VEGAS RUN
Public art pieces at New Mexico Highlands University add to the aesthetic of campus
Las Vegas, N.M., is a place that is familiar and quaint.
With its Old West and railroad town feel to it, the town — just two hours north of Albuquerque — embraces changing culture in art.
One area that is rapidly adding to its overall look is the campus of New Mexico Highlands University.
According to Michelle LaflammeChilds, executive director of New Mexico Arts, the institution invested heavily the last two years in acquiring various art sculptures.
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 nonprofit organizations statewide and to administer the 1% public art program for the state of New Mexico.
“Like many of the colleges, the construction is fully state funded,” Laflamme-Childs explains. “Highlands accumulated money over the years with various construction projects. One percent of the funds used to build is set aside for public art.”
Laflamme-Childs says the pieces at Highlands are significant and add to the overall aesthetic of the campus. The majority of the new ones were installed from 2018-19.
While there are plenty of public pieces to see on campus, she picked five that catch her eye. Take a trip down National Avenue in Las Vegas to see the majority of the pieces. She says it would also make a great road trip to northern New Mexico.
1. “Flying Peace” by Kevin Box is located at the Lora Shields Building on campus.
The piece is made of outdoor stainless steel and stone sculpture and stands about six-feet tall.
“It’s a very pretty origami bird, which is balanced on the tip of the wing,” she says.
Laflamme-Childs says Box has
pieces of public art located around New Mexico.
She finds this one interesting because he sticks to his aesthetic of celebrating the delicacy of paper in museum quality bronze.
“This one is the most recognizable on campus,” she says. “The juxtaposition of the delicate and the strong. He uses a combination of wax and contemporary casting techniques that he’s developed.”
2. “Hummingbirds” by Scot Ferguson is also located at the Lora Shields Building on the NMHU campus.
It is a kinetic sculpture, which means Ferguson designed it with the intention of it being moved by the wind.
“A lot of his work is built like this,” Laflamme-Childs says. “He says he’s been surrounded by art and the creative process all his life. What’s been frustrating is that he’s often been told, ‘Don’t Touch’ while visiting museums. He likes to make work that you can interact with and touch. It moves and the visitor develops a more personal relationship.”
Laflamme-Childs says there’s a Ferguson piece at the Bernalillo Public Library, which is also a stellar piece.
“It was made originally to hang from the ceiling,” she explains. “They decided to put it outside and we commissioned him to do a steel piece to hang it from. It’s really neat to see.”
3. At Rodgers Hall, Stephen Shachtman’s “Monolith Series” resides.
The outdoor corten steel sculptures utilize light to add another dimension to the pieces. Each piece is made of copper, glass and steel, and stand about 12-feet tall.
Laflamme-Childs says Schachtman’s work circulates with influences from science and architecture.
“In this body of work, he is thinking of the presence of monolithic forms,” she says. “The play between space and then the activated surrounding space is phenomenal. To me, when I look at them, they have this mid-century, modern feel. Like the way people in the 1950s and ’60s imagined how the future would look. It’s intriguing to see the pieces close up because there are intricacies to them.”
4. Peter Mangan’s “Thunderbirds” is made of outdoor galvanized steel, glass and brass.
It is installed at the northwest steps student center/residence halls.
The contract for the sculpture was signed in June 2018 and was installed by December 2018.
Laflamme-Childs says Mangan thinks about the concept of inside/outside with this piece.
“An example is how you can see the silhouette of the exterior. Then it hints at the life within,” she says. “I like the way the glass sort of sparkles when the sun hits them. This is a very iconic piece. The solid strength of the metal is a contrast to the delicacy of the glass.”
5. Tamara Robertson’s “Do You See What I See” is located at the Joe and Martha McCaffrey Historic Trolley Building.
It is the only one of the five mentioned not on National Avenue.
Robertson built the spheric structure out of steel and it stands 78 inches tall.
“There is something about circular images that feel very endless and infinite,” Laflamme-Childs says. “Like Mangan, it has that same sense of interior/exterior. I like how it sits in nature. At first glance, it looks like something a wild animal would have built out of sticks.”