Catch up on recent art news headlines in the Southwest region, including people on the move, grants, and more.
News
Luis Tapia is a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow
Luis Tapia, a Santa Fe santero, has been named a 2023 National Heritage Fellow, which is the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. “For nearly five decades, Tapia has helped to revitalize and transform the art of the santero (saint-maker)—a centuries-old Hispanic tradition practiced in New Mexico and southern Colorado—through efforts such as reintroducing color and crafting social critiques into his modern-day santos (saints),” reads a press release.
Grants and Awards
Joy Harjo Wins Ucross Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts
In late February 2023, renowned poet, musician, playwright, and author Joy Harjo (Muscogee (Creek) Nation) received the Ucross Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts, which recognizes an individual’s extraordinary impact on the nation’s arts and letters. Harjo—the twenty-third United States poet laureate and a 2013 artist-in-residence at Ucross, a prestigious residency program in Sheridan, Wyoming—is only the second winner of the award. (Annie Proulx at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City was the first.)
New Ciudad Juárez Art Gallery Receives Mellon Foundation Grant
Azul Arena, a new cultural space in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, has received a two-year grant from the Mellon Foundation that will cover two full-time positions, building maintenance, and paid opportunities for regional artists, curators, makers, and other professionals. The grant will also support up to four exhibitions per year, including Azul Arena’s inaugural show Chavalxs, a collaborative photographic project led by Alejandra Aragón. The gallery’s grand opening is scheduled for April 22, 2023.
Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson Announces Local Genius Award Recipients
MOCA Tucson in Southern Arizona has named the winners of the 2023 Local Genius Awards, which recognizes “innovative Tucsonans whose activities have a global impact, and whose talents have been internationally recognized.” The list includes award-winning sociologist and researcher Jennifer Carlson, hydrologist Karletta Chief, sociologist Celestino Fernández, baker and Barrio Bread founder Don Guerra, and late writer and journalist Tom Miller. The recipients will be honored during an April 15, 2023 gala.
516 Arts Names Fulcrum Fund Grant Recipients
The Albuquerque art museum 516 Arts announced the recipients of the 2023 Fulcrum Fund grant cycle, which awarded a total of $90,000 in grants ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 to eleven artists and collectives throughout New Mexico. The artists/collectives, projects, and locations are:
- Mira Burack – Sleeping Huts (Cerrillos)
- fronteristxs – Ni de aquí, ni de allá (Albuquerque)
- Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning, and Design – First Future Project (Albuquerque)
- Tyler Green – Carbon, Element (Albuquerque)
- Dust Wave – Fronteras Microfilm Festival (Albuquerque)
- Billy Joe Miller – Moving Window (Albuquerque)
- Roger Montoya – Hope and Belonging Pathways Mural (Velarde)
- Michelle Paisano (Laguna Pueblo) – Culturally Responsive Art Education for Native Communities (Laguna Pueblo)
- Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado – Contingencias Futuras/Future Contingencies (Roswell)
- Landing – The Land is a Verb (Taos)
- Submergence Collective – The Piñon Project (Albuquerque)
Meet the Fall 2023 Women’s International Study Center Residents
WISC has named Liza Mackinnon, Yxta Murray, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, and Helen Tindel as its fall 2023 fellows-in-residence. The Santa Fe residency at the Acequia Madre House is open to women writers, artists, scholars, scientists, professionals, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are in the arts, sciences, cultural preservation, business, and philanthropy.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
Multiple Changes—and an Award—for Utah Museum of Fine Arts Personnel
Emily Lawhead, a former curatorial assistant for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s Shared Visions program, has been named UMFA’s new modern and contemporary curator. Nancy Rivera, an accomplished visual artist, has become the new director of planning and programming. And Katie Seastrand, the museum’s manager of school and teacher programs, has been awarded the 2023 Pacific Region Museum Education Art Educator Award by the National Art Education Association.
Longtime Phoenix Children’s Theatre Company Figure Announces Departure
Children’s Theatre Company has announced the departure of Peter Brosius at the end of the 2023-2024 season. Brosius has been the artistic director for twenty-seven years—and the longest serving artistic director in the company’s fifty-eight-year history, which has been named the nation’s top children’s theater by Time. “His artistic vision has transformed the theatre into the nation’s leading theatre that serves a multi-generational audience,” reads a press release.
A New Executive Director at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College
Nicole Herden has been named executive director at the FAC at Colorado College. Herden most recently served as executive director of the Museum of Nebraska Art.
Chinati Foundation Appoints Executive Director
Caitlin Murray has been named as the new executive director of the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. According to a press release, Murray, who is scheduled to begin in mid-May 2023, was previously director of archives and programs at Judd Foundation, where she had worked since 2008.
New Mexico State University Art Museum Names Curator of Education
Bonnie Jean Knighton has been named the new curator of education of the NMSU Art Museum in Las Cruces. Knighton is a Utah native who has worked at Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, University of Utah, and the Natural History Museum of Utah.
A New Curator at the Nevada State Museum
Jordan R. Canal has been named as the curator responsible for programming and education for the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas. She has previously worked at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, Texas; the Start Art Program in Kent, Ohio; and the Casa San Ysidro: The Gutiérrez/Minge House in Corrales, New Mexico.
Phoenix Art Museum Announces Inaugural Men’s Arts Council Curator of Engagement
Giovana Aviles is the Phoenix Art Museum’s Men’s Arts Council curator of engagement. In her position, Aviles—who had been the community engagement and education manager at Celebración Artística de las Américas (or CALA) Alliance since 2017—will direct PhxArt AfterHours, artist celebrations, film programming, and Amplified, the museum’s live-music and visual-art weekend festival.
