Five projects have been selected from a robust applicant pool for the City of Santa Fe's 2024 Art is the Solution grant fund. The theme for this cycle was Structural Inequity in O'ga P'ogeh/Santa Fe, and the grants were awarded to support art projects that incorporate the issue of structural inequity and its impact on Santa Fe to enrich the experience and understanding of the city for residents and visitors.
Funded projects include:
Art Classes at Pete's Place, Hernan Gomez Chavez: Chavez's practice is focused on the intersection between power, place, and art. Along with offering free art workshops to unhoused community members at the Interfaith Community Shelter/Pete's Place, Chavez has developed a "Pete’s Place Art Wall" at the shelter in the communal dining area where different people’s art is shown. This project will support the art classes and extend the artists' reach and audience by culminating in a public pop-up exhibit at the Santa Fe Community Gallery, allowing the artists to sell their work.
Barrio Art School, Israel Horas, Alas de Agua Art Collective: Alas de Agua serves the southside of Santa Fe as a grassroots organization that supports underserviced BIPOC youth through their Barrio Art School. The Barrio Art School is a five-week intensive summer arts program offering free workshops and professional development for artists of color on the Southside.
The Black Men Flower Project, Robert Washington-Vaughns: Project founder Washington-Vaughns will collaborate with Trey Pickett and Louie Perea to address vulnerability and somatic responses to trauma in black men with a multi-faceted approach – teaching and documenting dance movement therapy classes through the Vizon Studio, an art project creating protective gear from flowers, and creating and exhibiting a series of photographs of the dancers and the floral armor entitled "Strength in Vulnerability," to be publicly exhibited in galleries as well as online.
Documentary Theater Project, Blacks Seen and Unseen in Santa Fe, Kim Fowler: Working with the Women of the Diaspora writing group, this project aims to explore how racism impacts Blacks in the form of public invisibility. They intend to interview 25-30 Black residents of Santa Fe, both in group and individual settings. Transcriptions of the interviews will be edited into a script that will be performed as a staged reading, followed by audience discussions to share knowledge and wisdom, hear what hasn’t been spoken, and seek solutions.
No Name Cinema, Justin Rhody: The grant will support 12 public film screenings that all relate to the theme of structural inequity between January and June 2024. Programs will feature filmmakers in attendance to introduce their work and have open Q&A sessions with the audience after the films.
The projects will begin as soon as this month and will be completed by June 30, 2024. Projects were selected by the nine members of the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and are funded by the Lodgers' Tax via the Arts and Culture Department.