Catch up on recent art news headlines in the southwest region, including people on the move, grants, and more.
News
Diversity Commitments from the New Leaders of the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe and SITE Santa Fe
Danyelle Means, Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe’s first Indigenous executive director, and Louis Grachos, who returns to SITE Santa Fe as executive director, recently spoke with Southwest Contemporary about community collaboration, inclusion, and equity.
New Mexico Arts’s 2021 BIPOC Artists Purchase Initiative
The state arts agency announced that it’s diversifying the state’s public art collection by prioritizing artists that identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Artists and galleries in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah are eligible to apply for the Art in Public Places program by August 30, 2021, with ”special consideration” given to BIPOC artists, states a press release. For more information, visit New Mexico Arts.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
Christopher Blay Chosen as Chief Curator of Houston Museum of African American Culture
Last week, HMAAC named artist Christopher Blay as chief curator. Blay had been the news editor of Glasstire since 2019—his blog post reflecting on his journalism gig is worth a read.
Santa Fe Arts Commission Names Poet Laureate and City Historian
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is Santa Fe’s sixth poet laureate and Valerie Rangel has become the latest city historian. Wellington’s appointment comes on the heels of New Mexico’s first state poet laureate while Rangel will serve as Santa Fe’s fourth city historian. A City of Santa Fe press release says that Wellington and Rangel will receive $5,000 annual honoraria while serving two-year terms.
Amy Iwano Becomes Performance Santa Fe’s New Executive and Artistic Director
Late last month, Santa Fe’s oldest presenting non-profit organization announced the appointment of Amy Iwano as its new executive and artistic director. Iwano, an executive director at the University of Chicago Presents, is scheduled to start with Performance Santa Fe on September 15, 2021.
Grants and Awards
Center for Creative Photography Receives Six-Figure Grant for a Louis Carlos Bernal Retrospective
The CCP, housed on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, has received a $255,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to fund an exhibition featuring the work of Louis Carlos Bernal, “a beloved Arizona artist best known for capturing barrio life in the Southwest,” writes Charlie Snyder at Arizona Arts. The grant will enable the CCP to present a sizable exhibition of Bernal’s works that the photography archive acquired in 2014. The exhibition is scheduled to open fall 2023.
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Austin Opera, SMU DataArts Selected for Digital Accelerator Program
Denver’s RedLine, Austin Opera, and Southern Methodist University DataArts in Dallas are three of the twenty-six United States-based organizations selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies to participate in the debut Digital Accelerator program. According to a press release, the $30 million initiative is designed to assist non-profits in improving technology infrastructure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Mexico Invests More Than $1 Million in Cultural Organizations and Folk Artists
New Mexico Arts will grant $1,058,200 to 182 New Mexico cultural organizations and folk artists in twenty-three New Mexico counties. A press release states that the funding “will provide arts programming and services, spur employment opportunities in the creative sector, and support communities across the state” for cultural creatives such as gallupARTS and the African American Performing Arts Center Foundation in Albuquerque.
