Vail settles lawsuit with Danielle SeeWalker over her G is for Genocide painting, hundreds of culture organizations sign open letter denouncing censorship, and more top Southwest art news headlines for September 2025.
News
Vail Settles Lawsuit with Danielle SeeWalker Over Cancellation of Artist Residency:
Denver-based artist Danielle SeeWalker, a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, reached a settlement with Vail after the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit against the town for violating her First Amendment rights. In May 2024, Vail revoked SeeWalker’s artist residency over her painting G is for Genocide, which she shared online to illustrate similarities between Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians and Indigenous genocide in the U.S. As part of the settlement, the town will fund a new art program for members of underrepresented communities and sponsor an interfaith community forum on Israel/Palestine. Over the next five years, Vail will also host an annual powwow organized by SeeWalker and provide annual cultural sensitivity training to town employees.
Hundreds of Arts Workers and Organizations Sign Open Letter Denouncing Censorship:
A joint statement coordinated by the National Coalition Against Censorship and New York’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics accumulated hundreds of signatures from artists and cultural organizations across the United States. The letter was composed in response to increasing political pressures to censor or defund institutional programming centering historically marginalized voices. Southwest signatories include Axle Contemporary in Santa Fe, GallupArts in Gallup, the Museum Association of Arizona, the Nevada County Arts Council, and more.
Arts and Culture Grants in Dallas in Limbo Following Changes to the City’s DEI Policies:
Artists in Dallas received emails from the Dallas Office of Arts and Culture notifying them that their grant funding required further review and may not be approved. Recently, the city council unanimously authorized a review of its municipal programs to ensure compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders scrutinizing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Past recipients of OAC grants expressed concerns over how their programs will be financed and how these changes will impact the broader arts community in Dallas.
Coe Center Gifts IAIA a New Campus Building in Santa Fe:
The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe announced that it will receive a new campus building on behalf of the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, marking another fortuitous development in the college’s ongoing efforts to secure federal funding and bolster organizational partnerships. The new location will support the expansion of IAIA’s graduate degree programs, cinematic arts curriculum, and artist residencies. Along with the expanded facilities, the Coe art collection will be transferred to the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art and the college for use as a teaching collection for students.
Also:
- Scottsdale Arts and Cattle Track Arts Compound initiated a partnership that will support increased programming and a new career-development program for emerging artists.
- The Judd Foundation will reopen Donald Judd’s architecture office in Marfa following its rehabilitation after a fire destroyed the interior in 2021.
- Seven Magic Mountains is no longer moving to Northern Nevada and will remain in its current location south of Las Vegas through 2026.
- K Contemporary, one of Denver’s contemporary art galleries, opened a new location in Santa Fe on Canyon Road.
- Wally Workman Gallery in Austin celebrated its forty-fifth anniversary with a group exhibition featuring forty-five artists.
- Gathering of Nations Powwow in Albuquerque announced that its final event will take place in 2026.
- Climatic chaos kicked off this year’s Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, with dust storms destroying many camps, artworks, and the notorious “Orgy Dome.”
Grants and Awards
New Mexico Colleges Granted $77,000 to Invest in Local News:
Four community colleges in New Mexico were selected as 2025 Community News Transformation Grant awardees. The joint initiative between the New Mexico Local News Fund and The New School provides each school with a $77,000 grant to enhance its journalism programs. A two-year learning cohort will help the colleges strengthen local news infrastructure while generating meaningful pathways for students and the community to engage with journalism.
Three Southwest Artists Selected as Joan Mitchell Fellows:
The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced the 2025 recipients of the Joan Mitchell Fellowships, each of whom will receive $60,000 in unrestricted funds distributed over five years, along with other critical resources to help sustain their creative practices over time. Fellows from the Southwest include Gerald Clarke (Cahuilla Band of Indians) from Anza, California, Sammy Seung-min Lee from Denver, Colorado, and Eric-Paul Riege (Diné/Navajo) from Gallup, New Mexico.
Grace Rosario Perkins Receives Walker Youngbird Foundation Grant, Announces Exhibition at the Whitney:
The Walker Youngbird Foundation awarded Grace Rosario Perkins (Akimel O’odham/Diné) its second Emerging Native Arts Grant of 2025. She will receive $15,000 to support the creation of large-scale paintings and a monumental, collaborative sculpture. The culminating project, Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers, will be featured in her upcoming solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in October.
Also:
- The RiNo Arts District in Denver inaugurated a pop-up program providing artists $5,000 stipends and temporary studio spaces in vacant commercial buildings in hopes of mitigating increasing costs in the city.
- Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) was awarded a 2025 Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grant.
- Multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota), musician Nacha Mendez (Chihene Nde Nation), and five other artists and organizations were honored as winners of the 2025 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts in New Mexico.
- IAIA MoCNA director Patsy Phillips was recognized in the Forbes Women 50 Over 50 list.
- Utah’s Statewide Annual Award Winners were chosen by jurors Marela Zacarias and longtime Southwest Contemporary contributor Nancy Zastudil.
- 516 Arts curator Olivia Amaya Ortiz received a Teiger Foundation grant to support Kincentric Ecologies, an exhibition featuring Indigenous artists with Southwest ties.
- Elizabeth Burden was selected as Tucson’s 2025 SaludArte artist and will create public artwork in collaboration with community members in recovery from substance abuse.
Leadership Changes and Appointments
President and CEO of the Arvada Center in Colorado to Retire After 12 Years:
Philip C. Sneed, president and CEO of the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, announced his forthcoming retirement, effective June 30, 2026. Under his leadership, the performing arts center became an independent nonprofit, quadrupled its annual philanthropic support, and forged diverse partnerships with external organizations.
Union Hall Appoints Ashley Geisel as Interim Executive Director:
Union Hall, a nonprofit arts space in Denver, recently announced that board member Ashley Geisel will serve as its interim executive director while the organization seeks a permanent leader. She will help drive strategic planning initiatives and collaborate with the staff and board to support core programming.
Karina Marcano Says Farewell to Pidgin Palace Arts:
After three years as community director at Pidgin Palace Arts, a contemporary art gallery in Tucson, Karina Marcano stepped down from her role to further her education. Marcano managed the gallery and helped open Pidgin Palace’s bar space, which has become a local mainstay for artist receptions, film screenings, and late-night dancing.
