Mural at site of future Vladem Contemporary coming down

The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs is moving forward with its plan to remove an iconic mural in downtown Santa Fe that supporters have fought to save for more than a year.

Crews have placed a tarp over the mural, titled Multi-Cultural, which is painted on the side of the former Halpin Building at the corner of South Guadalupe Street and Montezuma Avenue.

“The renovation process on the east wall has begun,” Daniel Zillmann, an agency spokesman, said in an email. “On Wednesday, window insets were removed, and on Friday morning, the construction netting was put in place.”

The mural — painted by Chicano artist Gilberto Guzman and others in the 1980s — will come down as crews transform the building into the Vladem Contemporary, a museum that will showcase modern art.

Scores of residents have protested the state’s decision to demolish the mural, calling it is another example of gentrification in the city’s Railyard district.

In March, Guzman asked a federal judge to stop the state from removing the mural, but the court denied the request in part because the artist failed to show he would be irreparably harmed by the destruction of the mural.

Although Guzman’s lawsuit is still working its way through the legal system, supporters acknowledged that the mural likely will come down.

“We still have a thread of hope,” Theresa Sanchez, a liaison for Guzman, said Saturday in a telephone interview. “We believe that the artist still has some rights, but we don’t know. It has to be determined or agreed upon by the judge. So, it’s still a little on the limbo side.”

“Does it feel good for that to just be wiped out and not have a feeling that he and his associates could redo the mural? It feels kind of empty, feels kind of sad for the Santa Fe community and the cultural heritage part,” she added.

According to a news release from the Department of Cultural Affairs, the mural will be “retired as a part of the renovation, and the museum plans to acknowledge the mural and its history with a display in the interior.”