Chiara Giovando, founder and curator of the boldly named nonprofit ICA Santa Fe, aims to build a holistic support network for artists in her hometown.
SANTA FE—Located in a small strip mall off St. Francis Drive between units that look like medical offices, the Institute of Contemporary Art Santa Fe opened its first exhibition on May 11. Floor-to-ceiling windows reflect the metallic glow of large, corporeal copper sculptures in the solo show by hana kostis, An Incoherent Body.
At first glance, the ICA could be an airy commercial gallery, but its website sets forth a nonprofit mission to foster “the exchange of ideas through contemporary art” by supporting “artists’ practices through exhibitions, performances, research, and publications for a public audience.” Chiara Giovando, the ICA’s founder and curator, wants to shift the broader Santa Fe community’s expectations of art institutions. In her vision, the ICA will first and foremost prioritize its artists, whether by making room for an artist to pursue “a dream project” or explore artists’ art-adjacent ideas through community engagement.
Perhaps the title of the inaugural exhibition, An Incoherent Body, is reflective of the ICA itself—not in the sense that it’s a confused or scrambling new organization, but because it’s a communal body figuring itself out in an art world that may be too figured out. “I think the ICA is a proposal of what an institution can be,” says kostis, the ICA’s first exhibiting artist.
I was like, do I even want to call it ICA? But I think I am up for that question… I’m certainly up for seeing in what ways we can humanize the institution.
Giovando says, “I believe in creative practice and its ability to change the way we see things. How can we open conversations about complex ideas in ways that are challenging and rigorous, but still generous? Not easy, but generous. That’s the soul behind the mission of this place.” Born and raised in Santa Fe, Giovando is an independent curator who has worked across the U.S. and Europe. Since her return to Santa Fe in 2019, she’s held positions at SITE Santa Fe and the Poeh Cultural Center.
An ambitious, wide-ranging mission demands a lot from the current staff of four and a developing board, which includes artist Ric Lum among other pending members. How can this nascent organization create an enduring, positive impact on artists in a town that is already replete with art spaces, where home prices are more than double what they were five years ago, and where foot traffic is inconsistent? Giovando believes it starts with living among artists—not just exhibiting their work. “I remember Santa Fe as a child in the 1980s,” she says. “The east side… was interspersed with artist studios. Artists worked right in the middle of town.”
With ICA, Giovando aims to recreate this integrative dynamic. “Santa Fe is like a petri dish, where you need to make space for the bacteria of culture to grow and flourish on multiple levels,” she says. “The dream is to support artist practices in the downtown area.” Although it is unclear from the exterior, the ICA’s space on Mercer Street is primarily artist studios.
Nestled between the bustling Railyard district and neighborhoods on Santa Fe’s west side, the property has C-4 zoning, a categorization that buffers heavily trafficked commercial zones from residential properties. Giovando calls ICA’s studio ecosystem an “artist barrier,” as it is both accessible to the public and quieter than the Railyard’s retail stores, galleries, and restaurants. Kostis and photographer Cara Romero are the first artists on site.
For kostis, who uses they/them pronouns, maintaining a studio at ICA has been a life-changing opportunity to explore larger, more experimental projects. Primarily a painter before An Incoherent Body, they would collect scrap metal and make smaller assemblages on paper. Kostis says, “This is the first time that someone’s not only given me the space but also expanded the potential of what I could really do. Like, yeah, I want to make a ten-foot copper sculpture, and I can. It feels like a big deal to have somebody say ‘yes.’”
While the plan is to mount three or four exhibitions per year, the ICA hopes to bring different aspects of an artist’s practice into the spotlight, challenging the audience’s understanding of an artist’s “work.” Future programming, for example, includes a display of artist Tony Abeyta’s personal collection and an interactive project about sustainable adobe building techniques by Anita Rodriguez. The ICA will also open Luddite, an in-house gift shop curated by multimedia artist Lucia Maher Tatar.
In its current manifestation, the central purpose of ICA seems to be that of an incubator, offering artists the time, space, and conceptual freedom to grow into their practices at any career stage. In Giovando’s ideal world, the ICA will open doors for artists to secure holistic, long-term support from galleries or patrons.
And what about that hefty, intrepid name—the Institute of Contemporary Art Santa Fe—that appears to position this nascent initiative among renowned museums in much larger art capitals? Well, Giovando is ready to take her turn at bat, noting that “institutes of contemporary art” often start as smaller, experimental spaces: “I was like, do I even want to call it ICA? But I think I am up for that question. I don’t know if it’s going to be possible, but I’m certainly up for seeing in what ways we can humanize the institution.”
