Catch up on recent art news headlines in the Southwest region, including people on the move, grants, and more.
News
New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary Announces Opening Date
After several unforeseen delays, the anticipated opening date for the Vladem Contemporary is set for September 23, 2023. Once open, the high-profile Railyard venue will showcase contemporary art, educational programming, and more inside of its 35,000-square-foot digs.
Phoenix’s Pueblo Grande Museum Changes Name to Honor and Respect the Original Inhabitants of the Land
Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, which has been in existence for more than ninety years, changed its name to the “more appropriate” S’eḏav Va’aki Museum, according to reporting by azcentral.com. S’eḏav Va’aki, a City of Phoenix release says, “is an O’odham name that reflects the connection the site has with the local O’odham and Piipaash communities.” The museum, which resides on the traditional unceded lands of the Huhugam, preserves Huhugam artifacts and inventions. The name change is scheduled to be celebrated during a grand reopening event on Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 9, 2023.
Rogers Art Loft Residency in Las Vegas Announces Closure
The Rogers Art Loft, a residency program for national and international artists in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, closed effective May 1, 2023. “We want to express our deepest gratitude to all who have come and served the Rogers Art Loft,” reads an announcement on the Rogers Art Loft website. “To our artists, thank you for making this a wonderful experience. To the community, thank you for your support.”
Arizona Governor Fills Two Vacant Seats on the Arizona Commission of the Arts Board
Monica Buckle, an Arizona Humanities scholar and the executive director of the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum in Camp Verde, and John-Peter Wilhite, director of partner engagement at Social Venture Partners Tucson, have been appointed by Governor Katie Hobbs to the ACA board of commissioners, a governing body that has faced criticism over its lack of geographical diversity.
Grants and Awards
New Mexico Artist Wins Maxwell-Hanrahan Award in Craft
Multidisciplinary artist Shane R. Hendren is one of five craft practitioners to win $100,000 each in unrestricted funding from the San Francisco Bay Area Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation. Hendren, who makes jewelry and metal pieces that honors the culture and traditions of his Navajo and European ancestors, has had works collected by numerous collections, including the British Museum, Heard Museum, and the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. According to a press release, the award, now in its second year, is one of the nation’s largest awards in craft.
Institute of American Indian Arts and Ucross Foundation Receive Ruth Foundation for the Arts Grants
IAIA in Santa Fe and Ucross Foundation near Sheridan, Wyoming have been named recipients of an Artist Choice grant from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, which awarded a total of $1.23 million in unrestricted grants to fifty-five nationwide arts and cultural organizations.
Artpace San Antonio Reveals Summer and Fall 2023 Artists in Residence
Xin Liu (London), Michi Meko (Atlanta), and Ryan Takaba (San Antonio) will be Artspace’s summer 2023 resident artists while Sandra Brewster (Toronto), Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas (Detroit), and Alexandra Robinson (Austin) will fulfill Artspace’s residency program in fall 2023.
Utah Division of Arts and Museums Announce 2023 Fellows
Fifteen Utah artists in design, performing, and visual arts have been awarded $5,000 fellowships to recognize their individual artistic excellence and support their professional careers.
-
- Henry Becker, Design Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Ian Camp, Performing Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Creighton Elinski, Design Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Lauren Hunt, Performing Arts Fellow (River Heights)
- Ron Linn, Visual Arts Fellow (Orem)
- Kylie Millward, Design Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Vaimoana Niumeitolu, Visual Arts Fellow (Sandy)
- Miriam Padilla, Performing Arts Fellow (Draper)
- Horacio Rodriguez, Visual Arts Fellow (Bountiful)
- Nathan Royal, Performing Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Megan Simper, Performing Arts Fellow (Logan)
- Brooke Smart, Design Arts Fellow (South Jordan)
- Elpitha Tsoutsounakis, Design Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Amber Tutwiler, Visual Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
- Jaclyn Wright, Visual Arts Fellow (Salt Lake City)
University of New Mexico Art Museum Receives Artwork and a Grant from the Frankenthaler Prints Initiative
UNM Art Museum in Albuquerque is one of ten university art museums to receive a group of Helen Frankenthaler prints and a one-time grant of $25,000 to develop a project or program for the study, presentation, and interpretation of the editions. A press release states that the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation seeks to “enrich academic institutions’ collections and resources while promoting scholarly research on Frankenthaler’s contributions to the field of printmaking.”
Phoenix Art Museum Announces 2023 Scult and Lehmann Artist Award Recipients
Fronterizx Collective has been named as the recipient of the 2023 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award while Yaritza Flores Bustos and artist Alejandro Macias won the Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Award. In 2023, the museum doubled the Scult prize from $5,000 to $10,000, and more than tripled the Lehmann prize from $1,500 to $5,000.
Aspen Art Museum Names ArtCrush Artist Honoree
Nairy Baghramian is Aspen Art Museum’s 2023 Artcrush Artist Honoree. She will receive the Aspen Award for Art at the annual ArtCrush Gala in August. Additionally, the museum announced the dates for Nairy Baghramian: Jupon de Corps, a major solo exhibition by the Iranian German artist scheduled to take place from June 22 through October 22, 2023.
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art Announces Doctorow Prize Winner for Contemporary Painting
Chie Fueki, a New York-based artist, has been awarded the 2023 Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting. The biannual prize, a partnership between UMOCA and Doctorow Foundation, includes a $15,000 unrestricted cash award and a solo exhibition of Fueki’s artwork at the downtown Salt Lake City museum from September 29, 2023 through January 6, 2024.
Big Medium Announces Austin-Based Artist Rodell Warner has Been Named the Sixth Awardee of the Tito’s Prize
Funded by a generous gift from Tito’s Handmade Vodka and facilitated by Big Medium, Warner will receive an unrestricted award of $15,000 and a solo exhibition at the Big Medium Gallery in the spring of 2024.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
Santa Fe Pro Musica Executive Director Departs
In early May, Andréa Cassutt, Santa Fe Pro Musica executive director for fewer than two years, announced her departure from the forty-three-year-old classical music organization. According to news reports, her last day was May 23.
A New Director at Tucson’s University of Arizona Museum of Art
Olivia Miller, UAMA’s interim director for the past ten months, has been appointed as the museum’s director. Miller—who has been with the museum since 2012 and helped oversee the return and restoration of the stolen painting Woman-Ochre by Willem de Kooning—is the first woman to serve as the institution’s director.
Museum of International Folk Art Names New Leader
Charlie Lockwood has been appointed to serve as executive director of MOIFA in Santa Fe. Lockwood, who brings more than a decade of experience as a nonprofit arts administrator and public folklorist to the Museum Hill institution, is scheduled to start his new gig on June 24, 2023.
Center for Creative Photography Names New Director
Todd Tubutis has been named director of the CCP, located on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson. Tubutis has previously served as director of the Art Museum of West Virginia University, associate director at the University of Nebraska’s Sheldon Museum of Art, and executive director of Blue Sky Gallery, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts in Portland.
