CORPORATE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Blue Rain Gallery Neighbors in Art and Community When Blue Rain Gallery first partnered with the Museum of
at the $5,000 leadership level. “You figure out the lay of the
New Mexico Foundation in 2005, they were neighbors
land,” Phetteplace explains, “and then your purposes dove-
located a couple doors down from each other on Lincoln
tail inevitably.”
Avenue in downtown Santa Fe.
The mutually beneficial relationship has allowed Foundation
“We had this great big parking lot in the back of the gallery,”
and museum staff, in addition to board members, to
remembers Denise Phetteplace, Blue Rain’s executive
acquaint themselves with Blue Rain’s diverse roster of
director. “A lot of the Foundation board members who were
contemporary artists working in various mediums, including
going to meetings would park in the lot. They’d come and
paintings, sculpture, glass, ceramics and jewelry. It helps
look at art in the gallery and then go to their meeting. And
that gallery founder and owner Leroy Garcia is a former
then, they’d come back and look again on their way out.
Foundation trustee who now sits on its advisory board.
Relationships just kind of build that way.” Beginning as a Business Council member, Blue Rain became a Corporate Partner of the Foundation in 2021, contributing
“There’s an open line of communication there,” Phetteplace says, adding that Blue Rain has helped build awareness for Foundation education- and exhibition-related development projects. “Over the years, we’ve hosted a number of events that have promoted learning in terms of the artwork we show and the different artists we work with,” she says. During its long affiliation with the Foundation, Blue Rain has contributed through membership and the Annual Fund and to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture’s education programs and annual Native Treasures event. Their passion for representing Native artists in their gallery extends to their museum support, including helping to secure a number of pieces for the Clearly Indigenous glass exhibition, on view through June 16 at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The gallery’s contributions to the future Vladem Contemporary further reflects their commitment to promoting contemporary Indigenous artists in their gallery and beyond. “The Foundation is a vital organization in our community,” says Phetteplace. “I don’t know where we’d be as an art community without the umbrella of museums we enjoy.”
Interior of Blue Rain Gallery. Photo courtesy Blue Rain Gallery.
For information on becoming a Corporate Partner, contact Mariann Lovato at 505.216.0849 or Mariann@museumfoundation.org.
18 museumfoundation.org
