What is art in a pandemic?
SINCE MARCH 2020 at TCA, we have been asking ourselves what is an art center in a time like this? How can we serve our communities with closed doors, with masks and distance, in changing times? What is art in a pandemic? We have understood that art in a pandemic is as important as it is other times. It is a solace; it generates. Art is also naturally connected to the humanities.
Last summer, TCA received a National Endowment for the Humanities CARES grant in Digital Humanities. TCA Conversations: Tuning into Humanities from Taos, New Mexico, funded projects from August through December 2020. The grant supported weekly programs: TCA Radio Hour on KNCE 93.5FM, and “Where We Meet” on Zoom.
I want to share something about these projects, which were born and flourished when many of us were home, separated from others.
“Where We Meet” focused sometimes on history: Pride in New Mexico or the New Deal’s Federal Community Art Center Project in New Mexico. A conversation with curators of “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists,” launched at Minneapolis Institute of Art, asked who curates and why? And it highlighted central roles of knowledgeholders and history-carriers as curators. Our talk with Zoeglossia, a nonprofit for writers with disabilities, looked at poetry and performance in terms of access. These are some examples of the 20 events TCA produced during the grant period.
TCA Radio Hour focused on philosophy and land-based learning, folklore and food-pathways, place and history, immigration and trauma in literary contexts, public libraries in times of crisis, circus arts and activism, woodcarving and the Santos tradition. The program’s guests were apiculturists, librarians, garlic farmers, photographers, horse trainers, artists and writers. TCA explored the intersection of daily lives and the humanities to show how bees and honey, farming and cooking, writing and adobe-making relate to larger questions of how we make meaning in the world.
The grant sustained these TCA projects and created new positions, too. Recording and editing the radio show from our houses (sometimes dogs snoring alongside), we worked to reach others.
We talked with those near: Angelo and Jacquelene McHorse, Nic Knight, Ginger Gaffney, Mandy Stapleford, Anita Otilia Rodriguez, Catherine Horsey, Melanie Kirby, Dr. Lilly-Marie Blecher, Zac Bigbee, Stanley Crawford. And we connected to institutions: New Mexico Highlands University, SOMOS, Roswell Museum and Art Center, Twirl, and others. Thanks to this grant we strengthened relationships with The Paseo Project, with Taos Chamber Music Group, and most notably with Taos’ local radio station, KNCE 93.5 FM, which allowed us to continue making the radio show through these times.
But why humanities when we are a center for the arts?
Because within arts, there are always histories, too. And around history, we might dive into hard questions. We can study scholarship and criticism or have conversations about art forms that widen the power of and access to art. This project deepened the links for TCA between performance and people, singular voices and cultural knowledge, and between the realms of images, myths and languages.
After the virtual event featuring Teju Cole, longtime supporters of TCA wrote to me about the conversation: “We don’t know where to begin because from start to finish it touched on so many points that mean so much to us, from aspects of creativity to the challenges we all face in a time of isolation when we yearn to hear wise voices from other rooms. We were so encouraged when Teju [Cole] spoke about following the threads of creative ideas rather than always trying to ‘catch up’ on news and opinion. What matters is the human spirit and how it can be nurtured to manifest its best self toward humankind.”
Messages like this encourage us to keep exploring the connections between art that is created and enjoyed and, beyond this, art about which more might always be learned.
During the pandemic-quiet when Paseo del Pueblo Sur had the fewest cars on it, TCA was making radio shows and hosting virtual programs from our living rooms. The sound of a weedeater interrupted from someone else’s garden. The sometimes-helicopter carried one to safety. A black cat crossed the keyboard or lounged on a deskcalendar. Someone’s nearby kitchen renovation sounded with a hammer.
We are mindful of the time during which these projects emerged; we love that they allowed for closeness to an audience during distance. We look forward to continuing this work in changing times.
TCA Conversations: Tuning into the Humanities from Taos, New Mexico has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at