Grants awarded to Northern New Mexico organizations
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT for the Arts this week announced its first round of awards for the 2023 fiscal year, with 19 New Mexico arts organizations receiving funding — 12 of them in Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe Opera received $70,000 to support a new production of composer Antonío Dvorák’s opera “Rusalka” this summer — the first work by Dvorák to be presented at the opera. Other Santa Fe grant recipients include Indigenousways, which received $30,000 for the IndigenousWays Festival; the Santa Fe Chamber Music
Festival, which also received $30,000 for its annual festival, which will include world premiere performances from composers such as Charlotte Bray, Ryan Chase, Magnus Lindberg and Christopher Stark; and the Santa Fe Art Institute, which received $25,000 for its Changing Climate thematic artist residency program
All told, New Mexico organizations received $485,000 in funds; Santa Fe received $325,000. Nationally, the NEA awarded more than $34 million. The awards also include grants to individuals for Literature Fellowships in creative writing (poetry) and translation. In Santa Fe, poet and Institute of American Indian Arts Associate Professor Anne Haven McDonnell received $25,000.
Here in Taos, three organizations received grants: Ballet Taos Inc. received $10,000, Millicent Rogers Museum, Inc., also received $10,000 and Paseo Project was granted $35,000.
“Together, these grants show the NEA’s support nationwide for strengthening our arts and cultural ecosystems, providing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice and contributing to the health of our communities and our economy,” NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to explore these projects and the ways they help provide inspiration, understanding, and opportunities for us to live more artful lives.”
The Taos County Historical Society (TCHS) received a grant award of $2,912 from the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) for the processing, preservation and accessibility of the Corina A. Santistevan Collection.
Corina A. Santistevan (1919-2016) was a charter member of the TCHS and a seventh-generation New Mexican whose career included educator, author, researcher, archivist and preservationist. Taos’ history ran through her life as an “unending silver chain.” Her family donated to the TCHS Corina’s personal collection of manuscripts, research files, records, newspaper clippings, photographs, videotapes and books,
The NRGNHA grant provides funds to employ a University of New Mexico–Taos student intern to work with TCHS Archives and Library Committee volunteers to arrange, describe, clean and rehouse the Santistevan Collection and create a finding aid for future researchers. Taos students interested in the paid internship should send a letter of interest to the Archives and Library Committee co-chairs Paul Figueroa (paulcfigueroa@gmail.com) and Virginia Dodier (vdodier@gmail.com) by March 31.
The Taos County Historical Society incorporated by the State of New Mexico in 1962 is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to preserve Taos-area history. For additional information visit taoscountyhistoricalsociety.org. The Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area — Taos, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties — helps to sustain community languages, cultures, traditions, heritage and environment. It offers grants and technical support to non-profits in the area.