Five Santa Fe arts organizations hauled in a combined $170,000 in National Endowment for the Arts grants announced Wednesday..
The Santa Fe Art Institute got the lion’s share, an $85,000 grant from the NEA’s Our Town program, which supports partnerships between arts organizations and municipal governments to revitalize neighborhoods. This money will go toward “culture asset mapping” and community events geared toward future redevelopment of the city-owned former college campus property off St. Michael’s Drive.
“The NEA Our Town grant will help us to connect the arts and local culture with equitable development of the midtown campus,” said Jamie Blosser, the institute’s executive director. “We will invite the community to deeply engage in imagining new possibilities for the midtown district.”
The art institute was one of 57 awardees nationwide to receive shares of $4.1 million in Our Town grants, which ranged from $25,000 to $200,000.
“With asset mapping, instead of looking for problems, you look for assets,” Blosser said. “You recognize all the assets you do have and how they can come around to support the midtown campus.”
The institute, a tenant on the campus for 20 years, has played a role in shaping a community vision for the property that once housed the College of Santa Fe and subsequently the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Citing U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data, the NEA noted that New Mexico is among the 10 fastest growing states for the share of gross state product stemming from arts and culture. New Mexico derived 7.7 percent of its gross state product from arts and culture, in contrast to the national average of 5.9 percent.
The contemporary art space SITE Santa Fe received a $35,000 NEA Art Works — Museums grant that will support its exhibition Bel Canto: Contemporary Artists Explore Opera, which continues through Sept. 1.
The funding will help fund more than a dozen public events regarding the exhibition as well as production of an exhibition catalog and additions to the cellphone-based audio tour that has been available since Bel Canto’s soft opening March 15, said Kate Kita, grants manager at SITE Santa Fe.
Wise Fool New Mexico was awarded a $20,000 Art Works — Presenting and Multidisciplinary Works grant to support youth circus arts training and performances.
YouthWorks Inc. got a $20,000 Art Works — Visual Arts grant to support Santa Fe Community Screenprinting, a program for youth and young adults to learn screenprinting through open studio time and an artist-in-residence program.
Santa Fe Pro Musica received a $10,000 Art Works — Music grant for chamber orchestra and baroque ensemble programs.