Artists decry proposed portal changes
People at public hearing on Palace of the Governors program mostly avoid addressing specific items
For nearly four hours, Native American artists who make and sell their creations on the Palace of the Governors portal spoke Tuesday against proposed changes to state rules that govern that program. They’re not the first changes proposed by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, but this set would impose tougher sanctions for criminal behavior by artists, for selling counterfeit goods or for using other than approved, traditional methods for making jewelry, pottery, leather goods and other items sold at the portal.
They also carve out specific roles for the museum director and the coordinator of the artists program.
The portal vendors carry on a tradition at the Santa Fe Plaza that goes back to the early 1900s, according to the speakers.
A public hearing, called by the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents and chaired by Regent Joe Thompson, brought 16 speakers who cited the program’s long history, their ties to previous generations of artists and a tradition of oversight of the portal program by a committee composed of the artists themselves.
However, only a few artists spoke to specific, proposed changes. Michael Gorman, chairman of the artists committee, said the committee did not receive the proposed rule changes in time to study them carefully.
“The committee is in a state of dysfunction to be really tasked with such a difficult job,” he said.
Existing rules call for the committee to approve rule changes at its annual meeting, a process Gorman said was neglected by the department in this case. In addition, more than half the active committee members could not attend the public hearing because of work or other obligations, he said. Another hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday at the Bataan Memorial Building. The regents are scheduled to vote on the proposed rule changes in May.
“We just can’t reach everyone with that short of a notice,” Gorman said. “What that amounts to, sir, is that these people then become disenfranchised of the due process that everyone’s entitled to.”
Staff from the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs entered in the record the public meeting notices published in local newspapers.
Marvin Martinez, a San Ildefonso pueblo pottery maker, objected to a wording change that specifically relieves the Department of Cultural Affairs, the department secretary, the regents and the History Museum, including the Palace, of “actions or representations made” by the portal program artists.
The proposal seemed at odds, he said, with other sections that give the museum director and the program coordinator oversight roles, including in meting out penalties for rule violations.
Martinez and Lee Allen Paquin, a member of Laguna and Zuni pueblos, objected to an increased role for the program coordinator, a job held by museum operations manager Seth McFarland. The coordinator has limited time available to devote to the portal program, usually about one day a week, Paquin said. The coordinator duties should fall to an artists committee member, he said.
“Who better to govern this program and administer this program than the vendors themselves?” Paquin said.
McFarland said he would not comment on the proposed changes until the public hearings have concluded.
The rules governing the portal program have evolved over the years; the most recent proposals came at the request of the previous program committees, he said.