In 2008, fourteen projects were approved by the Steering Committee.

1. Enduring Legacies: Food and Culture in Southern New Mexico Since 1912
   Scholars and students from New Mexico State University are to develop a three-year program focusing on Southern New Mexico and exploring the cultural and economic ties between New Mexico, Mexico, and other countries. The project comprises a variety of research projects, publications, and public outreach activities, for future centennial projects.
2. New Mexico's Historic Textiles: Documentation, Preservation and Education
   Documentation of historic New Mexico textiles through research of historic documents and holding "Textile Search Days" in five communities statewide. The project includes three "Search Days" to identify handmade textiles - quilts, hand-woven rugs, blankets, garments, and other fiber works, with project participants documenting the identity, time period, location, and descendants of the original craftsmen and craftswomen. A database of the research results that can educate the public about the history of historic textiles and preservation techniques is another project component.
3. Pueblo Senior Day: A Pueblo Century Event
   Pueblo Senior Day is an exploration of how New Mexico statehood affected Pueblo people, as well as how Pueblo culture, traditions, and architectural legacies influenced New Mexico's identity. Taking place in April 2009 at Albuquerque's Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Pueblo Senior Day is to include guest speakers, recreational activities, and storytelling by Pueblo Seniors. These oral histories will be recorded and archived. In addition, Pueblo Senior Day will provide opportunities for Senior Pueblo people to learn more about state agencies and resources that are available to them.
4. Aldo Leopold Centennial Celebration
   This project aims to address today's environmental issues and inform future policy decisions, and is part of an 18-month celebration of Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic. The project includes the design, printing, and dissemination of printed materials for three conferences focused on Land Arts and other artworks. Events will be held from February through November 2009 at various venues, including the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the University of New Mexico. Conference participants include the Quivira Coalition, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots Program, UNM's School of Architecture & Planning, UNM Biology Department, U.S. Forest Service, City of Albuquerque, Bosque School, and Albuquerque Public Schools.
5. New Mexico History and Culture as Told in Modern Art
   Drawing from a concurrent exhibition at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, this project is to design curricular resources examining the works of several well-known visual artists of the American Modernist Movement. Activities are to take place in the spring of 2009 with materials created for the curriculum - youth education guides, and professional development workshops for educators and docents - hosted on the Museum's web site. These activities are to be enhanced by professional development workshops availed to teachers statewide.
6. The shape of Mesilla, then and now
   This project includes a photography project recording significant historic buildings in the Southern New Mexico town of Mesilla. A Town Visitor Center exhibit about the historic buildings is planned for June 2009. Entitled "Then and Now," it will display the old photographs collected, and include interpretive brochures, maps, and fifteen plaques installed on historic buildings. "Development zones" designated by Mesilla's Historical Appropriateness Commission will support preservation of Mesilla's historic districts. Project participants include staff from the Town of Mesilla and the Planning Zone Historic Appropriateness Committee, and NMSU professors and students.
7. Las Cruces Centennial Speakers Series
   Three free presentations took place September and October of 2008 in Las Cruces, addressing New Mexico's history. These included a reading by noted author Ana Castillo reading from her new book The Guardian; NMSU History Professor Robert Hendricks speaking about the shift from Spanish to French priests during the period leading to NM statehood, and an address by author and Indiana University Professor John Nieto Phillips on issues of bilingualism.
8. New Mexico Statehood History Theatre Project
   This large-scale, four-year project will allow audiences to participate in living history, using live theatre as a means of learning. A Centennial Play is to be developed by Lincoln County's Camp Capitan. Further, this project will provide technical support to organizations in other New Mexico communities interested in creating their own Centennial plays, through workshops, the formulation of Boards of Directors, and other technical support. The theater piece is being developed in Capitan, a village located in South East-Central New Mexico over the September 2008-June 2009 time period.
9. Oral History Audiotape Preservation Project
   This preservation project converts 40 reel-to-reel audiotapes of oral history into digital format. In all, from 40 reels of tape,16 hours of oral hisotry are to be examined, prioritized, tested, repaired and stabilized. Subsequently, this audio material is to be digitally indexed and archived at the Silver City Museum's library of local history.
10. French Priests in Southern New Mexico: 1840-1940
    This project will examine the lives of French Catholic and Protestant missionaries in New Mexico, noting their contributions to New Mexico's education system. The project will support research in four Diocesan archives in three states, (Las Cruces and Santa Fe, NM; El Paso, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona), with an ensuing book with a May 2009 publication date. Additional project components are to include a presentation at the 2009 NM Historical Society Conference, a presentation at the NMSU Centennial Speakers' Series in March 2009, a submission of an article to the Southern NM Historical Review, and a submission of a transcript to UNM Press in May of 2009.
11. New Mexico Politicians, Lawmakers, & Statesmen ... and a Few Other Office Seekers and Holders
    Publication of a book by historian Don Bullis about the politicians, lawmakers, and statesmen who played an instrumental role in New Mexico's march to statehood. Bullis is also to develop a series of public talks and presentations on this topic. Centennial Funding is to subsidize the publishing expenses and allow the limited-edition book to be marketed to the public at a reduced publication price.
12. "New Mexico Territorial Suite 1848 - 1912"
    A new orchestral work celebrating New Mexico history and the relationships among various peoples who created the state, quoting Civil War bugle calls and songs of the NM Territorial Period, and evoking the Native American, Hispanic, Pioneer- and Soldier cultures -- and the wars, outlaws, boarding schools, trains, telegraphs and cowboys, that defined Territorial New Mexico. In the words of composer Dr. Roy Howard, Artistic Director of the Gallup Performing Center, "listening to the Suite helps us contemplate the relationships and processes that led to the unique Constitution of 1912 that recognized the former treaties and protected the cultures, religions, and languages of historical New Mexico."
13. Las Vegas Plaza Video Installation
    This project took place in Fall, 2008 in Las Vegas, NM. Students from New Mexico Highlands University convened in a new class entitled "Design Projects for the Community." The course focused on the period leading to New Mexico statehood (1846-1912) and incorporated research and development of character sketches and narrative outlines. The course culminated in an art installation of video projections on the historic Las Vegas Plaza of and its adjacent buildings and businesses. The project examined Las Vegas's grand role in New Mexico's ascent to statehood, as an intersection of commerce, culture, and expanding Federal power. Noted area scholars including historian Peter Linder, Rough Rider Museum Director Linda Gegick, and NMHU Media Arts Professor Robert Drummond participated in the project.
14. Centennial Books for Libraries
    To promote lifelong literacy and foster interest in New Mexico history, the NM Centennial Steering Committee awarded a stipend to allocate for three NM history book to be awarded to all 120 branch libraries in the state. All books were embellished with a commemorative NM Centennial bookplate. Each library received the same two titles: Telling NM and New Kingdom of the States. The third title given to each library had a regional focus. By county the titles were: San Juan, McKinley, Cibola Counties (11 libraries) Bailing Wire and Gamuza ; Catron, Socorro, Sierra, Dona Aña, Luna, Grant, Hidalgo Counties, Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Bernalillo, Valencia Counties (67 libraries) Healing the West; Taos, Colfax, Union, San Miguel, Guadalupe, Quay Counties (12 libraries) Kit Carson and His Three Wives; Curry, Roosevelt, Chaves, De Baca, Eddy Lea, Lincoln, Otero, Torrance Counties (21 libraries) Lipan Apaches.