Oo-Oo-Nah Art & Cultural Cennter receives $80k via Mark Maggioori painting
Water leaking from the roof, rotten wood, and broken circuits; the building was in disrepair and, they would later discover, the breaker box wasn't even grounded.
For one of the most important art and cultural centers in Taos, and one of the few on Taos Pueblo tribal grounds, the Oo-Oo-Nah Art & Cultural Center was in dire straits. With no government or tribal funding, the center relies completely on grant, donation and fundraised money.
But then an 8x10 painting by Mark Maggiori lent an $80,000 dollar helping hand.
The story starts further back, as Lyle Wright, a board member of Oo-Oo-Nah, often poses for Mark Maggiori, a French painter skilled in dreamy, photorealistic captures of the Southwestern spirit. With board approval, Wright and Maggiori decided to create a painting for auction, with proceeds going directly to the center.
As the yellow aspens were already spent, they organized a shoot near the gorge. Ashley Rolshoven from Parsons Gallery of the West provided the horses and Chris Ferguson from Tres Estrellas Design fashioned the model's blankets and serapes.
Of these shoots came "Taos Fall," featuring three blanketed men on horseback, heading towards the mountain, beginning to descend from view. Once completed, "Taos Fall" was entered into Maggiori's March 2023 show and auction at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The show, titled "Beyond the Golden Skies," turned out to be groundbreaking on multiple levels, for both Maggiori's career and the Oo-Oo-Nah center. The artist had guessed the painting might fetch $5,000 or so, but as the night went on and bids reached higher and higher, that was clearly not the case.
"He stood up and made a speech about the center, how much we need help, and what we do together," remembered Wright. "Then the bid went up, and it kept going up."
"Taos Fall" sold for a staggering $80,000. The check, made out to the OoOo-Nah Center, was an anchor in a time of struggle.
"I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say. I just kept thinking of me and him standing out at the gorge, him painting. Doing our usual thing," said Wright. "It's not the only shoot we've done, we've done so many. There's so many people that brought us together."
The donation was quickly put into action. The roof, stucco and parapets were repaired, electrical issues fixed, and the center will soon receive a fresh coat of paint. And, perhaps most importantly, the hard workers who keep the center running have been given raises. Veronica Martinez, Viola Romero and Darilynn McClure have sometimes worked for free, channeling the center's limited funds toward operational expenses and bills.
Oo-Oo-Nah provides the Taos Pueblo community the gift of traditional and contemporary arts to children, young adults and senior citizens through its programming. Being that the center is an incubator for community and the future arts of Taos, it feels full circle that an art piece from an accomplished artist would buoy them in hard times.
About Oo-Oo-Nah Art & Cultural Center
Meaning "Any Child" in Tiwa, OoOo-Nah has supported the Taos Pueblo community for over 35 years. Opened in 1985, Oo-Oo-Nah hosts summer camps, workshops and classes and even serves as a community center for bingo and craft sales.
The center will reopen for 2024 programming in April. After completing these renovations, Oo-Oo-Nah can now operate closer to its full potential. Already they have plans for a project focused on preserving the Taos Pueblo language and history.
"We are going to concentrate on the elders. We are going to get teenagers, who are willing to come in after school, to interview these elders and preserve their stories, in their language. Their language isn't written so for each generation to learn the language it has to be spoken to them," said Darilynn McClure, the current administrative assistant, who began as a volunteer in 2013.
"There's a good portion that borders on two generations who were taken to boarding schools, and a lot of those people lost their language," said McClure. "And that was a thing Marie was really passionate about, getting the language back." Marie Reyna, former executive director of the center, worked there since 1985 and passed away in 2022.
Through no shortage of hard work, the center continues to persevere, setting a strong example for the generations to come.
"I want to see this place here 20, 30 years from now. Even if I'm not here," said McClure. "I want the kids to have a safe space to go."