A fresh approach
Founders of Currents International New Media Festival take space to attract a new crowd
Founders of Currents International New Media Festival open a gallery on Canyon Road
WHEN: Tonight, 5-8 p.m. WHERE: 826 Canyon Road
Eight-twenty-six Canyon Road has become a very visual representation of old meets new. The adobe building at the end of the famous arts street, said to have been built in the early 1920s, has served in many roles over the years. According to Frank Ragano, it was once the home of former Mayor Javier Gonzales’ grandmother. It later became an obstetrician’s office. Then, like most buildings around it, transitioned into gallery use.
Now, it’s a home for new media and digital arts. Mariannah Amster, co-operator of the new Currents 826 art space, said she and her husband Ragano have long liked the concept of bringing these genres of currentday art into old adobe settings, where the walls themselves are “sculptural” and represent a sort of handmade creation.
When Currents 826 opens tonight, it will be exhibiting video, animation and virtual reality installations. One of the rooms will also be covered with large, multicolored sculptures made using a 3D pen.
“We want it to be a combination of an exhibit gallery space and an experience space,” Amster said.
Amster and Ragano are known as the co-founders of Currents International New Media Festival, the annual showcase held in Santa Fe’s Railyard. The festival, which attracts thousands of visitors every summer, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019. Ragano described the gallery as a chance to have a “root” somewhere yearround .
They hope the exhibition space will benefit the festival by
providing not only an ongoing presence for the Currents idea, but also their own place to finally work with festival staff. Ragano also says he thinks the space could introduce a different audience to the world of new media arts, a medium he says isn’t shown and sold many places around Santa Fe.
“On Canyon Road, it’s going to be very interesting,” he said. “We’re going to be exposing a whole new crowd, basically. People who like Currents, they’ll come, too. But it’ll be a whole new crowd, like in the summer, going ‘What is that?’”
Canyon Road’s galleries are mostly known for showcasing traditional arts, with the exception of the Thoma Foundation’s Art House down the road on Delgado Street, Ragano noted. Art House showcases the foundation’s collection of digital and electronic art. “We’re bookending Canyon Road,” he said.
This is the first gallery space Amster and Ragano have ever operated. The artists will running Canyon 826 on top of their day jobs and yearlong preparation for the festival. Ragano is a contractor and Amster manages a downtown boutique.
Years ago, Amster said, the two dreamed of opening some sort of “video or digital center” where they could host small installations and let guests come watch archival video.
But they ended up founding the Currents festival and it has since taken on a life of its own, Ragano said. “We’d always been looking” for a space, he explained, but it wasn’t something they could ever afford.
One of their donors, who owns the 826 building, is letting them use it rent free. Ragano said “everyone who knows this building knows who owns it,” but Amster said the owner doesn’t want to be identified.
Ragano and Amster are responsible for all operating expenses, such as maintenance and staffing. They are likely guaranteed the space for the next year or two, but “it’s going to depend on whether we can actually make it,” he said.
“Because we can’t really afford to be pulling money from the festival to support this. So this is an experiment. But I think its going to be a successful experiment.”
The June festival will still be held at El Museo Cultural in the Railyard as usual, but Ragano and Amster hope to have concurrent shows and workshops going on at the new space. They may also transfer some installations from the festival to Canyon Road after the show is over so visitors can spend more time with them, Amster said.
She added that because 826 is a smaller, more intimate setting, it likely won’t house the large projection pieces people often see at their annual festival. Instead, she said its a chance to show smaller-scale, “quieter” works that would be overwhelmed in a space like El Museo.
“What we’re hoping to do is create this little root so people can go from Currents, one of our partners is form & concept, so they can go there, too, they can go to Art House, they can come here,” said Ragano. “A little trail of people.”
The couple hopes to have rotating shows every couple of months. The first show, which opens tonight and will stay up until early March, includes a variety of local and out-of-town artists. There will be two video pieces from local artist Christine Remy; Denverbased artist Jodi Stuart’s Slinky-like installations made with the 3D pen, a device similar to a glue gun that releases plastic filament; a series of digitally manipulated photographs from John Ressler of Palm Springs, Calif.; and a V.R. installation from Seattle’s Reilly Donovan, along with other pieces.
The 2,200-square-foot room has about five separate exhibition spaces available, something Amster said allows each section to have a “feeling” of its own. Aside from installations, Currents 826 has a conference area which staff can use or other groups can rent. There’s also has a small library, which is now full of art books from Zane Bennett Contemporary Art. Ragano and Amster hope to soon complete their archive of artist catalogues and video files from former festival artists, all of which will available for visitors to view.
Near the gallery entrance is a gift shop. Items for sale include small souvenirs like 3D-printed jewelry or “infinity” puzzles — a jigsaw-like puzzle with no set solution — as well as postcards made for past Currents festivals.
In collaboration with MAKE Santa Fe, the gift shop will also have a 3D printer. For a fee, visitors can select from a file of small, pre-designed objects and print them on-site.
Income from the shop, as well as any art sales, after the cut given to the artist, will go toward maintenance or staffing costs and, if anything is left over, to putting on the festival.
“We just hope it’s a success in the sense (that) we can help support artists, help support the space and help support Currents eventually,” said Ragano. “And expose a whole other variety of people to this kind of work.”
Currents 826’s winter hours are Thursday-Saturday, 12-5 p.m.