At 3:29 on a weekday afternoon in November, a car parked at Fort Lewis College needs a permit. At 3:31 it doesn't. From September through April, the college requires a parking permit Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Parking is free after 3:30 and all weekend, according to the college's campus directions page.
That cutoff decides what the campus costs anyone who lives on College Mesa, in Skyridge or along Rim Drive. This November, nearly everything open to the public up the hill starts after the cutoff. Many of those events are also free to attend. For a neighbor, the real question is whether a ticket is needed. Parking is already settled.
How the Parking Rules Work
During permit hours, visitors have two options. Two-hour metered lots sit next to the Art building, Education/Business Hall, the Center of Southwest Studies and the Union Visitor lot. Meters charge $0.05 for 3 minutes, $0.10 for 6 minutes or $0.25 for 15 minutes. You can also buy a day pass for the Commuter or Residential lots: $3 for up to four hours, or $5 for the whole day. Passes are sold through ftlewisparking.com, the Police & Parking Department and Skyhawk Station.
The Community Concert Hall's directions and parking page sends patrons to Lots Q and N and confirms that parking for scheduled events is free on evenings and weekends. That page lists weekday charges until 5 p.m., while the college's own page says 3:30, so check before a late-afternoon visit. Both agree that parking for an evening show costs nothing.
The Free Calendar, Hour by Hour
Native American Heritage Month programming at the Center of Southwest Studies makes up the core of the month. All three of its featured talks are listed as free and open to all. FLC's music department adds two free recitals at Roshong Recital Hall. Here's the free November calendar in date order:
| Date | Time | Event | Venue | Parking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 5 | 6:00–7:30 p.m. | Artist talk with Diné weaver Tyrrell Tapaha | CSWS Lyceum | Free |
| Tue., Nov. 10 | 7:00 p.m. | Percussion Ensemble/Jazz Combo | Roshong Recital Hall | Free |
| Thu., Nov. 12 | 6:00–7:30 p.m. | "Behind the Camera: Charine Pilar Gonzales" | CSWS Lyceum | Free |
| Tue., Nov. 17 | 1:00 p.m. | Midday Music | Roshong Recital Hall | Metered |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Afternoon | "Protect the Sacred Voice" gallery talk | CSWS Gallery | Free after 3:30 |
Midday Music is the one free event on the list that falls entirely inside permit hours. It starts at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday, so the two-hour meters are the easiest option. The Nov. 19 program opens with a poetry reading at 3 p.m., half an hour before parking turns free.
The first talk is Thursday, Nov. 5. Tyrrell Tapaha is a Diné weaver, fiber artist and sixth-generation sheepherder raised in the Carrizo Mountains of northeastern Arizona. According to the college's Native American Heritage Month page, Tapaha's practice "begins with the raising of sheep and finishes on the loom."
On Nov. 12, FLC alum Charine Pilar Gonzales, who is Tewa from San Ildefonso Pueblo, screens two short films. River Bank, or Pō-Kehgeh, is described as the first narrative fiction film approved by San Ildefonso Pueblo to be filmed on Tribal lands since the 1980s. The second film, This Land Carries Us, was made for the "Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country" exhibition at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
The Nov. 19 talk brings artist Demian DinéYazhí together with Dr. Meranda Roberts, guest curator of the center's current exhibition. FLC lists two different times for it. The Center of Southwest Studies event page gives 3 to 5:30 p.m., with the gallery talk from 4:30 to 5:30. The heritage month overview lists the talk from 4:30 to 6. Under either schedule, the gallery talk starts after parking turns free. Only an arrival for the 3 p.m. reading falls inside metered hours.
The Exhibits and the Garden Run on Daytime Hours
Evening talks work well with the parking rules. The galleries are harder to fit in. Constellations of Place at the Center of Southwest Studies brings together more than 60 objects from the collection with work by 13 invited Native American, Indigenous and Latinx artists. It runs through Dec. 18. According to the center's plan-your-visit page, the gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, with a suggested $5 donation.
So on a normal weekday, the gallery and free parking overlap for just 30 minutes, from 3:30 to 4. Neighbors who want more time with the show can put a few quarters in the two-hour meters in the Center of Southwest Studies lot. They can also plan around a Lyceum talk: Tapaha and Gonzales both have work in Constellations of Place, and their evening talks are about that work.
The FLC Art Gallery is showing John Hitchcock's The Land Speaks through Nov. 19. The college's newest public space is just outside the Art Building. The FLC Indigenous Garden on the building's south side had its official ribbon cutting on Oct. 2, and more than 200 faculty, staff, students and community members came. The garden grew out of years of campus discussion about food sovereignty and water conservation, and the Native American Agricultural Fund supported the effort from the start. Kathy Hilimire, chair and professor of Environment & Sustainability, told the college's news office that the planning group wanted it centrally located on campus:
"so everybody could see it and celebrate it and think about it."
The college's report invites community members to come back and spend time there. Because the garden and the gallery share an address, a late-afternoon walk past the garden fits easily alongside a visit to The Land Speaks.
Thursday, Nov. 12, Is the Busiest Night
Most ticketed events this month fall on evenings or weekends. On one Thursday, three public programs overlap:
- "Behind the Camera: Charine Pilar Gonzales," 6 p.m., CSWS Lyceum, free.
- FLC Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream, opening the second weekend of its run at the FLC Mainstage Theatre.
- *Cirque Mechanics' TILT!,* 7:30 p.m., Community Concert Hall, with individual tickets listed from $40 to $70.
Parking is free for all three. Choosing between them comes down to the ticket and the time.
The Ticketed Calendar
The FLC Theatre production page lists A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Mainstage on Nov. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m., a Nov. 8 matinee at 2 p.m., and Nov. 12 through 14. Tickets are $28 for adults, $24 for seniors and $15 for non-FLC students. The Community Concert Hall calendar fills in the rest of the month:
- Sat., Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m. San Juan Symphony, "Romantic Giants: Brahms & Dvorak"
- Sat., Nov. 14, 7 p.m. The North Face Reel Rock 20
- Fri., Nov. 20, 7 p.m. Southwest Civic Winds, "An American Overture"
Roshong Recital Hall has one ticketed show between its free ones. On Sunday, Nov. 15, at 3 p.m., Richard Silvers gives a violin recital with pianist Holly Quist. Adults pay $20, and the department lists free entry for students, faculty and staff, and anyone under 18.
Nov. 7 has two big evening events at once. The symphony starts at 7:30. Across campus, the FLC N7 football game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Ray Dennison Memorial Field, with Hozhoni Ambassadors and other students performing at halftime.
Walk to Campus on the Rim Trail
For neighbors close enough to skip the car, the Rim Trail is a 2.9-mile route that you can reach from Chapman Hill or from Rim Drive on the mesa. The trail's page currently lists its condition as fair. The wider Fort Lewis Trail System lists trailhead parking at FLC Stadium, Sky Ridge and Lion's Den. Trail conditions change from week to week in November, so check the live report on the day you go.
Living near a college campus brings concert halls, galleries and trailheads within walking distance, and the Jamie Novak Group pays close attention to those details for the people we work with. If you're weighing how close you want to be to Fort Lewis College or anywhere else on the mesa, schedule your concierge consultation and we'll talk it through.
