COMMON GROUND
influences on New Mexicans; and Visual Experiments—provocative new approaches to image-making in an aesthetically awe-inspiring land. Five years after that redesign, curators are once again revisiting Common Ground while also seeking to build a robust online exhibition. One element influencing this change was a demographic analysis of the collection performed last summer. The collections team aggregated artist info based on identified gender and race, and then compared that data with the demographics of Albuquerque, the theory being that the collection must reflect the people of the city. “Part of our thinking about Common Ground was how can we use this pro-
What’s New in Common Ground
I
The permanent collection gets a makeover and an online presence.
what’s in the collection and what we want to collect in the future,” says Curator of Art Josie Lopez, Ph.D. “How are we representing and reaching our broader communities?” At the same time, it’s become clear that online exhibitions are here to stay. While there is no substitute for seeing the work in person, an online version of Common Ground will bring the collection to a wider audience. It also allows curators to exhibit works on paper that can’t stay in the gallery for a long time due to their fragility, as well as very large works that won’t fit in a physical space. The team gained some insight and experience from Trinity, Reflections on
N 2016, ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM
what New Mexico art is and how it speaks
CURATORS EMBARKED on an am-
to us. Common Ground is now organized
bitious re-envisioning of Common
around themed areas: Real New Mexico—
Ground, the showcase exhibition of
landscape, cityscape and other depic-
the permanent collection. Their shared ef-
tions of the local environment; Real New
fort went beyond simply rearranging art-
Mexicans—portraiture of New Mexicans
work to a fundamental change in themes
from a range of backgrounds, experienc-
and the overarching narrative exploring
es and cultures; Whose Culture?—cultural
6
cess [of demographic analysis] to assess
SPRING 2021
Art. History. People.
ON VIEW COMMON GROUND cabq.gov/common-ground
