November 2026 Newsletter

Creativity is not optional.

Vote for the Arts.

For too long, the arts have been treated as a luxury. But the reality is that art, culture, and creativity are inextricably linked to thriving communities and a healthy democracy. Creative expression is powerful, but voting is how we protect it. This election season, everyone who values the impact of the arts needs to show up and make your voices heard at the ballot box.

Find New Mexico Voter Information HERE

10 Reasons to Support the Arts in 2026

2026 CONGRESSIONAL ARTS REPORT CARD

The 2026 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts ceremony took place on Thursday, October 15, 2026

Nine arts luminaries were presented the 2026 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts:

Adrian Aguirre, Visual Artist – Las Cruces
Anne Hillerman, Author – Los Cerrillos
Bill Barrett, Sculptor – Santa Fe
Carol Anthony, Visual Artist – Santa Fe
Delbert Anderson (Diné), Musician – Kirtland
Eli Levin, Painter – Dixon
Sam Scott, Painter, – Santa Fe
Andrew Connors, Major Contributor– Albuquerque
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Major Contributor

– Santa Fe

Watch the Awardee Videos HERE

New Mexico Arts Funding Grants News

Funding Opportunity for Arts Organizations Is Open Now

The New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, FY28 funding cycle for returning organizations is open.

The Grants Program offers funding to organizations for arts activities including exhibitions, publications, screenings, lectures, or performances in New Mexico. The program is intended to deliver on our mission of public support for the arts to ensure the arts are central to the lives of all New Mexicans. Funded Programs should have a public presentation component that takes place beginning July 1, 2027.

The FY28 application for returning organizations must be submitted online by the published deadline of 11:59 PM MT December 18, 2026.

New Mexico Arts funds nearly 200 organizations annual offering about $1 million in funding or arts programs taking place around the state. Federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, units of government, schools, colleges, universities, and Indian tribal government entities with offices in New Mexico are eligible to apply.

Submit an application HERE

If you missed one of The Application Q & A Sessions, the slide deck is available HERE.

For more information, contact New Mexico Arts at 505-827-6490, or email Anna Blyth, Grants Program Director, at anna.blyth@dca.nm.gov.

All new applicants were required to submit an Advance Review Application. If the applicant was declared ineligible or did not receive funding in the past year or has not applied to New Mexico Arts in the past two years, the Advance Review Deadline has passed.

Call for Panelists!

New Mexico Arts is seeking individuals interested in serving as grant application review panelists for our FY28 Annual grant cycle.

Panelists play a vital role in New Mexico Arts' work to provide support to nonprofit & government entities and other organizations offering a broad range of arts programs statewide.

What We’re Looking For:

• Artists, arts professionals, community members, and others actively involved in and/or trained in the arts.

• Individuals with expertise in one or more artistic disciplines (performing, visual, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary arts, traditional arts, economic development, or arts education) or administration.

• Panelists are selected for their artistic or administrative experience representing a range of artistic genres as well as geographic reach.

What to Expect:

• Panelists will review and score eligible applications online based on panel evaluation criteria for their assigned category (Spring 2027).

• Panelists will attend a virtual orientation.

• Panelists receive a panelist fee.

How to submit:

Fill out the online interest form HERE

FY27 Arts & The Military

Grants Program is Open

New Mexico Arts completed a four-year milestone, delivering 40 mini-grants to organizations expanding current programming, piloting new initiatives or building organizational capacity to serve military connected audiences.

In FY27, the Arts & The Military program will support five organizations ready to optimize their efforts for deeper programmatic impact and sustainability through an expanded $5,000 grant award.

The Optimization Grants will build on collaborations with partners that have a demonstrated history of military community service or a proven track record in arts-based community engagement.

Eligibility

Applicants must be New Mexico nonprofit organizations, units of government, or Indian tribal government entities. Eligible applicants must:

• Have received an Arts & The Military Mini Grant years FY23-26 or received a New Mexico Arts award in FY26.

• Have previously submitted complete NMA Final Invoices and Reports by the required receipt deadline(s).

Learn more HERE

Application Deadline: November 6, 2026, 5 pm MST.

For questions or technical assistance, contact Arts & The Military Coordinator, Kevin Lenkner at 505-412-5791 or via email kevin.lenkner@dca.nm.gov.

2026-27 registration for the Poetry Out Loud:

National Recitation Contest

is open.

The deadline to register your school or organization is

Friday, December 4, 2026.

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country.

The updated and expanded 2027 Anthology includes classic and contemporary poems.

Poetry Out Loud is presented by National Endowment for the Arts and New Mexico Arts, a division New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

The program starts in the classroom/school or at the local level with an area organization. Winners then advance to the state competition, and ultimately to the national finals.

The State Finals event will be held on Sunday March 7, 2027.

State & National Prizes: Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip (with an adult chaperone) to Washington, DC, to compete at the National Finals. The state winner’s school/organization receives $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. The first runner-up in each state receives $100, with $200 for their school/organization. At the national finals, a total of $50,000 in awards and school/organizational stipends are awarded.

For more information visit our website: HERE

For additional information and Homeschool students please contact Kevin Lenkner, kevin.lenkner@dca.nm.gov or at (505) 412-5791.

Pictured: 2026 National Semi Finalist: Hadas Frish, La Cueva HS Albuquerque

ANNOUNCING! > 2027 Poetry Ourselves New Mexico is a statewide original poetry competition for students in grades 9-12.

This is a FREE opportunity for students to share their written poetry.

Students are encouraged to submit one original poem, typed and no longer than 50 lines. Poems may focus on any topic, but students should remember that winning entries may be presented to the public. This creative writing competition does not require a performance or recitation.

The following awards will be made at the Judge’s discretion; (1) Award of Creative Excellence, (3-5) Awards of Creative Merit. Award recipients will receive Poetry Ourselves award certificates, recognition at Poetry Out Loud State Finals event on Sunday, March 7, 2027.

Poetry Ourselves New Mexico compliments the New Mexico Poetry Out Loud recitation program enhancing opportunities for students to study and perform masterworks of poetry.

NO COST TO SUBMIT. One poem only - make it your best!

Online submission of poem and entry form are due 5:00 pm (MT) on Monday January 25, 2027.

For more information visit our website: HERE

or contact Kevin.lenkner@dca.nm.gov

The Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program is Open and is Accepting Applications!

The Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program provides support to master traditional artists to pass on their knowledge to dedicated apprentices one-on-one. Apprenticeships are a face-to-face, hands-on learning opportunity for a master artist and apprentice to work together for up to a year.

Grant guidelines for the program are available HERE.

All applications are due Friday, January 15, 2027, at 11:59 PM.

Learn more about the Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program & Apply HERE

or contact Amy.Mills@dca.nm.gov

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s programs and services are deeply rooted in their mission to inspire and engage audiences of all ages with the legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century. Visitors can experience O’Keeffe’s art up close in their galleries, gaining insight into her creative process and the profound influence of New Mexico on her work. Beyond their Santa Fe campus, which includes the Museum and Library, they preserve and protect O’Keeffe’s historic homes and studios in Abiquiú and at Ghost Ranch, offering unique opportunities to explore her life and artistic vision. Monthly Family Days provide free admission on the second Sunday of the month from 10 am to 3 pm, offering fun and engaging experiences developed with local teaching artists and partners like the Santa Fe Children's Museum.

Learn more about The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum HERE

Georgia O’Keeffe & Sam Scott features 99 watercolors on paper by contemporary painter and 2026 Governor's Awardee for Excellence in the Arts, Sam Scott, presented in dialogue with work by Georgia O’Keeffe. Gifted to the O’Keeffe Museum in 2023, Scott’s watercolors draw inspiration from the high-desert landscapes of New Mexico that also captivated O’Keeffe. Nine abstract works by O’Keeffe, selected collaboratively by Scott and Museum curators, are displayed alongside Scott’s watercolors, creating a conversation across time and medium between the two artists. Georgia O’Keeffe & Sam Scott continues the Museum’s tradition of placing contemporary artists in dialogue with O’Keeffe’s work.

Sam Scott was the first living painter to be given a one-person show by New Mexico Museum of Art in 1974. This institution also presented a 30-year retrospective of Scott’s work in 1997-1998 entitled, “Sam Scott, an American Voice.” In the following two years, 1999–2000, Scott was honored to represent the western United States as attaché for the resumption of cultural relations with the republic of Vietnam.

Learn more about Sam Scott HERE

Watch Sam Scott's 2026 Governor's Award for Excellence video HERE

Get tickets to the Georgia O’Keeffe & Sam Scott Installation HERE

Marco A. Oviedo II

Marco Antonio (Tony) Oviedo II was raised as a woodworker and santero in beautiful Northern New Mexico. He started woodworking in his father’s shop at a young age and went on to begin sculpting and casting in bronze in his family’s foundry in 1990.

He is a storyteller and mythologist. Tony strives to bring stories to life by making precious objects. Through narrative sculpture, he explores myth, transformation, and catharsis. He has taken the crafting of devotion deeply to heart and aims to create artifacts out of bronze that bring the spirit of goddesses, saints and heroes into life.

Tony casts all of his sculptures himself in his family's bronze foundry, where he's been pouring bronze since he was a child. The legacy of bronze casting is close to his heart, and through his work, he hopes to impart this tradition to you.

Follow Marco A. Oviedo II @oviedobronze

Marco A. Oviedo II

Corvid Convention, 2023

Bronze, edition 12/25

72 x 72 x 72 inches

Installed at Sandia Mountain Natural History Center

A new sculpture, “Offering to Dook’o’oosłiid” was just installed by LanceYazzie at UNM Gallup Campus

Lance Yazzie (Navajo)

Offering to Dook’o’oosłiid, 2024

Indiana limestone

84 x 40 x 18 inches

Zollinger Library at the University of New Mexico - Gallup, 705 Gurley Avenue, Gallup, NM 87301

Dook'o'oosłííd refers to the San Francisco Peaks (north of Flagstaff, Arizona) a volcanic mountain range which means "the summit which never melts" or "the mountain which peak never thaws” and is one of the four sacred mountains for Diné.

Follow Lance Yazzie @lanceyazzie007

Artist Calls & Opportunities

Call for ABQ Area Artists: SawMural! Mini-Mural Festival

The Public Art Urban Enhancement Division invites greater Albuquerque area (this includes Sandoval, Bernalillo, Torrance, and Valencia counties) artists to apply for consideration to create a mural for the inaugural year of the SawMural! Mini-Mural Festival.

Up to twenty (20) artists will be selected to create temporary mini-murals for the first year of the SawMural! Mini-Mural Festival in 2027. A stipend of $4,000 will be given to each selected artist or artist team. A 48-inch by 72-inch panel will be provided to artists whose works will then be framed in a city-owned outdoor exhibition display. The frames will be installed along the Rail Trail corridor (highlighted in red) and be on view May-August 2027.

Deadline: Friday, November 13, 2026, by 11:59 pm, online via CaFÉ

Learn more & apply HERE

Announcing the Open Call for Artist Submissions for Southwest Contemporary Vol. 15: Fire

In Southwest Contemporary Volume 15, they will engage with fire’s twin roles as a creator and destroyer—a quintessential change agent in the human story.

Southwest Contemporary invites artists throughout the Southwest to submit work for consideration by guest juror Apsara DiQuinzio, chief curator at the Nevada Museum of Art.

Selected artists will be featured in print, online, and through their newsletter and social media channels.

To learn more about the open call, the theme, and the submission process, attend a free virtual info session with our editorial team on Thursday, November 5, at 12 pm MST.

Learn more and apply HERE

The deadline to submit is Tuesday, November 17.

Disaster Preparedness & Relief for

Artists & Arts Organizations

Disasters and emergencies are the largest threat to the careers of artists and the livelihood of arts organizations across the country. Yet, addressing these issues often falls to the bottom of the to-do list when skies are blue, and danger is out of sight. In a field driven by passion and creativity, who wants to dwell on the “what ifs” of potential disasters?

But as devastating weather-related events become increasingly common, the arts community can no longer afford to ignore the importance of disaster preparedness. This is about more than preserving artwork; it’s about protecting the future of artists’ livelihoods and ensuring that organizations can bounce back from adversity. Are you or your organization prepared to handle a devastating emergency if it came your way?

Check our website for Disaster Preparedness Resources HERE

Find 139 New Mexico Grants for Disaster Relief: Aid & Recovery in New Mexico, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Roswell - GrantWatch HERE

There are two openings on the Santa Fe County Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy (ACCE) Council–one for a resident from Santa Fe County Commission District 3 and another for a resident from District 4. The new members will be selected to ensure the Council reflects a wide range of expertise and experience in broadly recognized areas of arts, culture, and creative economy, including membership in established arts and culture endeavors, and professional practice as an artist from a broad range of disciplines.

Council members must reside within the boundaries of the County, outside the City of Santa Fe limits. You can find your County District using the Santa Fe County Commissioner District Map.

Learn More HERE

2027 Festival Grants Opportunity

Applications for Levitt Family Foundation 2027 Festival Grants open October 1, 2026, for grants of up to $5,000 for U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits presenting free outdoor festivals in 2027!

To be eligible for funding, festivals must take place outdoors in a public space, be free to attend, and feature programming with music and performances by professional musicians who are compensated.

Applications are due Friday, November 20, 2026.

Learn more about this grant opportunity HERE