New Mexico Arts News for October

October 2025 Newsletter

Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts announced. Seven New Mexico artists and contributors

Seven influential art trailblazers have been chosen by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for the 2025 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts. "Each of these artists tells a part of New Mexico's story—our Indigenous heritage, our Western traditions, our multicultural identity," Lujan Grisham said. "Together, they create a tapestry that reflects the full beauty and complexity of who we are as New Mexicans."

The governor, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, New Mexico Arts, and the New Mexico Arts Commission are proud to recognize these awardees who represent the very best in artistic achievement.

Peter “Amahl” Amaral, Musician, Albuquerque
Kevin Box, Sculptor, Cerrillos
Alden Timothy Cox, Painter, Bloomfield
Keshet Dance Company & Center for the Arts, Major Contributor to the Arts, Albuquerque
Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota), Interdisciplinary Artist, Glorieta
Nacha Mendez a.k.a. Margarita Cordero (Chihene Nde Nation) Musician, Santa Fe
Connie Voisine, Poet, Las Cruces

You are cordially invited to the 2025 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts ceremony. We hope you will join us for the ceremony on Thursday, October 16, 2025, at 5:00 pm at the St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art, followed by a short reception in the museum’s courtyard with light appetizers and sparkling cider. The events are FREE and open to the public so please bring your family and friends.

Since 1974, this special event has celebrated the rich legacy and lasting impact of the individuals and organizations who have made extraordinary contributions to the arts in our state. Learn more HERE

In Memoriam -

We mourn the recent loss of four past

Governor's Award Recipients -

Robert Redford, Mark Ian Saxe

Ken Keppler and, Cipriano Vigil.

Robert Redford

Robert Redford was the 2010 recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts for his leadership in the arts.

Mr. Redford recently passed on September 15th.

He is remembered as an actor and filmmaker, environmental and arts advocate, with an incredible impact on the film business that goes well beyond the box office. Since he founded the Sundance Institute in 1981, a large part of Redford’s life was dedicated to the support and development of emerging artists, and to the national and international exhibition of new independent cinema.

He had a strong, multifaceted connection to New Mexico, where he and his wife Sibylle Szaggars Redford lived for many years, establishing a home and a non-profit

organization dedicated to environmental causes, the "Way of the Rain". He directed the film

The Milagro Beanfield War in New Mexico in 1986 and later partnered with the

state to support minority filmmakers through the "Sundance in New Mexico" program at Los Luceros, a historic estate.

He will be greatly missed.

Mark Ian Saxe

Mark Ian Saxe was the 2023 recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts for Stone Sculptor.

Mr. Saxe's recently passed on August 14th. Northern New Mexico’s constellation of artists has lost a bright light with the passing of sculptor and stone carver Mark Ian Saxe.

Always generous in sharing his knowledge and love of stone, Mark deepened and expanded the reach of his chosen field and attracted a devoted family of stone carvers. As a sculptor, he found in stone a world where stories and emotions could unfold, a realm where the known and the mysterious could converge, and his pieces, from the small to the monolithic, contain a quiet grandeur.

Our hearts go out to his wife, Betsy Williams.

Ken Keppler

Ken Keppler, along with his wife, Jeanie McLerie as known as Bayou Seco, were the 2017 recipients of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts for Music.

Mr. Keppler recently passed. He was preceded by his wife, Jeanie.

Ken was a veteran, master fiddle maker, and accordionist. Former State Folklorist Claude Stephenson said Keppeler and McLerie were instrumental in helping to bring the old traditional Hispanic style music of such New Mexico legends as Cleofes Ortiz, a violinist from Bernal, into the mainstream of the folk music scene.

Happy trails, Ken!

Cipriano Vigil

New Mexican folklorist and musician Cipriano Vigil died recently. Vigil earned renown far and wide for his lifelong commitment to all kinds of music, and particularly to the traditional folk music of New Mexico. He died Thursday morning after a yearslong battle with cancer. He was 83 years old.

He was deemed a “Living Treasure” by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities in 1990 and awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1994. He won the New Mexico Music Commission Foundation Platinum Award in 2019 and was nominated a handful of times for the National Heritage Award for preserving traditional folk music.

Vigil was one of the state’s premiere masters of of nueva canción, which is Latin American music fused with the music of New Mexico that came to be associated with Hispano activism in the 1970s. His voice will be greatly missed.

Grants News

New Mexico Arts – Arts & Health Initiative

New Mexico Arts is facilitating collaborative approaches to developing arts-based practices that contribute to community health and individual well-being.

The Arts & Health Initiative identifies three strategic priorities: connect, convene and contribute.

Arts & Health Collaborative Planning Grant

New Mexico Arts recognizes that thoughtful planning is essential for the successful integration of arts-based practices to improve community and individual well-being. The Arts & Health Collaborative Planning Grant will empower organizations to engage in a local planning process by offering funding and technical assistance. This process should result in a written strategy document for use in future funding proposals and project implementation.

New Mexico Arts intends to fund approximately 8 organizations that impact a broad constituency within their communities. Eligible organizations that reach populations historically underserved by the arts due to ethnicity, economics, geography, or disability are encouraged to apply.

Eligibility

Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c) (3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes may apply.

Eligible applicants must:

Have received a New Mexico Arts award in FY2025. Have previously submitted complete Final Invoices and Reports by the required receipt deadline(s) for all New Mexico Arts grant(s).

Deadline: October 31, 2025, 5 pm MST

Learn more HERE

Call for Proposals for Arts & The Military Mini Grants

New Mexico Arts announces the 2026 Arts & The Military Mini Grants program. This $2,500 funding opportunity assists art organizations and veteran/service member-focused organizations to create or expand arts programming for military connected participants via a streamlined granting process.

Application process:

Final application deadline: 11/7/2025*

Award notification date is 12/2/2025

Grantee Activities to be completed January 2026 – June 2026.

*Only past mini grant recipients and 2026 advance reviewed applications will be accepted on the November 7 deadline.

Find the 2026 Arts & the Military Application and Guidelines HERE

A brief online presentation and an extended Q&A has been recorded and available for later viewing.

For more information, contact Arts & The Military Program Coordinator, Kevin Lenkner, 505-412-5791 or email kevin.lenkner@dca.nm.gov.

The Taos Abstract Artist Collective (TAAC) promotes abstract artists living and/or working in Northern New Mexico, toward the exchange of ideas, new aesthetics and creative concepts. Taos is synonymous with abstract thinking, with origins in indigenous geometries, transcendental and modernist movements, and conceptual and land art installation. Once the nexus for westward bound artists, Taos unleashes expansive, abstract thinkers.

Follow them on Instagram: @taosabstractartistcollective

2025-26 POETRY OUT LOUD updates, announcements and registration coming October 15, 2025.

For more information contact: Kevin Lenkner, POL Coordinator kevin.lenkner@dca.nm.gov

505 412-5791

Art in Public Places

Announcements & Opportunities

Public Art Placed at the

Newly Constructed UNM Critical Care Tower

by the Art in Public Places Program

Open this October, the UNM Hospital Tower, standing at 9 stories high, recently received some warmth and color by way of the Art in Public Places Program. Over 125 two and three dimensional artworks, are currently being installed on all 9 floors, and outside the building adding to the landscaping of the sprawling UNM Hospital campus. This state-of-the-art Level 1 critical care trauma center now features artwork from over 85 local and regional artists, over $1,000,000 in AIPP funds paid directly to artists and local galleries via the Art in Public Places Act.

Established by the New Mexico Legislature in 1986, the Art in Public Places (AIPP) program sets aside 1% of state capital outlay funds for the acquisition and/or commission of original visual works of art for public buildings and sites across the state. Since the program’s inception, AIPP has placed over 3,000 artworks across all 33 counties, enriching communities with innovative public art that reflects New Mexico’s cultural diversity, as well as regional and national artist excellence. The AIPP program is one of many arts and cultural services serving the creative sector as the State Arts Agency within the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Announcing the 2026 New Mexico Arts Artist Residency

at Sandia Mountain Natural History Center

Project Intent:

Each residency will take place over a six-week period in which the artist resides and works in Cedar Crest, New Mexico. Artists will have access to and are encouraged to interact with the land, culture, visitor center and the surrounding area.

The culmination of the residency centers the artist’s research and development of new work that showcases ideas and work created during their six-week stay at Sandia Mountain Natural History Center.

Public engagement opportunities include, but are not limited to an artist talk or exhibition, workshop, temporary site-specific installations, performances, etc. Artwork and community engagement should be safe and appropriate for both children and adults, ADA compliant, and should not permanently alter the environment when removed.

Submission Deadline:

Friday, October 10, 2025

Artists Notified: Late October 2025

Residency Time Frames:

March 6, 2026 – April 17, 2026 (Residency I Period) Artwork and Community Engagement Activity

April 24, 2026 – June 5, 2026 (Residency II Period) Artwork and Community Engagement Activity

Residency Stipend:

An all-inclusive stipend of $14,000, including but not limited to: gross receipts tax and all applicable state and federal taxes for the services performed, insurance, materials, shipping/mailing charges, airfare/travel, car rental, gas, contract labor and services, etc. will be awarded in the form of two payments per residency period: the first ($7,000) upon receipt of signed contract (and approved PO), the second upon completion of public engagement activity ($7,000) at the conclusion of the residency.

To apply:

Apply Here

A Skirt for Coatlicue pictured with Moira Garcia is permanently installed at the new UNM Hospital Critical Care Tower in Albuquerque.

Moira Garcia a multidisciplinary Chicana artist, educator, and native of New Mexico. She holds a BFA in Studio Arts with a focus in Printmaking from the Institute of American Indian Arts and a Master’s in Latin American Studies with concentrations in Latin American Art History and Indigenous Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her work is a visual language of symbol, color, and metaphor that references and interprets ancient visual culture and cosmologies. Moira's interest in Mesoamerican art developed during her early childhood experiences in Mexico and continues to be the primary inspiration in her practice today. Based on her study of Nahuatl language and Mesoamerican artistic praxes, she creates works that are in conversation with pre-Hispanic legacies. Her practice is a continuum of ancestral remembering— of what ceases to be dismembered, buried, and forgotten. By means of recreating aesthetic qualities, materials, design, and iconographies, she is interested in revisibilizing artistic traditions that were destroyed during colonization and remain largely unrecognized in contemporary culture.

Connect with Moira on Instagram and Facebook: @moira.garcia.art

Click HERE for information on Moira's current show

Visit Moira's Website

Artist Calls and Opportunities

The Creative Support Organization Grant is now open for applications from September 29 to October 24, 2025. This funding opportunity is designed for organizations with a proven track record of supporting creative entrepreneurs and advancing the state’s creative industries, whether through building networks, offering technical assistance, providing business incubation, or strengthening regional creative ecosystems.

Open to local governments, Nations, Tribes, Pueblos, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations, this grant offers awards of up to $62,500 to fuel continued leadership and innovation in growing New Mexico’s creative economy.

For additional info and to apply, visit this link: https://edd.newmexico.gov/business-development/cid-grants/

Apply Here

Announcing the launch of the National Arts Futures Fellowship (NAFF), a transformative leadership development program from Creative West, in partnership with South Arts, designed to empower leaders in shaping the future of arts and culture.

NAFF expands its reach to early and mid-career (up to 15 years of experience) leaders from all backgrounds while upholding its core values of care, community, democracy, wellness, and belonging. This six-month, virtual fellowship provides a unique opportunity for you to create real-world impact in your community through a personal action project.

Fellows will engage with a curriculum designed for today's challenges and opportunities, with LoCF alumni remaining central to the program as participants, coaches, and ambassadors.

If you are a leader passionate about making a difference, we encourage you to apply and join us in fostering a more inclusive and equitable future for the arts.

Applications are now open and will close at 11:59 p.m. (MDT) on Sunday, October 5, 2025.

Apply Here

Complete Guide to FREE Artist Grants and Opportunities in 2025

All the best artist grants, residencies, and open calls for 2025.

All of these calls are FREE to apply!

Click Here For More Information

Upcoming Cultural Events: