ART OF THE STATE
From government buildings to open areas, there are opportunities to view pieces across New Mexico
Editor’s note: The third Sunday of each month, Journal Arts Editor Adrian Gomez tells the stories behind some of the hidden gems you can see across the state in “Gimme Five.”
In the public art world, there are conversations on how to keep a spotlight on it.
Whether is a shiny, new piece or one that has weathered decades of being in one place, one thing is for sure — public art is important and starts a conversation.
New Mexico is chock-full of it. Every corner in the state — from government buildings to open spaces — are filled with pieces of all sizes. Each adding a pop of culture.
Michelle Laflamme-Childs is the executive director of New Mexico Arts and has a front-row seat to the entire process.
“Public art adds value to the space it resides in,” LaflammeChilds says. “The impact of art is pretty amazing.”
New Mexico Arts is the state arts agency and a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, which provides financial support for arts services and programs to non-profit organizations statewide and to administer the 1% public art program for the state of New Mexico.
Laflamme-Childs picked out five destinations where one can
responsibly social distance, as well as get out of the house on a road trip.
Santa Fe
Paula Castillo’s, “my home over there, now i remember it” is located at the entrance to the New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue in Santa Fe.
Castillo’s pieces were installed in 2009 and the artist wanted the wanted the work to highlight the unknown logic of belonging in New Mexico.
It includes “barco,” “dos arboles, dos hermanas” and “Rio Grande Colcha.”
The entrance to the museum was the perfect vehicle to offer the setting to the epic story of New Mexico for Castillo.
“In a classic epic, the setting typically includes an image of the universe and here that universe truly is the environment of New Mexico: the river, the mountains, and the forests. This is home,” she says.
Laflamme-Childs says Castillo’s work has always been grounding.
“Her work is simple yet complex,” Laflamme-Childs says. “When the world feels like it’s spinning out of control, I see this piece of art and it feels grounding. I feel centered looking at this and gives me hope that things will get better.”
Portales
With the $26 million renovation of the Golden Library into the Golden Student Success Center on Eastern New Mexico’s campus, there came an opportunity to add some art to the campus.
ENMU took advantage of the opportunity and purchased nine sculptures for the area — “A Tall Drink of Water” by Suzanne Kane; “The Hive” by ModTribe Design (Taylor and Jenny); “Mercurio” by Elizabeth Akamatsu; “Golden Sky Sunrise” by Ray Steffens; “Prairie Moon” by Janna Tidwell; “Fly Away” by Gino
Miles; “Spirit of the Wind” by Ross Barrable; “Grama Grass Ballet” by Owen William Fritts; and “Corona” by Greg Reiche.
Laflamme-Childs says the pieces have only been up for a few years and were purchased before the state did a big sweep of funds in 2016-17.
“There was money set aside for projects and we didn’t know what the sweep was going to do,” she says. “We encouraged organizations to buy artwork from our purchase program, which is faster. The university bought a bunch of sculptures and added so much to its campus. These pieces are a little outside of the box, but it expresses what the school is about. These are conversation starters.”
Las Cruces
New Mexico State University also had money from capital outlay projects. Instead of doing commission projects, it bought from the state’s purchase program.
“Colleges are fully state funded and every building that is built with capital outlay money, 1% of that goes towards public art,” Laflamme-Childs says. “Campuses have tons of money and every once in awhile, they don’t have the time to commission pieces, so they have to buy a lot of public art at once. They did an amazing job of picking out pieces that complement the campus.”
A piece that sticks out to Laflamme-Childs is “Seed Pods,” by Jeff Zischke.
The sphere sculpture is located outside, east of the Communication Sciences Building in the McFie Circle Desert Sculpture Garden.
“I think rusty metal looks good in our landscape,” she says. “The way it works itself into the relationship of its environment is wonderful.”
Truth or Consequences
North of Las Cruces is Truth or Consequences — and home to Spaceport America.
At the entrance sits “GENESIS” by Otto Rigan which was installed in 2014.
The 11,000-pound, 40-foot-long by 5-foot deep steel sculpture is an arc facing upward. Inlaid into the metal are round glass pieces containing mirrors that represent the stars.
In 2012, he was one of the 222 artists who submitted proposals to the DCA.
Laflamme-Childs says because the sculpture is located on the roundabout near the entrance, the public can view it and is accessible.
“No. 1, it’s gorgeous,” she says. “I love the way it references space. The way it looks like it has stars in it. The complete nerd in me is excited because it has a ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ feel.”
Albuquerque
On the campus of Central New Mexico Community College sits “Growing Strength,” by Karen Yank.
Yank is no stranger to having public art displayed as she has many pieces located around Albuquerque.
“Growing Strength” is a fivepart 20-foot-tall CorTen and stainless-steel structure with aluminum seating sections, which offers an interactive experience. It was installed in 2017.
Yank designed the piece to emblemize the power of education to strengthen the bonds of individuals with their community.
Laflamme-Childs says Yank’s sculpture was one of the first projects she worked on when stepping into the public art role at New Mexico Arts.
“CNM wanted a piece what would be large scale and redefine the campus and its entrance,” she says. “They wanted people to be able to congregate around it. The piece is so organic and it’s completely what they asked for. This one is a stunner.”