussing the exhibition with the NHCC’s curator, Jadira Gurulé.

Jadira Gurulé is the head curator at NHCC and has been with the Center since 2016. Gurule has a Bachelor’s in Art History and earned her Master’s in American Studies. She began her journey with the NHCC as an intern, eventually becoming a docent as she fell in love with their mission. She admired the range of Hispanic and LatinX stories told at the NHCC pushing New Mexican stories to a global scale. Gurulé gave me insight into the process and goals of the project. 

The exhibition examines the impact of nuclear technology on both New Mexico and the world. Gurulé says, “The project examines the impact of nuclear technologies, its devastating human and environmental toll, and the artistic expression and activism of community members advocating for justice”. Gurulé mentioned that artworks will explore everything from nuclear technology worldwide, to uranium mining and social justice topics related to nuclear issues, such as downwinders seeking medical compensation from radiation sickness caused by the testing of the first atomic bomb.

This exhibition was developed as a collaboration with the Tularosa Basin Downwinder’s Consortium. Mary Martinez-White, a member of TBDC, reached out proposing an iteration of the exhibition, Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing-A People’s Perspective that opened at the Branigan Cultural Center in 2023. This exhibition was the TBDC’s own collection of work dedicated to preserving the stories of real life native New Mexican downwinders along with the stories of New Mexican uranium miners and their families. The NHCC evolved and expanded the project beyond artists just in the original show.

Gurulé explained that as the NHCC was considering the show, they wanted to recognize the significant issues nuclear technology presents to our society and culture. They also found the dialogue created by this work was relevant to the mission of the NHCC, which is to preserve and promote Hispanic art and culture.

Artworks were curated for the exhibit through an application process where Gurulé, Martinez-White,and members of the TBDC on the exhibition committee Joanna Keane Lopez and Alicia Romero, cast a wide net in their networks to invite artists to submit artworks for consideration. Works were then selected according to what the curators felt were strong representations of the exhibition premise. The exhibition is a collection of multimedia artworks from artists in the United States.

Gurulé is particularly excited about an installation by Sarah Nguyen of a replica of the atomic bomb. She admits that installation work is always exciting and fun to work with, but also was struck by how thought provoking all the works in the exhibition are. 

‘The Sun’ by MacKenzie Cordova

Nuclear legacy, Gurulé says, is important to the NHCC as the stories told deeply connect with NHCC’s mission and are woven into every aspect of New Mexican culture. She continues on stating that it is important to reveal the impacts of nuclear technologies across society and invite continued education and thought around nuclear issues. Gurulé remarks that an amazing aspect of the 

show is the range of experiences and backgrounds of the artists that respectfully show the issues, activism, and work that still needs to be done. She hopes people will walk away from the exhibit curious and eager to examine more closely the role of nuclear technology around the world.

If you have been following my work in Ploughshares’ Story Center and are curious to see more, my glass print The Sun, 2021,  and a demo of my video game El Sol, 2025, will be on display at  Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action as well.

This show will feature approximately 60 artworks from 32 artists and will host an opening reception April 10, 2026 from 5pm MST to 7:30pm MST. The opening reception is free and open to the public. If you would like to attend or learn more, you can visit their website nhccnm.org for more information.

Listed below are the artist’s names participating in Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action. 

Artists / Artistas:

• Shayla Blatchford (Diné)
• Emmitt Booher
• Alhelí Caton-Garcia
• Maryssa Rose Chavez
• MacKenzie Cordova
• Anna Bush Crews
• David D’Agostino
• Cara Despain
• Diego Alonso Garcia
• Eric. J. García
• Barbara Grothus
• Sofie Hecht
• Serít deLopaz Kotowski
• David Kwiecinski
• Francisco LeFebre
• Felix Lucero
• David McCoy
• Shanna Merola
• Patrick Nagatani
• Sarah Nguyen
• Alexis Perez
• Mallery Quetawki (Zuni Pueblo)
• Pedro Reyes
• Roberto Reyes
• Aaron Richardson
• Diego Romero (Cochiti)
• elin o’Hara slavick
• Reto Sterchi
• Miles Torres-Houston
• Irvin Trujillo
• Stephanie Weiner
• Will Wilson (Diné)