Film leaders urge city to maintain Garson Studios
Mayor, councilor tell film, TV workers they are looking to draw another higher education institution to closing art school’s midtown campus
Members of Santa Fe’s film and television production community said Tuesday they fear their industry will lose momentum if the city does not commit to maintaining the Garson Studios at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design campus once the school closes next year.
City leaders, including Mayor Javier Gonzales and Councilor Mike Harris, said City Hall has no intent of losing the Garson Studios or any other arts facilities on the campus, including The Screen and the Greer Garson Theatre, regardless of what happens to the St. Michael’s Drive property the city leases to the for-profit university.
Gonzales and Harris also said the city is actively looking to draw another higher education institution to the site.
“Our primary objective is to maintain the higher education purpose of the property, especially in film and the arts,” Gonzales said in an email. “We have met with and continue to meet with interested institutions of higher education toward that goal.
“I’m confident the Garson facilities will continue to serve our community in promoting performance and film,” the mayor said.
About 60 people, many of whom work in or support the state’s film industry, gathered Tuesday at The Screen, the art house cinema at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, to explore options for how best to save the studio and other arts facilities on the campus.
“If people know the studio is closing, nobody will make a commitment to film here,” said Jon Hendry, head of the Santa Fe-based International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
union. “Why would any company want to shoot a pilot here if it’s not able to shoot the series here?”
Hendry said that while it is not up to the film industry to decide what happens with the property, which the city leases to Laureate Education Inc. for $2.2 million a year, the community should have a voice in ensuring that the city keeps the studio running to attract film and television production.
Eric Witt, who runs a joint city-county office that seeks to encourage more film and television production, said, “I think the city will keep the studio going. That’s the one thing that is a going enterprise and it is in high demand.”
Harris told those assembled at The Screen on Tuesday that the city is talking with various entities about use of the 62-acre campus, but he said that “it’s not time to talk in open conversation about who is showing up” for those discussions.
“Things are moving along,” Harris said, adding that a filmmaking component “could definitely be a part of any new higher education entity.”
But Hendry told the crowd that he is concerned that another private educational institution might take over the campus, build fences and keep the community out, which could stymie access to the arts facilities there.
Several people, many of whom identified themselves as film and theater professionals, offered some broad ideas of what to do with the campus, including building affordable housing, creating a business or arts industry hub, and initiating a filmmaking academy for women.
But no one offered concrete ideas on how to realize or finance these ideas, although Hendry said film unions could invest in an affordable housing component if it were tied to a larger film or art project.
The Netflix series Longmire is shooting at the Garson Studios but will cease production by the end of July, Hendry said.
The Santa Fe University of Art and Design operates on the site of the former College of Santa Fe, which was run by the Christian Brothers of New Mexico. That college opened the St. Michael’s Drive campus in 1947, though the Christian Brothers had started the school in 1874 as St. Michael’s College.
The College of Santa Fe faced mounting financial trouble about 10 years ago, and in 2009, the college’s board of trustees decided to close the school. The city then bought the campus for about $20 million and leased most of it to a Laureate-backed group called the Santa Fe Higher Education LLC.
In April, the art school’s leaders said that because of financial troubles and declining enrollment, they will close at the end of the 2017-18 school year. Only seniors will return in the fall to complete their degrees.