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Friday December 10th 2010 Bulletin, Las Cruces article and interview with George Mendoza and David Boje on AM570 (Bulletin Hour) Thursday December 9th 2010
In-state artists out for NMSU arts center art
No New Mexicans win recent state art awards
By Todd G. Dickson
Las Cruces Bulletin
Of the finalists announced for a state funded $276,800 art award for the New Mexico State University Center for the Arts, now under construction, not one is from New Mexico.
The money comes from a state law requiring that 1 percent of the construction budget for state-funded buildings or renovations worth more than $200,000 be spent for public art at the building, usually in the form of an outdoor sculpture.
Coming on the heels of a similar controversy in which there were no New Mexico artists among the finalists for art at NMSU’s O’Donnell Hall, NMSU business professor David Boje – who specializes in marketing artists and art organizations – looked into the trend and found that the NMSU selections are not uncommon.
Boje looked at 21 recent projects throughout New Mexico worth a total of more than $2 million in awards. In many cases, the projects are open to any U.S. artist, but some are restricted to artists from this region of the United States and some are just for New Mexico artists.
Of seven projects in which award winners or finalists have been announced for awards open to any U.S. artist or an artist from this region, there are no artists from New Mexico. The other projects include $28,600 for San Juan Regional Medical Center’s Healing Garden going to a Denver artist, $70,000 for the Eastern New Mexico University Science Building to a Minneapolis artist, $54,300 for ENMU’s Ruidoso Branch Community College going to a Pueblo, Colo., artist; $142,355 for San Juan College’s Outdoor Learning Center going to an Oakland, Calif., artist; and $77,390 for the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired going to a New York artist.
The award for O’Donnell Hall is $170,900, won by Connecticut artist Tim Prentice.
SeeArt on page A12
The NMSU Center of the Arts finalists are: Ed Carpenter of Portland, Ore.; Michio Ihara of Concord, Mass.; Ray King of Philadelphia; Albert Paley of Rochester, N.Y.; and Meg Saligman of Philadelphia.
“This is a slap in the face of New Mexico artists, period,” said George Mendoza, an artist from Las Cruces whose artwork has been internationally recognized.
Boje has written to Ben Owen, public art project coordinator of the state arts agency under the Department of Cultural Affairs, to seek more information about the status of the other recent public arts proposals and for possible answers about why thiskeeps happening. In both NMSU cases, the finalist selections were made by committees made up of NMSU faculty and community members. Other projects have selection committees of similar makeup, but out-of-state artists keep getting selected unless the solicitation is restricted to in-state artists. More than 30 qualified New Mexico artists applied for the two NMSU projects, Mendoza and Boje noted.
Boje became aware of the issue through his class’ work with Mendoza. For both NMSU art awards, Boje’s class helped Mendoza submit his application and proposal.
Like almost every part of the current economy, New Mexico artists are struggling to survive, Boje said. Winning these awards would not only help these artists keep their studios and galleries open, but they would showcase the state’s art diversity and heritage, he said.
How does it help New Mexico attract visitors to appreciate its unique art and culture if the art that graces major public buildingare by artists from elsewhere? Boje asked. “Why not make them phenomenal examples of what this state can produce?” he said. “People don’t come here for a cosmopolitan experience.”
Although the design of NMSU’s Center for the Arts has Southwest influences, the style influence of most of the art finalists is primarily industrial, Mendoza said.
With artists consistently picked whose work doesn’t reflect the area, Mendoza said he believes the process is somehow skewed to seek out-of-state artists, especially in light of the statewide trend that Boje has found.
“I’m amazed,” Mendoza said. “I’m not an activist, just an artist. I don’t know the driving force behind it. … This seems so chronic. I want to know what’s their motivation. It’s not like we don’t have the talent.”
Boje said he’s also at a loss to explain the phenomena at this point. “Maybe it’s like that saying, ‘You’re never a messiah in your own land,’” he said.
Boje said the purpose of his letter to Owen is to find more and better data because transparent accountability for the 1-percent spending is lacking.
Ruben Smith, former Las Cruces mayor and former state representative who was one of the original co-sponsors of the 1-percent-for-art legislation passed in 1986, said he is bothered by the trend of awards to out-of-state artists.
That concern didn’t come up with the original legislation, he said, but whether the program would add to the cost of construction budgets. Some states with similar laws, such as California, restrict all awards to in-state artists and Smith said that perhaps the original legislation should have required the awards to go only to in-state artists.
“We have incredible artists in the state of New Mexico,” Smith said. “We should be doing everything we can to nurture them.”
We have incredible artists in the state of New Mexico. We should be doing everything we can to nurture them.
RUBEN SMITH, former state lawmaker
Artist George Mendoza stands next to one of his paintings at his Las Cruceshome. Mendoza is concerned that no New Mexican artists were finalists for building art at New Mexico State University’s new O’Donnell Hall nor its Center for the Arts, which is now under construction.
Las Cruces Bulletin photo by Todd Dickson
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