City panel approves transfer of library

A city committee Monday approved the transfer of a research library compiled by art historian Beaumont Newhall to the New Mexico Museum of Art.

The Finance Committee voted 3-0 without discussion to approve a resolution calling on municipal officials to negotiate the deal, which involves about 3,500 books and catalogs on photography, tapes of lectures by Newhall and photos.

Newhall, who died in Santa Fe in 1993, gave the collection to the College of Santa Fe. The city government bought the college’s 60-acre midtown campus, including the Newhall library, in 2009 as the school faltered. The city then leased the campus to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, but that school is set to close next year.

While city leaders hope to keep the campus operating as an educational institution, its future remains uncertain.

The state museum’s boosters have said the Newhall collection would complement its library.

Museum administrators have said they hope to ultimately house the collection at the Halpin Building, a state building in the Railyard area that the museum wants to renovate and open as an exhibition space for contemporary art.

In the short-term, however, the collection would reside in the basement of the Museum of Art, which is adjacent to the Plaza.

Some have questioned the transfer to the museum, arguing the library would be better used at The University of New Mexico.

City Councilor Mike Harris, a co-sponsor of the transfer resolution, said the city intends to only loan the collection for now to the Museum of Art. The city will not make a decision about the collection’s permanent home until it has a plan for the old College of Santa Fe campus, he added.

The resolution goes next to the Santa Fe Arts Commission, an advisory committee to the City Council, which is expected to take up the proposal when it meets Monday.