Member Magazine Spring/Summer 2019 w
Summer/Fall
2019
516 ARTS • Contemporary Art for Everyone 3
Introduction
13 Grant Program
4
Studio Visits
14 Business Supporters
8
Preview
15 Board, Staff & Funders
10 Education
16 Calendar
12 Featured Sponsors
Summer/Fall Exhibitions Paula Wilson: Entangled June 22 – August 31, 2019
Member Preview: Saturday, June 22, 5-6pm 516 ARTS presents a solo exhibition in the downstairs gallery by Paula Wilson from Carrizozo, New Mexico. Collapsing the distance between art and life, Entangled embraces an anthropomorphic world view in which nature and human life are embodied and reflected. Monumental sillhouetted figures, garbed in rich pictorial material, hold the unseen forces of nature at work, specifically the mutualistic relationship of the yucca plant with its sole pollinator, the yucca moth. (See page 4)
Mira Burack: Sleeping between the Sun and the Moon June 22 – August 31, 2019
Member Preview: Saturday, June 22, 5-6pm 516 ARTS presents a solo exhibition in the upstairs gallery by Mira Burack titled, Sleeping between the Sun and the Moon, a meditation on the interior and exterior spaces in and around her home in New Mexico’s Ortiz Mountains. The exhibition explores the liminal experience and psychological qualities of textiles, the bed and sleep. Her work shares the coexistence of plants, animals and family. How does the materiality of daily life teach intimacy, engage the senses, provide comfort, heal, invite rest and elicit pleasure? Through intricate photography collage installations, sound, and collections of found objects and plants, a contemplative space is created where the mystical, high desert landscape meets the intimacy of the domestic space. (See page 6)
Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande: Contemporary Artists Respond September 28 – December 28, 2019
Member Preview: Saturday, September 28, 5-6pm (see pages 8-9) Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande: Contemporary Artists Respond features commissioned and existing artworks highlighting diverse perspectives on varieties of plants and animals, including flowers, trees, fish, birds, and bees–iconic and overlooked–undergoing mass die-offs and population declines within the Rio Grande watershed from Colorado to Mexico. Co-curated by Josie Lopez, PhD, Curator of Art, Albuquerque Museum and Subhankar Banerjee, Lannan Chair, Art & Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico, the exhibition at 516 ARTS is accompanied by an expansive series of public programs with partners in the region. (See page 8)
FRONT: Paula Wilson, Seed, 2018, screenprint, monotype, woodblock print, acrylic, oil on muslin, elements made in public program with Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts & The Union for Contemporary Art, UNO Weber Fine Arts, & Creighton University, Omaha, NE. ABOVE: Paula Wilson, New Development, 2012, in collaboration with MassArt’s Master Print Series, intaglio with screen print, 30 x 15 inches • Mira Burack, Moon (mother), 2015, broom snakeweed plants, twine, paint, photo by Eric Swanson • Cannupa Hanska Luger, At What Cost: Extraction, 2016, ceramic, steel, fiber. RIGHT: Highlights from March 22 opening of In Our Own Backyard: Board Chair Danny López, Ray Graham, Cherie Montoya • Albuquerque Museum Director Andrew Connors, artists Emi Ozawa & Jeff Krueger
Welcome! By Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Director Greetings and welcome to our 2019 Member Magazine, where you can read all about our upcoming programs and learn about members events. First, I would like to thank Ray Graham for sharing his collection with us for In Our Own Backyard this spring and helping us to showcase the history of contemporary art in the 516 building. Next up: opening June 22 are two concurrent solo shows by Paula Wilson and Mira Burack, New Mexico women artists who are shining stars on the national stage. Check out talks with the artists, and sign up for a variety of hands-on summer workshops for adults and teens. We are currently hard at work planning for an expansive regional project this fall titled Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande, centering around an exhibition at 516 ARTS and a series of public programs along the Rio Grande watershed. Together with partners in Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, Marfa, and Las Cruces, among others from Colorado to Mexico, we’re exploring how the Rio Grande river connects us and how we can work together to raise awareness and inspire environmental
Friday, August 23
activism around the current biological crisis. On October 3 at the KiMo Theatre,
Reserve your spot today!
we are teaming up with Lannan Foundation to co-present Pulitzer-Prize winning
Join 516 ARTS for an unforgettable summer
author Elizabeth Kolbert (author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History) in conversation with New Mexico journalist Laura Paskus. We have launched the fourth call for proposals for our ongoing Fulcrum Fund grant program in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and this year marks a total of $230,000 in grants made to local artists. And there are more events and gatherings coming up for the Friends of 516 ARTS and our Donor Circle. Thank you all for being members and making it all happen!
experience at the Santa Fe Opera for the closing night of THE PEARL FISHERS, one of Bizet's most acclaimed works. Led by 516 ARTS Board Chair Danny López and Cherie Montoya (Farm & Table), the evening includes round-trip transportation from Albuquerque in a chartered luxury bus, a delicious pre-show tailgate dinner under the beautiful New Mexico sky, and your seat for the show. There are only 46 seats available for this special, all-inclusive night, which is a fundraiser for 516 ARTS. $250 general / $225 members (Supporter level & up, membership details at 516arts.org/join)
Reservations/Info: mackensie@516arts.org, 505-242-1445
DONOR CIRCLE
Mountain Moonrise Dinner Saturday, July 27, 6pm 516 ARTS’ Governing Board invites our Donor Circle to a private dinner with artists Paula Wilson and Mira Burack. Join us for a special meal and an opera performance in the Sandia Mountains at a unique artist’s home. This event is for members at the $1,000 level and up. Learn about membership levels and benefits at 516arts.org/join.
Reservations: mackensie@516arts.org, 505-242-1445 516arts.org
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STUDIO VISIT
A Day in Carrizozo with Paula Wilson
516 ARTS staff members Mackensie Lewis and Katie Doyle made a field trip to Paula Wilson’s studio in Carrizozo, New Mexico, where the artist lives and works with her partner Mike Lagg. KD: So why New Mexico? Why Carrizozo? PW: When I was growing up I would spend all my summers here. My mom was a trailblazer and moved out to Lincoln, New Mexico from Chicago. It had a huge effect on me to see somebody start a new life and follow a drive to be closer to nature. Being able to be an artist full-time out here is possible too. The cost of living is so low that I can purchase properties, and there’s not much to spend money on here. ML: Did you make these textile pieces specifically for the space? They remind me of cactus... PW: I made these kind of randomly and then they fit so well on the stage of the Lyric Theatre, it was the perfect amount of stuff. On plexiglass I would blob ink, and when it was in the press it just kind 4 Summer/Fall 2019
of spread and made these patterns. It was fun to get to that kind of natural form through that process. I fell in love with art through printmaking. The way printmaking asks you to reconfigure and reverse feels really natural to me. Woodblock printing is my favorite printmaking medium. I prefer the natural rather than linoleum or something like that. KD: How has your work changed since you’ve moved out here? PW: I feel like I have a real ability to work on larger pieces for extended periods of time and even put things away and then pull them out again. It feels more like a lived artistic practice than the production mode I was in previously. Just recently, the landscape is starting to show up in my work. I’m doing more painting outside and putting on a kind of naturalist hat. ML: Is there specific work that you are focusing on right now? PW: I work on a lot of things at once. There’s usually a printmaking component and then layers of material. Right now I’m working on
Paula Wilson, Promenading, 2012, in collaboration with City College, NYC’s City Editions, reduction woodblock print, 19.5 x 15 inches • Paula Wilson, The Naturalist’s Collection, 2018 & 2019, monotype, woodblock print, acrylic & oil, installation at Smack Mellon, photo by Etienne Froussard • Paula Wilson, photo by Mario Gallucci
“If you have that feeling that life is a work of art, with components of theatricality, then everything starts to become that layered reality. A lot of my time in the studio is spent creating mythologies I can get behind—narratives that have a person of color and a woman in a position that feels right to me.” small pieces that are flat to the wall and then I paint drop shadows on them. You know how at your grandmother’s house she would put little pictures and paintings around the stairs. I’ve always loved this kind of salon style. These are kind of tongue-in-cheek with their frames saying “We’re artwork.” KD: There is a lot of pleasure and revelry in this video piece— a luxury of slowing down. Consuming the flower, consuming the sexual object. PW: I’m very interested in that combination of pleasure and revelry. Nature is something that I find extremely sexy. When we’re thinking about how to re-energize an environmental movement or raise awareness, we know that sex often sells and that revealing pleasure and intimacy could raise interest. I love reading all about the yucca and the yucca moth. All of that literature sounds sexy: “She rolls the sticky pollen under her chin” and “They meet on the flower at night.” The yucca and the yucca moth are made for each other. They’ve evolved and are beneficial to one another. They are the quintessential example of mutualism. In early Darwinian time, mutualism was one of the earliest justifications for evolution because these two species have so clearly evolved together. I think about sex within this kind of loving, interdependent relationship that’s not about abuse or taking advantage. KD: How did you find out about the yucca flower and its edible medicinal properties? PW: I went on an edible Carrizozo kick for a while—sort of a survivalist thing. I was interested in foraging. That’s how I came across the yucca. Often times the yuccas were covered in ants so I wondered if the ants were what pollinated the yucca. When I looked it up, I discovered this incredible relationship between the plant and its pollinator. It changes the way I see and the way I think out there. The first time I saw the little moth it was a total eureka moment. KD: I feel like your choice of fabric speaks to the idea of a veil or something that can be molded or formed around its maker or its owner or its partner. PW: Right. I’m always trying to figure out how artwork meets the wall. It’s such a simple thing, but I’m never satisfied with the options of the stretched canvas. I started working on fabric mainly to have a better longevity and to broaden the scale. Then I started making
MEMBER PREVIEW: Saturday, June 22, 5-6pm Followed by Public Celebration, 6-8pm
my own clothes and my own bags and functional things. When I make clothes, it’s amazing to see that two-dimensional plane, the weirdness of what a pant leg looks like, and to understand it is a sculpture. This wearable thing is activated and brought to life by the body. KD: You are creating your own world with symbols and with decoration of your surfaces and spaces. Do you feel like there is a narrative component to your work? PW: I have a real desire to collapse this distance between art and life. If you have that feeling that life is a work of art, with components of theatricality, then everything starts to become that layered reality. A lot of my time in the studio is spent creating mythologies I can get behind — narratives that have a person of color and a woman in a position that feels right to me. I constantly try to live my art in a way that’s creating an alternative, sublime existence.
Paula Wilson is an award-winning, internationally exhibiting printmaker, performer, and painter based in Carrizozo, New Mexico. Her recent solo exhibitions include The Light Becomes You at Denny Dimin Gallery in New York, NY (2018), S pread Wild: Pleasures of the Yucca at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2018), and T he Backward Glance at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE (2017). She has been featured in publications such as Hyperallergic, Artforum, The New York Times, the New York Observer, and T he New Yorker. Wilson’s artwork is in many prestigious collections including The Studio Museum in Harlem, the New York Public Library, Yale University, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, S aatchi Gallery, and The Fabric Workshop. She is co-founder of the artist organization MoMAZoZo and the Carrizozo Artist in Residency.
Paula Wilson, Remodeled, 2007, relief woodcut, offset lithography & silkscreen with collaged elements & hand coloring, produced and editioned at Columbia University’s Leroy Neiman Center for Print Studies, New York, NY, 25.75 x 19.5 inches
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STUDIO VISIT
At the Base of the Ortiz Mountains with Mira Burack
On a cold February morning, 516 ARTS staff members Mackensie Lewis and Katie Doyle visited artist Mira Burack at her studio in the Ortiz Mountains to learn about her solo exhibition this summer at 516 ARTS. ML: Why do you make work? MB: I am engaged by the materials and living beings in my daily life, and the interior and exterior spaces around me where meaningful life experiences take place. I am curious about the relationships that exist between humans and their environments. I have a background in both psychology and art. I’m really interested in human connections being healing, and the idea that we are all in this world to be healed, integrated. I have been making work about sleep and the bed for the last fifteen years. I work with a broad definition of the bed, both literally and figuratively, and more recently I’ve been exploring the earth as a bed. The average person will spend one third of their life asleep. The bed is the most potent, restorative, and vulnerable landscape we have. We are horizontal for the first months of our lives, so it is really our first landscape. I am interested in this horizontal existence, in a world that can often value the vertical. 6
Summer/Fall 2019
ML: Who or what has influenced you the most in your art? MB: The materials that surround me. Plants, textiles, animals, family. The bed, the landscape, the table, the home. I believe that even inanimate objects come alive when we live closely with them and care for them. Especially when we make them with our hands. Energy moves between us and them. Recently, having children has definitely influenced the way I work. I have naturally slowed down quite a bit. Also, moving here after being in a city for so long, I had to reconnect with a slower rural pace. Being more present with my work has made it deeper and stronger. To slow down, strip down, pare back, and edit our lives can open up so much. ML: Is connection to the land something you’ve always felt, or something that developed over time? MB: I grew up on a small island off the coast of Maine. The ocean was our anchor. When I was living in New York City, I would always go to the East river to get some sense of the landscape. Quite a few times I actually wound up taking the Greyhound bus eight hours there and eight hours back to go to Maine for just the weekend. Just to get one day of fresh ocean air. I was involved in community
Mira Burack, Sun (son), 2015, photography collage, paint, 84 x 84 inches • Mira Burack, Waterdrop & Waterdrop II, 2018, photo collage, paint, 45 x 36 inches each
“The bed is the most potent, restorative, and vulnerable landscape we have. We are horizontal for the first months of our lives, so it is really our first landscape. I am interested in this horizontal existence, in a world that can often value the vertical.”—Mira Burack gardening both in New York and in Detroit, so I suppose the land has always had an influence on me as a person and on my artwork. I truly believe we are smarter, healthier, more caring, and more ourselves when we live close to the land. KD: Has moving here changed how you’re perceived as an artist? MB: New Mexico is an expansive place. There’s more land than people. I am learning from that and honoring it, more so than when I was in a vertical urban environment. You can listen to the land here. Place definitely influences our work, whether consciously or unconsciously. ML: What do you have planned for Sleeping between the Sun and the Moon? MB: I have two pieces that will anchor the exhibition: Sun (son), an 8-foot circular photography collage of photos of my son’s golden yellow baby blanket knit by my mother, and Moon (mother), an 8-foot circular wreath-like piece made of golden yellow paint and broom snakeweed plants. I’m hoping to install them across from each other. To me they represent the interior and exterior landscapes coming together. It’s a blurred space that I am interested in, and an intersection of intimacies between these spaces. ML: Tell us more about the broom snakeweed. MB: Broom snakeweed is a local plant found all over New Mexico with beautiful, tightly knit yellow blooms that grow about a foot off the ground. It has been used historically as medicine and it can help treat arthritis when brewed as a tea. My mother had terrible arthritis before moving to the desert 15 years ago. The desert has removed her arthritis symptoms. The broom snakeweed in Moon (mother) speaks to that. The piece is like a portal that she walked through for her healing. I’ve been exploring the native plants of this landscape, and they have so much to teach us. These plants are sophisticated survivors, and I have such a deep respect for their hardiness!
MEMBER PREVIEW: Saturday, June 22, 5-6pm Followed by Public Celebration, 6-8pm Mira Burack’s land in he Ortiz Mountains, photo by Mackensie Lewis
KD: What is something you are working on that you’re excited about? MB: I am in the early stages of envising a large-scale land-based project entitled Sleeping Huts. It’s a site-specific architectural installation situated on our high desert mountain property. Sleeping Huts will provide spaces for personal retreat, restful contemplation, and surrender. They will offer an artistic, nurturing and sensorial sleep experience that connects guests with high desert materials, plant life, and the natural elements in resonant and memorable ways. Currently I’m looking for an architect to collaborate with on this project. It’s different because the spaces will be designed from the inside-out (rather than the typical outside-in)—where the architecture will be informed by the experience of sleep and the design of the bed. I’m thinking of building three sleeping huts on the property—one for a family, one for a couple, and one for a single person. Each sleep experience is meant to reconnect us with the earth as our first contact and most intimate relationship. I am working on some concept drawings and writings of my ideas, and I’m hoping to turn them into an artist book. I am also greatly looking forward to the sleep workshop 516 ARTS is offering on July 21 (see page 11) in conjunction with my exhibition. I think the exhibition and workshop are really building a foundation for the Sleeping Huts project. I’m am so excited to see what comes of it.
Mira Burack is an artist living in the Ortiz mountains of New Mexico. She received her MFA degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art and BA degree in Studio Art and Psychology from Pepperdine University. Burack was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up on the coast of Maine. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the CUE Art Foundation in New York City, Center Galleries in Detroit, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Muskegon Art Museum, Cranbrook Art Museum, Media Knox Gallery in Slovenia, Art Gallery of Windsor in Canada, and Kunstverin Wolfsburg in Germany. She has lectured, taught workshops, and was a faculty member at the College for Creative Studies. She received a Community + Public Arts Detroit grant for The Edible Hut, a community space with a living edible roof. 516arts.org
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PREVIEW
Arts organizing across the border in El Paso & Juárez
By Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Director The Rio Grande is a wildlife corridor, a watershed, a border, and a
work. Species in Peril is like a prompt for inspiring conversations,
cultural connector. Our fall exhibition Species in Peril Along the Rio
continual creative productions, and actions so that we work toward
Grande faces the current biological crisis by looking at the nature
what I call Multi-Species Futures, a future that is for all life on earth,
and biodiversity of this river. Our partners’ meeting in May brought
including humans.”
us to the Visual Arts Program at Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ)— hosted by León De la Rosa, at the Centro Cultural de las Fronteras. The weekend event brought together 22 curators, artists, and activists with the goal of expanding the breadth and
independent artists from both sides of the border shared their plans and ideas for teaming up around the subject this fall in conjunction
reach of the collaboration.
with the exhibition at 516 ARTS. We delved into identifying concrete
Co-Curator Subhankar Banerjee, Lannan Chair and Professor of
and inspire activism around the crisis by focusing in on our own
Art & Ecology Program at the University of New Mexico, kicked
region of the Rio Grande watershed that spans Colorado, Texas,
off the meeting with locating us all in the biological crisis. He said,
New Mexico and Mexico.
“Nearly a million species—close to half of the known species on earth—are facing extinction. We are in the midst of a crisis that is just as significant, as urgent, as the crisis of climate breakdown, if not more so. The borderland between the U.S. and Mexico is the most biologically diverse region in North America. We are on a fact-finding mission to explore how artists who live in the region are engaging and addressing this crisis through their creative 8
Professors and organizers from major institutions as well as
Summer/Fall 2019
ways that our efforts can raise awareness, help educate the public,
“How does the river connect us?” is the mantra I keep asking myself and which serves as an organizing principle for tackling such a vast global issue. It is our hope that our approach of bringing together artists, scientists, historians and environmentalists across disciplines will serve as a model for regional collaborations around the global environmental issues that can seem overwhelming. Jair Tapia, Christian Diego Diego, Ma. Eugenia Hernández, Gracia & Uriel Chávez, Subhankar Banerjee
Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande is like a prompt for inspiring conversations, continual creative productions, and actions to work towards what I call Multi-Species Futures, a future that is for all life on earth, including humans.” —Subhankar Banerjee The main exhibition at 516 ARTS, subtitled Contemporary Artists Respond and co-curated by Josie Lopez, PhD, Curator of Art at the Albuquerque Museum, features commissioned and existing artworks by artists in the region, highlighting diverse perspectives on varieties of plants and animals, including flowers, trees, fish, birds, and bees—iconic and overlooked—undergoing mass-die offs and population declines within the Rio Grande watershed. Through the eyes of contemporary artists, the exhibition raises ethical and cultural questions about human impact on the natural world.
SAVE THE DATE! Thursday, October 3, 7:30pm at the KiMo Theatre
Elizabeth Kolbert & Laura Paskus in Conversation 516 ARTS, in partnership with Lannan Foundation, welcomes Pulitzer prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert in conversation with New Mexico journalist Laura Paskus in conjunction with Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande. Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, a book about mass extinctions that weaves intellectual and natural history with reporting in the field. It was a New York Times 2014 Top Ten Best Book of the Year and is number one on the Guardian’s list of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of all time, and won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in the General Nonfiction category. Laura Paskus has been writing about environment issues in New Mexico for 17 years, reporting for magazines, newsThe exhibition is accompanied by a busy season of public programs including speakers, workshops, performances and outdoor activities presented in Albuquerque and throughout the region. Look for the map/calendar published by 516 ARTS this August for details. EXHIBITION: September 28 – December 28, 2019 at 516 ARTS REGIONAL COLLABORATION: September – December, 2019
MEMBER PREVIEW: Saturday, Sept. 28, 5-6pm Followed by Public Celebration, 6-8pm
papers, and public radio, focusing in particular on climate change, water, energy and southwestern rivers. A former archaeologist and tribal consultant, she currently hosts a monthly show on New Mexico PBS, Our Land: New Mexico's Environmental Past, Present and Future. Her book, At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate, is forthcoming from UNM Press.
TICKETS: kimotickets.com $10 general / $8 516 ARTS members / $6 students
Some of the participants in the Juárez meeting for Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande, left to right: Michael Berman, Mackensie Lewis, Jaque Fragua, Suzanne Sbarge, Jair Tapia, Subhankar Banerjee, Marisa Sage, Dose, Daisy Quezada, Christian Diego Diego, laura c carlson, Nicholas Jaconsen, c marquez, Gabriela Carbalo, Sarah Meléndez, León De la Rosa
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EDUCATION
Learning for all ages is front and center at 516 ARTS By Katie Doyle, Education Coordinator I joined the 516 ARTS staff in October 2018 and dove right into organizing educational programs for the exhibition Currency: What do you value?. 663 New Mexico students ranging from elementary to high school age participated in Mel Chin’s Fundred Project and were featured in the exhibition at 516 ARTS. After the show we sent the completed Fundred Bills to the U. S. Capitol to be displayed with nearly 500,000 other bills from students all over the United States to raise awareness about the value of children’s voices. This summer, with the concurrent solo exhibitions by Mira Burack and Paula Wilson, we are offering two special educational opportunities for teens and adults to interact closely with each artist and their creative processes (see page 11). We are already deep in the planning process of education programs for Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande, an exhibition at 516 ARTS and large-scale regional collaboration this fall (see page 11). We are partnering with the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) to offer an after-school program for Title 1 public school students, which will integrate citizen science with fine art. We are also partnering
Online Archives By Magdalena Sterling, Intern
with UNM’s First Year Learning Communities to raise awareness
Many consider museums as houses of history.
about the Rio Grande watershed and its significance as we face dire
Although this idea is true, I have come to
environmental issues.
discover the importance of not only protecting
516 ARTS continues to offer engaging educational materials, tours, discussions and activities for classrooms of all ages, as well as internship and volunteering opportunities (516arts.org/volunteer). This spring, we hosted an internship with Magdalena Sterling, a
the history of a specific culture or period in time, but also the history of the museum itself. My focus over the past semester has been to sort through and digitize articles and reviews of 516 ARTS’ exhibitions and programs
UNM undersgraduate student majoring in Spanish and Art History.
from magazines, newspapers and Internet sources as well as the
For the coming academic year, Emily Dreskin, a student at Amy
museum’s own publications going back to its first opening in late
Biehl High School, will be working with us on her senior project,
2006. Much of the media coverage 516 ARTS has received has been
creating teen nights at 516 ARTS. We are excited to focus on
from local sources such as The Magazine, The Albuquerque Journal,
partnerships geared toward young adults who seek to be engaged
The Weekly Alibi, Pasatiempo, Trend Magazine and Local Flavor;
in the arts and explore career opportunities in the field. In tandem
however, it has also garnered significant attention from national
with our hands-on workshops with artists in our exhibitions, we
sources including The New York Times, The LA Times, The Huffington
continue to create platforms for lifelong learning. Come visit me at
Post, Art in America, art ltd. and Art Papers. The articles include a
516 ARTS, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12-5pm, give me a call at
variety of styles and approaches to writing about art, as well as a
505-242-1445, or email me at katie@516arts.org.
mix of praise and criticism. Overall it seems like a healthy dialogue that expands the reach of the exhibitions. Now the archive will serve as a reference for researchers and a record of 516 ARTS’ influential past and ongoing impact in our region as the only truly contemporary
Learn more & sign up for school tours: 516arts.org/education
museum in Albuquerque. Reading through the hundreds of articles and publications spanning 13 years has contributed immensely to my education as an Art History student. Having completed my second year of studies at UNM, I am now serving as a Multicultural Curatorial
Delve into our new online archive: 516arts.org/archives 10
Summer/Fall 2019
Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Denver for the summer. Working at 516 ARTS has been a key part of my education in the field and I will miss being part of the staff team!
Public Academy for the Performing Arts students visiting the exhibition Currency: What do you value?, seated under the piece DebtFair New Mexico by Occupy Museums
Summer workshops for teens and adults Interactive Print Project with Paula Wilson Saturday, June 15, 12-4pm at Harwood Art Center, 1114 7th St. NW Wednesday, June 19, 12-4pm at 516 ARTS In conjunction with her summer show at 516 ARTS, Paula Wilson invites teens and adults at all levels to join her in creating a largescale printmaking installation to be on view in the exhibition. For this project, Wilson will focus on desert flora and fauna—making visual the unseen interconnected relationships at play in the landscape. Participants will engage with her materials and conceptual processes, intermixing printmaking techniques with multi-cultural references toward a simultaneously realistic and unworldly world view. All participants will be credited as collaborators in the exhibition and will receive a painted portrait from the artist. FEE: (per session) $20 general / $15 members / $10 college students / FREE for teens 15-18
An Exploration of Rest A guided afternoon nap in the high desert mountains with Mira Burack Sunday, July 21, 2-5pm in Cerrillos, New Mexico To coincide with her exhibition at 516 ARTS, Sleeping Between the Sun and the Moon, join artist Mira Burack at her home in the high desert mountains for an exploration of rest. In a swiftly paced 21st century, Burack hopes we can reconnect with our basic need for rest and sleep. During the workshop, participants will gather for a soothing, restful experience of the senses. We will share stories around our sleep experience—How do we sleep? What rituals prepare us for rest? What would help us quiet our lives a bit more? Burack will facilitate a group outdoor conversation, a nap in the landscape, and a nourishing plant encounter. Participants are asked to bring an object that has supported their rest or sleep experience. Each participant will go home with a hand-dyed sleep mat/cloth and a plant hydrosol made by the artist from wild-harvested plants in the landscape. Come, unplug, and let the land comfort you. All are welcome. Register by July 7. FEE: $60 general / $50 members / $25 students
Making It & Painting It Weekend Workshop with Holly Roberts August 9-11 Friday, 7–8:30pm, Saturday & Sunday, 9am–5pm at 516 ARTS Back by popular demand! Master the elusive art of transferring images to create striking work in this unique workshop, which combines the arts of painting and applied imagery. We cover the basics of working with acrylic paints to establish powerful substrates (underlying layers) that allow students to build images through collage and different transfer techniques. Students learn several approaches to working with paint, as well as basic adhesion techniques and multiple transfer processes. Along with photographs, students are encouraged to use any combination of mixed media to produce the collaged pieces that will build the final finished images. All levels welcome. Open to teens and adults. FEE: $250 general / $235 members
Register for workshops with member discounts: katie@516arts.org ABOVE: Holly Roberts, Young Woman Watching, 2017, mixed media, 20 x 16 inches
516arts.org
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FEATURED SPONSORS
Cutting Edge Culture
516 website gets a makeover
By Paul Mondragon, Bank of America
By Caroline Blaker, Petroglyph Creative
“By supporting 516 ARTS, my hope is that people are not only educated and entertained, but moved to act and help create a better community for us all.”
Over the past 10 months, my business Petroglyph Creative has modernized and redesigned the user experience of 516 ARTS’ website to reflect its identity as a non-collecting museum. We studied the websites of small museums and institutions around the country to get a feel for
I read something many years ago (and will misquote it here), but Joseph Campbell,
the variety of online styles and formats
the mythologist, was discussing James
that these places are using. Our objective was to elevate the orga-
Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
nization’s web presence and create a navigable archive of current
Man and was talking about the fact that it is
and past programs since 516 ARTS opened in 2006. We felt that
the artist who brings forth the living myths of the day. They can’t help it. Something will be going on in the world and the artist will take that happening and translate it to a commentary about the subject. The commentary can be in the form of music, dance, poetry, sculpture, painting, or any other literary, physical, or act of art. The artist’s manifestation and expression can bring the consumer of that art into a new world of thought. Professor Campbell’s thoughts on the subject of art have stuck with me since I read them thirty years ago. This is why I, through my position with Bank of America, support 516 ARTS and their mission to bring cutting-edge, thought-provoking art to New Mexico. Because of the way their exhibits are curated, one gets to experience a subject through many different artists’ eyes. The fact that the exhibits are enhanced by lectures or other activities adds to their impact. If enough people are engaged by a subject, then art can become a catalyst for change. By supporting 516 ARTS, my hope is that people are not only educated and entertained, but moved to act and help create a better community for us all.
while showcasing new and upcoming exhibitions and events is the primary use of a museum’s website, preservation of past program content is key to showing the depth and breadth of its cultural contribution over time. Not only should archives be easily found, but they should receive the same treatment as the rest of the website – presented with excitement and engagement, ease of navigation and vigor. We automated as much of the work as possible while leaving creative decisions about content presentation to the staff of 516 ARTS rather than a predetermined template page structure. In order to achieve all of these goals, we did in-depth research, including an on-site exercise with the general public at an opening to determine the type of content people consume and how to best present it. The result is easy and intuitive navigation in a clear and clean format which places the art itself at the center. The website itself provides an immersive experience that is pared down so you are consuming the images and content in an uncluttered way. It’s a dynamic website that will be versatile and serve 516 ARTS as it continues to evolve.
Bank of America applauds 516 ARTS for bringing the arts to all When members of the community support the arts, they help inspire and enrich everyone. Artistic diversity can be a powerful force for unity, creating shared experiences and a desire for excellence. Bank of America recognizes 516 ARTS for its success in bringing the arts to audiences throughout our community. Visit us at bankofamerica.com/arts Life’s better when we’re connected® ©2018 Bank of America Corporation | SPN-126-AD | ARR6WNBC
Learn about business sponsorship benefits: 516arts.org/sponsorship 12
Summer/Fall 2019
C R E A T I V E petroglyphcreative.com
Proudly supports 516 ARTS Explore our new website starting June 11: 516arts.org
GRANT PROGRAM
- A Case for Regionalism By Claude Smith, Exhibitions & Fulcrum Fund Manager Much of the conversation surrounding the art world takes place in, and is contextualized through large cities and art centers—meccas—they’re
often
called.
Even those unfamiliar with art could guess who occupies the top—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Houston, etcetera. Not only are these among the most populous cities in the United States, but much of their perceived livability for artists is due largely in part to the cultural opportunities and resources available therein. But with upwards of 80% of the nation’s population residing in these densely packed urban areas, what becomes of the artists, cultural workers and producers living in smaller cities and regional geographies that lack the same fundamental access to opportunity?
This decentralization of monetary support not only gets funds
Artists probably don’t choose to live in Albuquerque because of
directly into the hands of artists, but as we’ve seen over the past
the abundant opportunities that await them, but rather the allure
three years, the Warhol Foundation’s investment in our community
of a different quality of life that allows for space and time to
is a vote of confidence not only for 516 ARTS, but also Central New
devote to individualized creative practices, experimentation and
Mexico as an leading force in our region for independent creative
even employment and family life. However, without much in the
and cultural development.
way of continued and substantive opportunities directed to artists themselves, many are forced to become self-reliant and creative in order to realize their visions. In many ways, this selective pressure instills a unique, evolved way of getting work done in lieu of work
2019 GUEST JURORS:
created with institutional, governmental or foundational support.
Evan J. Garza
It’s all too common to see artists playing multifarious roles of
Director, Rice Public Art, Rice University, Houston, TX
administrator, coordinator, fabricator, designer, and presenter, all of which are self-funded—or more commonly—not funded at all. In 2016, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts based in New York City recognized Albuquerque as a particularly dynamic site for self-organized artistic activity and saw both a great potential—and need—for access to funding. They invited 516 ARTS to be a partner in their Regional Regranting Program, a prestigious opportunity that came with both funding and visibility on a national
Mónica Ramírez-Montagut
Director, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, New Orleans, LA Imin Yeh
Assistant Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA
scale, joining partners in cities ranging from San Francisco to Houston to Philadelphia and Miami. By the end of this year, the Fulcrum Fund will have awarded a total of $230,000 directly to independent artists in support of over 42 art projects taking place
INFO SESSION: Saturday, July 13, 2-4pm at Santa Fe Art Institute
within 80 miles of Albuquerque. APPLICATION LAB: Saturday, August 3, 10am-12pm at 516 ARTS
DEADLINE: Sunday, August 11, 2019 Info & apply: 516arts.org/fulcrumfund Larry Bob Phillips, from Fracking in Sandoval County, a comic book funded by the Fulcrum Fund, 2018, ink on paper
QUESTIONS? claude@516arts.org 505-242-1445
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THANK YOU! Support the organizations & busineses that help make 516 ARTS possible
A local, urban eatery offering contemporary comfort foods breakfast • lunch • dinner • wine loft
&
signs
, llc
frameworknm.com print solutions + sign experts + personalized service
is proud to support 516 ARTS
8917 4th St NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114
14
505.503.7124 Farmandtablenm.com
Dinner: Tues-Sat open at 5pm Brunch: sat-sun 9am-2pm
www.stubblefieldprint.com
a full-service video production company
(505) 242- 9802
STUBBLEFIELD
print solutions + sign experts + personalized service
515 slate nw 505.243.2210 slatestreetcafe.com
Bernalillo County is a proud supporter of the arts!
516 ARTS Board, Staff & Funders
the magazine contemporary arts + culture themagsantafe.com
KUNM 89.9 FM kunm.org
Much more than
RADIO
human-curated music
GOVERNING BOARD
STAFF
Danny López, Chair Suzanne Sbarge, President Mark Rohde, Vice President Kevin Hoover, Treasurer Rebecca Black, Secretary Pamela Cheek Larry Gernon, MD Kathleen Metzger Tim Price Lauren Tresp Tonya Turner Carroll Dora Wang, MD
Suzanne Sbarge Executive Director Claude Smith Exhibitions & Fulcrum Fund Manager Mackensie Lewis Development Coordinator Katie Doyle Education Coordinator
ADVISORY BOARD Juan Abeyta Michael Berman Rebecca Black David Campbell Mark Chavez Andrew Connors Devendra Contractor Ray Dewey Melinda Frame Idris Goodwin Tom Guralnick Deborah Jojola Jane Kennedy Arif Khan Diana McDonald, PhD Brian McMath Jenny McMath Elsa Menéndez Rhiannon Mercer Marla Painter Dr. Andrea Polli Henry Rael Mary Anne Redding Rick Rennie Augustine Romero Arturo Sandoval Sommer Smith Claire Stasiewicz Arturo Sandoval Rob Strell
CONSULTANTS Joni Thompson, Bookkeeper Jane Kennedy, Development Associate Caroline Blaker, Web designer Ian Jones, Preparator LEAD FUNDERS McCune Charitable Foundation The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts The City of Albuquerque The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation Lannan Foundation The National Endowment for the Arts ADDITIONAL FUNDERS Bernalillo County New Mexico Arts New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities The University of New Mexico: Art & Ecology Program Office of the Provost Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge BUSINESS SUPPORTERS Bank of America FRAME+WORK Don Mickey Designs Farm & Table Heritage Hotels & Resorts High & Dry Brewing Nusenda Credit Union Petroglyph Creative Slate Street Café Stubblefield Print & Signs
This project was made possible in part by a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts.
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516 Central Ave. SW Albuquerque, NM 87102
Nonprofit Org U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
516arts.org
Albuquerque, NM
Permit No. 749
Friday, August 23 (See page 3) Unless otherwise noted, events are free and at 516 ARTS.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS June 15 or 19: PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP Interactive Print Project with Paula Wilson Saturday, June 15, 12–4pm at Harwood Art Center, 1114 7th St. NW Wednesday, June 19, 12–4pm at 516 ARTS Fee per session: $20 / $15 members / $10 college students Free for teens 15-18 (pre-register) Saturday, June 22: OPENING RECEPTION Paula Wilson: Entangled Mira Burack: Sleeping Between the Sun and the Moon 5-6pm: Member Preview • 6-8pm: Public Celebration Friday, July 5, 5-8pm: FIRST FRIDAY OPENHOUSE ABQ Artwalk & First Friday ARTScrawl Thursday, July 11, 5:30pm: CONVERSATION Paula Wilson & Mira Burack with Alicia Inez Guzmán Saturday, July 13, 2-4pm: INFO SESSION Fulcrum Fund Info Session at Santa Fe Art Institute, 1600 St. Michael’s Dr., Santa Fe Sunday, July 21, 2-5pm: WORKSHOP/FIELD TRIP An Exploration of Rest in the High Desert Mountains with Mira Burack Fee: $60 / $50 members / $25 students (pre-register by July 15) In Cerrillos Friday, August 2, 5-8pm: FIRST FRIDAY OPENHOUSE ABQ Artwalk & First Friday ARTScrawl
August 9-11: WEEKEND WORKSHOP Making It & Painting It with Holly Roberts Friday, 7–8:30pm / Saturday & Sunday, 9am–5pm Fee: $250 general / $235 members Friday, August 23: OPERA FIELD TRIP Pearl Fishers at the Santa Fe Opera Includes opera tickets, chartered bus, wine & food Tickets: $250 general / $225 members Saturday, September 28: OPENING RECEPTION Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande 5-6pm: Member Preview • 6-8pm: Public Celebration Sunday, September 29, 2pm: OPENING ADDRESS & PANEL Kierán Suckling, Cannupa Hanksa Luger & Subhankar Banerjee at Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Rd. NW Thursday, October 3, 7:30pm: CONVERSATION Elizabeth Kolbert & Laura Paskus presented in partnership with Lannan Foundation, at the KiMo Theatre, 423 Central Ave. NW Tickets: $10 general / $8 members / $6 students • kimotickets.com
Look for the Map/Calendar to Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande this August for all the details on fall programs.
Registrations & Tickets / More info: 505-242-1445 / 516arts.org
Paula Wilson, Remodeled, 2007, relief woodcut, offset lithography & silkscreen with collaged elements & hand coloring, 25.75 x 19.5 inches • Holly Roberts, Awkward Rider, 2018, mixed media, 24 x 36 inches • Suzi Davidoff, Simplified World/Aplomada Falcon and Grasses, 2017, charcoal, gesso, map, 50 x 68 inches • Elizabeth Kolbert