The News of Art
The latest on what’s happening in the arts
▼ Matt Donovan, a faculty member in thet creative writing and literature department at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, has been awarded a $50,000 grant from Creative Capital, a New York-based artist support organization, to help fund the creation of a multimedia chamber “issue” opera about violence and American gun culture called Inheritance. It is a collaborative work with visual artist Ligia Bouton, a Santa Fe resident and associate professor of art and art history at the University of New Mexico, and composer Lei Liang. Donovan is writing the libretto for the story that is anchored in the life and legacy of Sarah Winchester, heir to the gun-manufacturing fortune, and Bouton is in charge of costumes, staging, and production visuals. Winchester lived in a labyrinthine mansion (pictured above) that Donovan is interpreting as a metaphor for the United States’ relationship to guns. Donovan is the author of two books of poetry, Vellum (Mariner, 2007), and Ten Burnt Lakes (Tupelo Press, 2017), and a book of lyric essays, A Cloud of Unusual Size and Shape: Meditations on Ruin and Redemption (Trinity University Press, April 2016). His work has appeared in numerous journals and he is the recipient of several grants and awards, including a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Lannan Writing Residency Fellowship. The group’s initial application for Inheritance was selected for full proposal by curators and art professionals from among 2,500 applicants. After a competitive process of panel review, 46 projects were ultimately funded by Creative Capital.
▼ The Southwest Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA), the organization that produces Santa Fe Indian Market, has appointed its executive committee and board members for 2016. Elizabeth Pettus, the new board chair, previously served as treasurer of the SWAIA board, and she is also on the board of the Santa Fe Downtown Merchants’ Association. Lloyd Skip Sayer, chief of sales and marketing at Laguna Development Corporation, was named treasurer, and Dominique Toya ( Jemez Pueblo) is the board secretary. Roger Fragua ( Jemez Pueblo) remains vice chair of the board; Rosalie Chavez (Navajo) and Andrew Masiel (Pechanga Band) were inducted as new members. SWAIA has also hired a new public relations and marketing director, Amanda Crocker. Crocker, a native New Mexican, worked for 11 years as director of programs and marketing at El Rancho de las Golondrinas Living History Museum.