Catch up on recent art news headlines in the Southwest region, including people on the move, grants, and more.
News
City of Albuquerque Votes to Keep Old Town Murals
Two murals by Albuquerque-based contemporary artists Jodie Herrera and Reyes Padilla, which were under threat of removal, have been allowed to stay following a vote by the City of Albuquerque Landmarks Commission. The contemporary art pieces are located at Plaza Don Luis in Old Town Albuquerque.
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Considers a Brand-New Facility
The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art announced last month that it plans to build a new flagship and expanded building in North Boulder near Violet Avenue, Broadway, and 10th Street in the NoBo Art District. The Daily Camera reports that the creative campus will include a 17,500-square-foot museum, retail spaces, and housing. The new space, if successfully funded, would potentially open in 2026 or 2027.
Grants and Awards
Raven Chacon is the First Native American to Win a Pulitzer for Music
Albuquerque multidisciplinary artist Raven Chacon (Diné) became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for music. Chacon, a former member of the art collective Postcommodity, won the award for his piece Voiceless Mass, composed for chamber orchestra and pipe organ.
Southwest-area Creatives Receive Latinx Artist Fellowships
Last month, the U.S. Latinx Art Forum, which is supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation, announced fifteen Latinx Artist Fellowship award winners for 2022. Three artists—Leslie Martinez from Dallas, Rosemary Meza-DesPlas from Farmington, New Mexico, and Vincent Valdez from Houston—hail from the Southwest area. The fellowship initiative, which came together in 2021, will award $50,000 in unrestricted funds per artist to a total of seventy-five Latinx visual artists through 2025.
Will Clift Wins France’s Henry Clews Prize
Santa Fe sculptor Will Clift has won the 2022 Henry Clews Prize, an invitational-only honor that “provides an accomplished sculptor with studio space and resources for a year’s residency and a summer exhibition at the Château de La Napoule in France,” according to a press release. Clift is represented by Santa Fe’s Gerald Peters Contemporary, which is currently exhibiting his work through July 30, 2022.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
Henrietta Lidchi Named New Director of the Wheelwright in Santa Fe
Henrietta Lidchi, the current head of research and collections and chief curator at the National Museum of World Cultures (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen) in the Netherlands, will become the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian’s director starting September 2022. A release by the Wheelwright says that Lidchi “has written one of the definitive books in the field on Native jewelry from the Southwest,” Surviving Desires: Making and Selling Native Jewelry in the American Southwest (2015). Jean Higgins has served as Wheelwright director since Jonathan Batkin’s April 2020 retirement.
Former CAMH Curator and Director Lands a Gig in New York
Allison Glenn, who announced in February 2022 that she was leaving the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston after only approximately six months, has become a senior curator at New York’s Public Art Fund. Glenn served as a senior curator and director of public art at the CAMH.
