This spring, Southwest Contemporary welcomes a new editorial director and four new advisory board members, along with award wins, open calls for our next issue, and an opportunity to win $10,000 in funding for emerging media.
Dear readers,
We’ve been busy behind the scenes here at Southwest Contemporary! In addition to our regular publishing and sending our annual New Mexico Field Guide off to print (find it on stands beginning May 24), we’ve had several other developments to celebrate. From new team members and journalism awards to expanded initiatives and calls for visions of the future, I am thrilled to share a few items of very good news:
New Leadership
First, I’m happy to introduce you to the newest member of our staff, Jordan Eddy. Jordan joins us as editorial director, a new leadership role for Southwest Contemporary’s editorial team. With nearly a decade of experience working as an arts journalist and as director of Zane Bennett Contemporary Art and form & concept galleries, he brings a unique combination of experience, intellect, and vision to this role. I know Jordan will make an excellent addition to our small team and have a great impact on our work moving forward.
Next, I’m honored to welcome four new members to our editorial advisory board. Laura Augusta (curator, Rubin Center for the Visual Arts), Hazel Batrezchavez (artist, educator, and founding member of the fronteristxs Collective), Angela Ellsworth (artist, educator, and co-founder of the Museum of Walking), and Andrea Hanley (vice president of programs, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation [Navajo]) have joined our now-thirteen-member advisory board this spring. We are so grateful to them for sharing their experience and expertise in guiding our editorial work.
Vote for Us
In other news, Southwest Contemporary is a finalist in the Next Challenge for Media & Journalism, a startup competition and a program of Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media Group that identifies and invests in emerging media and journalism ventures. We are in the running for several awards, ranging from $10,000 to $60,000. The Public Choice Award, which grants the winning media company $10,000, is now open for public voting!
Please vote for us and help us win!
Award-Winning Journalism
Southwest Contemporary received several awards for our arts journalism this spring: the 2023 New Mexico Field Guide won 1st place in the Magazine category from the New Mexico Press Women’s 2024 Communications Contest, which will go on to be entered into the National Federation of Press Women Professional Contest held on June 22. Additionally, arts editor Natalie Hegert received a 3rd place award in NMPW’s Reviews category for her review of Nicholas Galanin: Interference Patterns at SITE Santa Fe. Steve Jansen received 3rd place in the Arts and Entertainment category for his reporting on CCA Santa Fe’s near closure.
We received two awards from the Colorado Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’s Top of the Rockies Excellence in Journalism competition. In the Small Newsrooms division, we received 1st place in the Criticism category for a selection of exhibition reviews written by Natalie Hegert and Gina Pugliese (reviews of Hyperlink and The Land Report Collective’s Re-Activate, Marguerite Humeau’s Orisons, and Nicholas Galanin’s Interference Patterns).
We received 1st place for Front Page Design for the cover design of the 2023 New Mexico Field Guide, which features a painting by Karma Henry, one of our 12 New Mexico Artists to Know of 2023.
The Sun Sets on 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now
After five years of our annual 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now program, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue this initiative, and therefore will not present the annual profile series and exhibition this year. Despite its growing popularity and our love of celebrating the emergent talent across our home state of New Mexico, our growth as a regional arts outlet has us imagining the possibilities of a broader program that champions and connects “artists to know” across the entire Southwest. We are currently strategizing what this future initiative will look like, so stay tuned for more information.
In Our Futures Era
While the end of the 12 New Mexico Artists project is the end of an era, we are thinking in big-picture, dynamic terms when it comes to what the future might hold: for Southwest Contemporary, for the Southwest arts community, and for our world.
In this vein, our fall issue of Southwest Contemporary magazine is themed Radical Futures. As companion to our spring issue, Living Histories, the Radical Futures issue invites artists and writers—and you, our readers—to think about what the future will look like, what you envision, what you hope for, what you dread.
In our open call for artists, juried by artist and curator Ian Breidenbach, we invite artists working across the Southwest whose works are future-facing, world-building, visionary, speculative, and imagination-sparking to submit their works for possible inclusion in this issue. Learn more about the open call and find the link to submit here.
We invite everyone, artists and readers alike, to submit your “visions of the future” for a special crowd-sourced project. Consider what you think the future will look like in fifty years, or 100 years. Then write 1-3 sentences to let us know what you think. Select responses will be published in the Radical Futures issue. Find the link to submit your visions here. We look forward to reading your replies.
Thanks, as ever, for reading and supporting Southwest Contemporary!
Best,
Lauren
Lauren Tresp
editor + publisher
Southwest Contemporary
PS. Please take 10 seconds to vote for us in the Next Challenge to help us win $10,000! Thank you!
