The City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department announces the appointment of three new City of Santa Fe Arts Commissioners by Mayor Alan Webber and the City Council. Karl Duncan, Andrew Leo Lovato, and Heidi McKinnon have been appointed to two-year terms as Arts Commissioners.

The Arts Commission is a nine-member volunteer advisory body appointed by the Mayor and City Council to assist and guide the Arts and Culture Department, which provides leadership by and for city government to support the arts and cultural affairs.

Learn more about the three new commissioners below, or click to view all current Arts Commissioners.

Karl Duncan

Karl Duncan is Executive Director for the Poeh Cultural Center at the Pueblo of Pojoaque. A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Mr. Duncan received a BA in Museum Studies and is currently part of the first cohort for the MFA program in Cultural Administration at IAIA. He has worked as the Curator for the Buffalo Thunder Resort Art Collection, serves as Vice-President of the Continuous Pathways Foundation and as a board member of Buffalo Thunder Incorporated and Silver Bullet Productions.

Since his arrival at the Poeh, Mr. Duncan facilitated the return of a historic collection of 100 pieces of Tewa Pueblo pottery on long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian. He is a youth mentor with the Boys & Girls Club in Pojoaque, helping coordinate and teach Native American hoop dancing.

Andrew Leo Lovato

Dr. Andrew Lovato is a Santa Fe native and has been a professor for the past 38 years at The College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Community College, and The Institute of American Indian Arts. He recently retired from full-time teaching. Dr. Lovato received his Ph.D in Intercultural Communication from the University of New Mexico and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2018.

He is the author of several books on Santa Fe and New Mexico history and culture, has taught guitar for over 30 years at Santa Fe Community College, and was Santa Fe City Historian from 2018 to 2019. 

Heidi McKinnon

Heidi McKinnon is a museum consultant who has worked for twenty years to support cultural heritage, social cohesion and systemic change. Her varied roles as a curator, writer, public speaker, and social entrepreneur, have facilitated her work on issues of historical memory, indigenous history, human rights, and women's rights throughout Latin America. In 1996, Heidi began her career working with artisans and culture bearers for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Studies for the 1998 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program. In 1999 she became part of the curatorial team for the inaugural exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of the American Indian which opened in 2004.

Ms. McKinnon served as the founding Director of Exhibitions and Planning for the Museum of Freedom and Human Rights in Panama City, Panama, which opened in 2019. She created the inaugural exhibitions as well as the planning and visioning documents for the museum.

In 2020, Ms. McKinnon opened Heritage by Hand, a lifestyle brand focused on handmade work from across Latin America, taking her museum experience to the retail arena by mixing her personal interests in cultural preservation and environmental sustainability.

For more information about the City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department call 505-955-6707 or email artscommission@santafenm.gov.