IAIA fights another proposed federal funding elimination, Acoma Pueblo challenges AI data center developer, and more top Southwest art news for May 2026.
News:
Institute of American Indian Arts Again Faces Zero-Dollar Federal Funding Proposal from Trump Administration:
For the second year in a row, the Trump Administration’s FY 2027 budget proposed entirely eliminating the Institute of American Indian Arts’ $13.482 million federal appropriation, threatening the only institution of higher learning in the world dedicated to contemporary Native American art. The Santa Fe institution urged Congress to not only reject the cut, but raise its support to $14.1 million. “IAIA exists because Native artists, Native communities, and Congress recognized that Indigenous creativity and cultural knowledge are vital to this country,” said newly inaugurated IAIA president Shelly C. Lowe in a press release, which also referenced the U.S. government’s trust responsibility to protect tribal treaty rights, lands, assets, and resources.
Acoma Pueblo Accuses New Mexico AI Data Center Developer of “Corporate Appropriation,” Prompting Name Change:
Project Jupiter confirmed it will change the name of its company Acoma LLC following condemnation from Acoma Pueblo. The sprawling AI data center campus, which is being developed in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, neglected to consult one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America when it registered the company. “Our name is not a brand,” wrote Acoma Pueblo governor Charles Riley in an Albuquerque Journal op-ed, expressing deep concerns about the use of the tribe’s name “to advance one of the most environmentally consequential industrial projects this state has ever seen.” The project’s parent company announced an unspecified name change a few days later, but many questions remain about the local impact of the 1,400-acre complex, which will host AI infrastructure for OpenAI.
Texas Tech University Directive Restricts LGBTQ+ Coursework and Student Research, Raising Free Expression Concerns:
Texas Tech University in Lubbock issued a memo banning LGBTQ+ topics across courses, research, and programs, eliminating degrees, restricting student work, and imposing binary sex doctrine. The memo from Texas Tech chancellor Brandon Creighton details a “phase-out… for all academic programs ‘centered on’… Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI),” and notably prohibits future “degree-culminating student research” focused on these topics. It offers limited exceptions for courses wherein LGBTQ+ themes are “inextricably linked to the subject’s historical significance,” referencing the Harlem Renaissance, the AIDS epidemic, and Alan Turing. TTU professor of studio art Andrew Martin told Inside Higher Ed, “It’s difficult for faculty to comprehend how a major R-1 public university can think it’s legal and desirable to censor their students’ content of work in this manner.”
Also:
- The 2026 Scottsdale Art Auction generated $16.5 million in total sales with a 97% sell-through rate, setting thirty new artist auction records throughout the two-day sale.
- Center for Creative Photography at University of Arizona in Tucson acquired nine archives spanning 20th and 21st century photographers, including Laura Aguilar and Mark Klett.
- A whistleblower complaint alleged that Palm Springs Art Museum leadership improperly reclassified and spent restricted funds, mishandled deaccession proceeds, and interfered with board and director searches, prompting trustee resignations and an independent investigation that the museum says is nearing completion.
- Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts launched a new Indigenous-centered social media platform called INDIGIA, a first-of-its-kind network that offers an alternative to existing platforms by “centering meaningful engagement over viral chaos.”
- New Mexico Arts initiated this year’s New Mexico CreativeCon, a statewide celebration running from March to early June that connects entrepreneurs, community partners, and organizations.
- Albuquerque’s National Hispanic Cultural Center became New Mexico’s fifth Smithsonian Affiliate. The affiliation will support exhibitions, genealogy programs, and broader Hispanic cultural preservation and collaboration across the United States.
- Comedian and podcaster Marc Maron joined the lineup for the inaugural Santa Fe Magazine Festival, which takes place June 12-14 at St. John’s College.
- The Dallas Art Fair circulated a recap of its 18th edition in mid-April, featuring a report of notable sales. Highlights of the fair included the debut of the $20,000 Dallas Art Prize and six acquisitions by Dallas Art Museum as part of a ten-year-old acquisition program at the fair.
- Houston arts nonprofit Project Row Houses released its Impact Year Report FY25, finding that 2025 was their best year based on various metrics, with over 26,000 visitors and more than 70 programs.
- Houston photography nonprofit Fotofest celebrated its 40th anniversary with the Fotofest Biennial 2026, titled Global Visions—FotoFest at 40.
- The St. Louis triennial Counterpublic announced the artist list for its third edition, titled Coyote Time and opening in September. Southwest-connected artists on the list include Lisa Alvarado, Joshua Abrams, Lynne Smith, Yatika Starr Fields (Cherokee, Creek, and Osage), Nicolas Galanin (Lingít/Unangax̂), and Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta). The exhibition’s curatorial team includes Raphael Fonseca, a curator-at-large for Denver Art Museum.
Grants and Awards:
Eight Southwest-Based Artists and Scholars Announced as 2026 Guggenheim Fellows:
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced this year’s multidisciplinary class of Guggenheim Fellows, including seven recipients based in Texas and Arizona. The 223 fellows work across fifty-five disciplines, receiving a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.” The Texas honorees are Haleh Ardebili, Margaret Brown, Bret Anthony Johnston, and Kenneth Tam. Arizona’s recipients include two faculty members from the University of Arizona, Erika Hamden and Elaine Romero, and Arizona State University-Tempe professor Sang-Heon Dan Shim.
New Mexico–Based Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger Wins $75K Visionary Book Prize:
Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota) received the prestigious PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for his work of Indigenous futurism, SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide. The honor bestows $75,000, the organization’s largest monetary prize, to a writer for a work of any genre with the promise of “lasting influence.” In his acceptance speech, Luger thanked his wife Ginger Dunnill “who is is this invisible wave behind me, who does the labor” and his mother, who “used to host survival camps back home.”
Also:
- The Arizona Commission on the Arts announced recipients and finalists for the 2026 Arizona Creative Excellence Awards and Governor’s Arts Awards. Shelley Award recipient Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Governor’s Award recipient Theatrikos, and other winners will appear at a May 8 ceremony in Phoenix.
- Creative Flagstaff presented the Viola Awards, including Excellence in Visual Arts honoree Culture Connection – Artemis.
- Arizona-based nonprofit Border Arts Corridor announced its largest-ever fellowship cohort, naming eight artists from Douglas, Arizona, Agua Prieta, Sonora, and surrounding border communities who will develop borderlands-rooted projects through December 2026.
- The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson announced the nine recipients of its fellowships for the 2026-27 cycle, demonstrating a range of creative interdisciplinary research projects concerning photography practices and histories.
- Denver’s Clyfford Still Museum named six 2026 Institute Residential Fellows in art, education, and social enterprise, including New Mexico–linked artist Martha Tuttle. The fellows will spend July 2026 in Denver researching the museum’s collection and sharing work in a public symposium.
- New Mexico Arts secured $77,500 for the Creative Aging Partnerships Project, a program that supports creative aging for older adults in the state, from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and E.A. Michelson Philanthropy.
- Taos Abstract Artist Collective announced its 2026 TAAC Scholar Award winner, Phoenix Savage, a writer, SWC contributor, sculptor, and medical anthropologist based in Santa Fe.
- New Mexico Local News Fund reported that its 2025 matching campaign raised $236,781, disbursing $127,113 across twenty-three newsrooms last year. It also announced six fellows and ten interns who will join local news organizations this summer for paid, hands-on training experiences.
- Albuquerque artist Julia Andreas was one of five artists selected for Valles Caldera National Preserve’s summer artist-in-residence program, and the only New Mexico artist in this year’s cohort.
Leadership Changes and Appointments:
Raphael Fonseca Takes Lisbon Post, Remains Denver Art Museum Curator-at-Large:
Denver Art Museum curator Raphael Fonseca will start a new role in May as visual arts programmer for Culturgest, a cultural center in Lisbon, Portugal. Fonseca was the first-ever curator of Latin American modern and contemporary art at DAM, where he will remain a curator-at-large. The Brazilian curator (and recent SWC guest juror) has emerged as a prominent voice on the international biennial circuit in recent years, with roles including chief co-curator of the forthcoming 37th Bienal de São Paulo (2027) and chief curator of the 14th Bienal do Mercosul (2025).
IAIA MoCNA Director Patsy Phillips to Retire After 18 Years at Museum:
Patsy Phillips (Cherokee Nation), director of IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, will retire in June after three decades of advancing Indigenous education and museum stewardship. During her eighteen-year tenure at the institution, it received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 2019, achieved by less than one percent of U.S. museums. The museum also established its first endowment of $2 million. Phillips, who held an eight-year post at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, will remain active in the museum field by serving another three-year term on the board of directors of the AAM and the International Council of Museums.
Also:
- The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies announced three new board members, including Southwest-based arts leaders Sharon S. Johnson of the Utah Division of Arts and Museums and Michelle Laflamme-Childs of New Mexico Arts.
- Denver Art Museum appointed Royce K. Young Wolf (Eastern Shoshone, Hidatsa and Mandan) its associate curator of Native arts.
