Catch up on recent art news headlines in the Southwest region, including people on the move, grants, and more.
News
New Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in the Works
The Santa Fe standby announced plans to open a new facility in late 2024. The museum, which celebrates the American modernist and attracts a high volume of visitors, is hosting a series of public meetings about the project.
Suspected Arsonist Destroys Santa Fe Public Art Sculpture
The Solacii, a public art piece outside of form & concept gallery on Guadalupe Street in downtown Santa Fe, was destroyed by an unknown perpetrator on August 21. As Nancy Zastudil reports, the burning of the sculpture, “a queer and Afrofuturist expression of comfort and solace,” has called into question the role and safety of public art in the city. As of the time this post was published, the Santa Fe Police Department hadn’t publicly announced a break in the case.
COVID-19-Related Requirements for Arts and Culture Functions
In response to a surge of the Delta variant, various arts and culture organizations—including AMP Concerts in northern New Mexico, Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, and Launchpad in Albuquerque—announced vaccine requirements or proof of a negative coronavirus test in order to gain access to events. The same goes for the 2021 New Mexico State Fair, scheduled to take place from September 9 through September 19 at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque.
UNM Art Museum Reopens
The University of New Mexico Art Museum, located on the main campus in Albuquerque, reopened to the public on August 31 with a new exhibition featuring works by New Mexico abstract painter Raymond Jonson.
Grants and Awards
Three Southwest Artists Receive 2021 Individual Support Grants
Agustin Pozo (Roswell, New Mexico), Rehab El Sadek (Austin, Texas), and Jordan West (Santa Fe, New Mexico) are among twenty artists who received 2021 Individual Support Grants via the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation.
Commissioned Artwork Honors Victims of Gun Violence
German-American artist Gordon Huether recently installed Luminaria, a piece that honors victims of gun violence, on the plaza of the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office, 520 Lomas Boulevard in Albuquerque. The artwork, a series of three sculptures and three cylindrical concrete seating areas, was made possible by an appropriation from the New Mexico Legislature.
MOCA Tucson and Santa Fe Art Institute Awarded Wagner Incubator Grant Funds
The VIA Art Fund and Wagner Foundation awarded grants totaling $200,000 to five nationwide visual arts organizations, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson and the Santa Fe Art Institute. According to a press release, “2021 Incubator Grantees demonstrate a commitment to support their respective communities through fostering experimental contemporary art and advancing critical discourse in contemporary art on a national level.”
Winners of the 2021 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts in New Mexico
Edward “Gus” Foster, Ricardo Caté, Susan Contreras, Dave Grusin, Kathleen Wall, gallupARTS, and Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts in Alto, New Mexico are this year’s recipients of the Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, a New Mexico Arts Commission and New Mexico Arts awards program that dates back to 1974.
NEH Rewards Grant Money to Southwest Institutions
In mid-August, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced the nationwide recipients of its humanities projects grants. Southwest arts and culture recipients include the Museum of Boulder and the Colorado Museum of Natural History in Denver; Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas. In total, NEH will award $28.4 million for 239 humanities projects.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
Apsara DiQuinzio Becomes Senior Curator at the Nevada Museum of Art
DiQuinzio, who previously worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, will start as senior curator at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno on November 1. Double Scoop previously reported the news of DiQuinzio’s appointment.
Dr. Amelia (Amy) Kraehe Assumes New Leadership Role at Arizona Arts
Kraehe, an associate professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, was appointed as the inaugural associate vice president of Equity in the Arts for Arizona Arts. According to Lynn Trimble’s web feature for Southwest Contemporary, Krahe’s hiring is part of a social-change shift in graduate arts education among many universities in the Southwest region.
