City of Lubbock slashes art walk funding over drag performances, and more Southwest art news headlines for August 2024.
News
Lubbock City Council’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Funding Vote Imperils Local Art Walk, Sparks International Headlines
In an impromptu vote on July 23, all but two members of the Lubbock City Council in northwest Texas were clear in their reasoning for slashing a $25,600 municipal grant for the First Friday Art Trail. They accused the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, which runs the popular local event series, of supporting drag performances and other programming that “promotes [the] LGBT agenda” and exposes children to “sexually explicit content.” The international arts press has picked up the story, with the London- and New York-based Art Newspaper calling it a symptom of the “U.S. culture wars” in a report on the Lubbock mayor’s wavering position on the matter.
Proposed Cuts to Federal Arts Funding Trigger Lobbying Efforts in Utah, New Mexico
On July 23, the U.S. House of Representatives struck down proposed funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Recommended by Republican Josh Meechem, who railed against “woke, weaponized, and wasteful” government spending, the budget amendments set off a round of lobbying by Southwest arts organizations. The Utah Cultural Alliance circulated petitions in support of the NEA and NEH, and Marisa Sage, director and head curator of the New Mexico State University Art Museum, got specific about the impact of federal arts funding in a letter to representative Gabe Vasquez (D- New Mexico). She wrote, “Without the support of the NEA, we would not have been able to conduct crucial research on our Mexican Retablo Collection, the largest of its kind in the US.”
Ogden Contemporary Arts Receives Generous Donation from Netflix Co-Founder Reed Hastings
Ogden Contemporary Arts in Utah has announced a “significant,” though unspecified, donation from real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured in honor of Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix. Hastings, a longtime supporter of the arts, is the chairman of Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah. The funding will further OCA’s sweeping mission to bridge local, regional, and international arts dialogues.
Grants and Awards
Salt Lake City Announces Contributors to Citywide Public Art Project Wake the Great Salt Lake
The Salt Lake City Arts Council has announced twelve artists and organizations selected to participate in Wake the Great Salt Lake, a temporary public art project supported by municipal dollars and Bloomberg Philanthropies that aims to inspire residents and visitors to understand and prevent the Great Salt Lake’s further decline. Salt Lake City mayor Eric Mendenhall says, “By sparking our neighbors’ imaginations through these creative installations, performances, and educational experiences, Wake the Great Salt Lake will build the inspiration, trust, hope, and passion needed to address this critical issue for our future.”
Nevada Artist Awarded Honorary Doctorate from UK University
James Stanford, an artist in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a 2023 inductee to the University of Nevada Las Vegas Hall of Fame, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom. Stanford is a former Las Vegas Arts Commissioner and has been integral to the establishment of the Las Vegas Arts District. In his artwork, he draws inspiration from the glittering visuals of the Las Vegas Strip and Zen Buddhism.
Lawndale Art Center Reveals 2024-25 Artist Studio Program Participants
Drawing from a pool of 114 applicants, the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas, has selected Christopher Paul, JR Roykovich, and Zulma Vega as the 2024-25 cohort of their Artist Studio Program. The announcement coincides with the approval of $30,000 in NEA funding to support the program.
Santa Fe Artist Steve Elmore to Anchor Eleventh Annual New Mexico Painters Exhibition at New Mexico Highlands University
Neo-surrealist painter and pottery dealer Steve Elmore will present a miniature retrospective of his abstract oil paintings as the featured artist in a survey exhibition of local painters in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Curated by author James Mann and hosted by the NMHU Foundation Kennedy Gallery, the group show opens September 15 and will include work by forty contemporary artists. “There is too much conventional beauty in New Mexico art,” says Elmore.
New Artist Funding and Exhibition Opportunities in Utah and Arizona
Applications are open for two arts opportunities in the Southwest. Utah artists are invited to submit work for the 2024 Statewide Annual Exhibition, a project of the Utah Division of Arts & Museums spotlighting craft, photography, video, and digital artworks. The submission deadline is August 10, and the juried showcase will appear at Ogden Contemporary Arts from November 1, 2024 through January 12, 2025. The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona invites artists to apply for a $54,000 mural project in Tucson’s Sugar Hill Neighborhood. The submission deadline is August 13.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
Moving from Interim Role, April Chalay is the New Executive Director of 516 Arts
April Chalay has served as the interim executive director of 516 Arts in Albuquerque since October 2023, following her departure from the beleaguered Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe. Now the nonprofit arts organization has shifted Chalay’s role to executive director, affirming her ambitious vision for 516’s next phase, which includes a planned move to a new, larger downtown facility. The announcement follows Olivia Amaya Ortiz’s appointment as curator of 516 Arts in June.
