Democracy for New Mexico

Senator Udall Announces $275,000 in NEA Grants for NM Arts

Today U.S. Senator Tom Udall announced that New Mexico will receive $275,000 in matching grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The first major round of FY 2013 grants will help support nine music, theater and visual arts projects around the state.

“The arts are an important part of New Mexico’s culture, tradition and tourism economy,” said Udall. “These grants will provide valuable support for projects that both inspire and enrich our lives and make New Mexico a first-class destination for the arts.”

In this round of grants, the NEA will award over $23 million, including over $2 million in arts education projects. In total, more than 830 organizations in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico will receive funding.

Udall is a member of the Senate Cultural Caucus, which works to support the arts and humanities in Congress. The NEA was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent federal agency.

Projects receiving grants are:
Albuquerque:
$10,000 – NewArt New Mexico, Inc. to support JOURNEYS/Global Dance Fest.
$22,500 - Outpost Productions, Inc. to support the 8th annual New Mexico Jazz Festival.
$35,000 – Working Classroom, Inc. to support Multicultural Street Conservatory.
$35,000 - University of New Mexico Main Campus to support print making residencies for Native Americans and Australian Aborigines at the Tamarind Institute in NM, and Northern Editions in Darwin, Australia.
Angel Fire:
$20,000 – Music at Angel Fire, Inc. to support Music from Angel Fire’s 30th Anniversary Chamber Music Festival.
Santa Fe:
$30,000 – Parallel Studios Inc. to support currents 2013.
$42,500 – Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Ltd. to support the 41st annual Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
$60,000 – Santa Fe Opera to support a new production of Oscar.
$20,000 – Southwestern Association for Indian Arts to support the Santa Fe Indian Market.

"Citizen's United" - by Hakim Bellamy

Happy Birthday Occupy. You’ve changed me. Now, let’s change our country.

Citizen’s United – by hakim bellamy

If we kidnapped
THEIR children They would find us

If we put guns
In the hands of those young
They would tag them
“Child soldiers”

But here
We prefer to leave them
Clinically depressed
And decorate them in marine

There is a name
For people who will take
The very bread
Off of our dinner table
And put it in their pocket

They are toast
Like champagne flutes
Are the new silvers spoon

Like what they will be
When the revolutions
And the riots
Catch up with them

Tomorrow morning
When humanity
Has the munchies
And eats presidential candidates
For breakfast

When their war chest
Can fill the holes
In our country’s
Debt, deficit & addiction

But.
They’d rather
Raise money
To argue about it
Than raise sleeves
To fix it

Politicians are NOT people too,
Mitt LOOK AT YOU!

And they’re not Jesus either, Barrack
If you remember
He ran the moneychangers out of the temple
Not into his cabinet

If you remember
He was Guantanamo’s blueprint

He was no popularity contestant
He had no friend in the Pharaoh, Pharisees or FED
He told them
Where they could shove
Their opinion poll
And they hung him from it

Back in the day
When Romans used to lynch Jews
With perpendicular sticks

And you remember
They make sure you do

Cause from the dome of the United States Capitol
To the Pantheon bars of the White House
Boy,
They gon’ make sure that you know
Where Black people are supposed to live

Corinthian columns
At the halls of Congress
With no reparations
Or apologies

Depicting corn cobs
To symbolize
Our stolen bounty

Tobacco leaves
To symbolize
Our stolen “Help”

Our stolen wealth

If you remember
He did not run for office
He ran for his life

What ever happened?
To public servants
Instead of self-serving

When did it stop
Being about “We the People”

And start
Being about winning

When did the Catholic’s
Social doctrine
And the athiest’s
Social justice
Both translate to
“Go to Hell”?

Why do we wait for them?
For education
And elections

And then wonder
Why we won’t teach us
To elect ourselves

What if
Every lawn’s
Campaign sign
Read “Peace”

What if
On November 6th
We’d agree

To agree

What if
I were to say
I’ll only believe
In a government
That believes
In me

What if the citizens
Were really united
And each one of us
Decided

That I’d vote for me.

© Hakim Bellamy September 17th, 2012
For Rasheed and for Occupy
Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, New Mexico (2012-2014)

Spend it like Water Art Exhibit and panel discussion at SBCC

Liquid Currency 2012: Spend it like Water an Art Exhibit and Dialogue about our most essential resource.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM- features the work of 15 artists and opens a dialogue about our most essential resource. Begin the exploration into our relationship with water; the costs associated with how we use and abuse it, and how we can conserve it in our coming crisis. Featuring work by: Jane Abrams, Sally Condon, Barbara Grothus, Becky Holtzman, Joseph Lambert, Mary Lambert, Stephanie Lerma, Suzanne Marshall, David Ondrik, Valerie Roybal, Carol Sanchez, Janet Shagam, Marilyn Stablein, Harriette Tsosie, Jennifer A. Zona.

A led by Amigos Bravos will take place on August 18th from 1-4 PM at the South Broadway Cultural Center as well.

Gallery hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and during evening events held at South Broadway. Entry to the Gallery is always free.

South Broadway Cultural Center is managed by the Cultural Services Department, City of Albuquerque, Richard J. Berry, Mayor. The facility is a multi-cultural, visual, performing and literary art center that promotes, preserves and educates the community about the cultures and ethnicities that define Albuquerque. Located at 1025 Broadway SE, the unique architecture and colorful design of the building’s exterior is an attraction in the area. SBCC shares the facility with the South Broadway Library and collaborates with the library on a number of events and activities. There is free parking immediately adjacent to the facility. 

Luján Announces 2012 Congressional Art Competition for High School Students

Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District announced details today for this year’s Congressional Art Competition. This annual competition allows members of Congress to display the talent and creativity of their high school constituents. The winning entry from each Congressional district will be displayed as part of an exhibit in the United States Capitol for one year. The winner will travel to Washington, D.C. for a reception honoring the national winners.

“The Congressional Art Competition gives New Mexico’s young and aspiring artists an opportunity to showcase their talents and have their artwork on display in the halls of Congress,” Congressman Luján said. “New Mexico has a rich artistic tradition and it is exciting to see the next generation of artists who will build upon that legacy. I wish all of the contestants the best of luck and look forward to seeing their works of art.”

The competition is open to all high school students within the Third Congressional District of New Mexico. All entries must be submitted to Luján’s Santa Fe district office by Friday, April 20, 2012 at 5 p.m. The winner will be announced at a reception on Saturday, April 28.

Follow this link for the 2012 3rd Congressional District of New Mexico General Guidelines for Students.

Steve Klinger Guest Blog: New Independent Newspaper 'The Light of New Mexico' Seeks to Illuminate Inconvenient Truths

This is a guest blog by Steve Klinger, a long-time journalist and editor of the Grassroots Press, on the recent launch of a new, independent print and online newspaper called The Light of New Mexico. Steve will be editing the paper, which will initially be published monthly. The first print issue of The Light of New Mexico hit the streets of Santa Fe on September 15, with a cover story on "The Politics of H2O: Who Controls Your Water?" It's also available for download as a pdf by clicking here.

The newspaper, published by Skip Whitson, will focus on "Illuminating Inconvenient Truths," and will be covering "Conscious Culture, including Politics, Reviews, Books and Entertainment." The Light of New Mexico is designed to serve as a progressive, alternative source of ideas, information and a networking nexus for north-central New Mexico and beyond, providing a newspaper, a blog and a community resource.

According to the paper's Mission Statement, "Our focuses include state and local politics, peace/nonviolence, environment, civil liberties, foreign policy, social justice, global awareness, fair trade, localism and sustainability, as well as an abiding appreciation for music and art as a force for change. We maintain a commitment to outreach, education, and peaceful dialogues to safeguard democracy and raise consciousness within our communities.

“It is the role of a newspaperman to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” –-Chicago journalist Finley Peter Dunne

Connecting the Dots
There are those who think the print newspaper is in its death throes and others who think words of any kind are just useless spitballs hurled by naïve optimists into the maelstrom of a crumbling democracy and a planet hurtling toward disaster.

Among the dwindling minority who are still willing or able to commit words to the printed page, even fewer are doing anything like real journalism, as the money behind the surviving mainstream media is too busy advancing the corporate agenda, promoting the so-called balance of false equivalents, or in some cases hacking the phones of crime victims in the race to pander to the lowest common subscriber denominator.

We won’t be doing things that way, and we thought you’d like to know.

I feel privileged to be associated with The Light of New Mexico, a new, independent monthly newspaper based in Santa Fe that will take a higher road in attempting, as our tagline states, to illuminate inconvenient truths. We considered numerous titles for our new publication, and various slogans as well, with a common theme of shedding light on the issues of the day: political corruption, connecting the dots between manmade climate change, gridlocked government, skyrocketing corporate influence in campaigns and legislation, and the threats to democracy our republic is facing on every level. 

As I have done before in my nearly 40 years of newspaper work in New Mexico, most recently with Grassroots Press, I’ll be looking for stories that illustrate the realities ordinary people are facing in their daily lives, hoping to educate our readers and ourselves on the forces that are shaping our future in a downsizing and endangered nation. I’ll be exploring the ways in which the forces of greed and self-interest are attempting to hijack public policy. I’ll be featuring commentary from journalists, authors and experts on the critical times we face, plus a mix of pertinent syndicated material and open pages for you, our readers to fill, with your comments and unique perspectives on everything from politics to the arts.

Without deep pockets or any corporate support, we’ll also be relying on you to help us grow with your display advertising and your donations, as well as your feedback and suggestions.

Santa Fe is a remarkable place, with a rich history of cultural alchemy, a place that tolerates and elevates diversity, eclecticism and artistic expression. One of the oldest capital cities in North America, it arose on the site of far older Pueblos, a product of European colonialism and an often bloody clash of cultures -- Native American, Hispanic, Anglo -- and has been endlessly reinventing itself for better and worse ever since. These days, it’s a world-class destination, but also a place called home for nearly 70,000 folks, including some of the most talented and successful individuals on the planet, and the organizations they’ve brought with them. These include a vital emerging community of locavore, sustainable, nonprofit endeavors. Santa Fe also holds but a fraction of the population of the state of New Mexico that is our larger home, a coverage area into which we hope to expand as The Light of New Mexico grows; we hope to serve it with dedication and distinction.

Most of all, we hope you’ll read our words and help us write them. We hope to prove worthy of your interest and support. Obviously, we believe in the power of words to educate human beings and change history. We also think that time is growing short to do that under the umbrella of a free press in a besieged democracy. That’s why we feel our work is important, especially in a time when ever more of us are feeling afflicted, and those with the money and power are growing ever more comfortable.

This is a guest blog by Steve Klinger, who can be reached at Steve@thelightofnewmexico.com.

If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the page.

8/27: Preview in Downtown Albuquerque of 'One Million Bones' - Evoking Atrocities Abroad

Click image for larger b&w version

Genocides in Africa, child soldiers and political torture in Burma. For millions, such violence and turmoil endure, even today. But an ambitious social art project aims to visualize such tragedies for Americans with the goal of provocation.

One Million Bones brings together people of all ages with artists and activists to create clay bones symbolic of our common humanity, each representing one person’s awareness of recent and ongoing human atrocities, and his or her voice calling for action.

“We can only ignore the silent plight of millions if we continue pretending it’s not our problem or we can’t do anything about it,” said founder Naomi Natale. “One Million Bones provides a direct action that replaces ignorance with knowledge and hopelessness with a sense of purpose. It speaks to our common humanity, and our responsibility to each other.

In 2013, the bones collected from participants around the U.S. will be assembled in a ‘mass grave’ on the National Mall in Washington, DC, a collaborative site of conscience demanding decisive U.S. action.

But on August 27, 2011, One Million Bones will present a 50,000 Bones Preview installation at its headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Preview will feature a choreographed performance laying 50,000 clay bones in the streets of Downtown Albuquerque, as well as national speakers. It will take place at 10:00 AM at the intersection of Central and 4th Street in downtown Albuquerque.

Imagine a busy city block bustling with people. From an alley silent, white-clad volunteers appear carrying armfuls of white handmade ceramic bones. They lay the bones in the center of the street and disappear, even as another volunteer appears carrying more bones. Over the course of the day the pile expands outward to fill the entire block. Imagine the sight of 50,000 bones laid bare for the world to see. Imagine the power of that vision.

In Sudan, over the course of their twenty-two year civil war, two million people have been killed and 5.6 million displaced. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there have been 5.4 million deaths since 1996 and 900,000 people displaced since January 2009. Children make up 47 percent of the fatalities. Rape is a weapon of war, and has become commonplace. In Burma, there are currently 2,200 political prisoners who are being tortured using brutal methods. The Burmese army recruits children as young as nine years old for their forces.

“There continues to be so much devastation in Sudan, Congo and Burma, and yet there have been a few hopeful signs,” said Susan McAllister, Project Manager. “Even the smallest glimmer for the possibility of change requires a redoubling of efforts to support activists who address these and other atrocities. One Million Bones brings the voices of thousands to bear in support of this vital work.”

To learn more or get involved, please visit www.onemillionbones.org.

8/18: Free 'Night Over Taos' Presentation at National Hispanic Cultural Center

From :
Night Over Taos: A Theatrical and Historical Journey from the Taos Revolt to Statehood is a performance/reading of a historical drama about a key period of New Mexico history, a panel discussion by distinguished historians about the play and its historical implications, and a special Centennial Broadcast of play and panel on KUNM during Centennial Week. It has been designed collaboratively by four of New Mexico’s most respected cultural organizations -- Teatro Nuevo Mexico, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Camino Real Productions, LLC, and KUNM, the public radio station in Central and Northern New Mexico.

Together they will produce a radio adaption of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Maxwell Anderson’s 1932 historical drama Night Over Taos, set in Taos in 1847. They will present and record it before a live audience at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Thursday, August 18th, at 7:00 PM in the Bank of America Theatre at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Free, ticketed event. Call the NHCC Box Office at (505) 724-4771 for reservations. Update: No reserved tickets will be available. Instead, tickets will be available the day of the show starting at 6:00 PM at the venue.

After the performance, a panel of distinguished New Mexico historians -- Dr. Rick Hendricks, the NM State Historian; Dr. Laura Gomez, author of Manifest Destinies; and Dr. Brian Herrera, UNM theatre historian -- will address questions raised by the play and discuss New Mexico’s journey from defeat in the Battle for Taos in 1847 to statehood fifty-five years later.

During fall, 2011, the post-production work will be done in preparation for the radio presentation. Then on January 8, 2012 from 6:00-8:30 PM, the radio production of the play and the panel discussion will be featured in a special Centennial broadcast over KUNM and its affiliated stations throughout the state, as well as streamed live on the internet.

Tonight: Marching Band Art Education Rally in Santa Fe With Teach 4 Amerika

Now this sounds intriguing. New York-based artist group The Bruce High Quality Foundation (BHQF) will continue their national Teach 4 Amerika tour with a public rally on Wednesday, April 20, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, located at 1600 Saint Michaels Drive in Santa Fe.

Inspired by the spectacle and energy of a political rally and featuring a multimedia presentation by BHQF -- with balloons, t-shirts, and music from a local marching band -- the event is the next in a series of rallies and conversations that call for a rethinking of the current art education system. Teach 4 Amerika is a five-week, 11-city, coast-to-coast road trip, presented by Creative Time, that will cross state lines and institutional boundaries to inspire and enable local art students to define the future of their own educational experience.

Traveling the byways of America in a limousine painted as a school bus, BHQF will visit university art departments, art schools, art institutions and alternative spaces across the nation. The national tour, which began in New York on March 29 with a kickoff rally at the Cooper Union, will continue through May 2 with a combination of dynamic public rallies and intimate conversations hosted by local partners in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis/St Paul, Detroit, Denver, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland.

ABOUT THE BRUCE HIGH QUALITY FOUNDATION
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, the official arbiter of the estate of Bruce High Quality, is dedicated to the preservation of the legacy of the late social sculptor, Bruce High Quality. In the spirit of the life and work of Bruce High Quality, we aspire to invest the experience of public space with wonder, to resurrect art history from the bowels of despair, and to impregnate the institutions of art with the joy of man’s desiring.

ABOUT CREATIVE TIME
Since 1974, Creative Time has presented the most innovative art in the public realm. The New York-based nonprofit has worked with over 2,000 artists to produce more than 335 groundbreaking public art projects that have ignited the public's imagination, explored ideas that shape society, and engaged millions of people around the globe.

4/22: Rivers and Birds Hosts Eco Film Night on Earth Day in Taos

From Rivers and Birds:
Come and join us for an Earth Day evening of film. On Friday, April 22, at 7:00 PM at the Harwood Museum Theater in Arroyo Seco, we will  feature the renowned documentary, "River and Tides: Working With Time."

Landscape sculptor Andy Goldsworthy is renowned throughout the world for his work in ice, stone, leaves, wood. His own remarkable still photographs are Goldsworthy's way of talking about his often ephemeral works, of fixing them in time. Now with this deeply moving film, shot in four countries and across four seasons, and the first major film he has allowed to be made, the elusive element of time adheres to his sculpture.

Tickets are $10/adult, $8/Harwood Member, $5/youth under 12. Purchase your tickets through the Harwood Museum: 758-9826. Learn more here.

11/30: NM Film Office Cosponsors Special Evening to Commemorate American Indian Heritage Month

Lisa Strout, Director of the New Mexico Film Office, has announced the NMFO is joining with the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture to sponsor an evening of activities to commemorate American Indian Heritage Month. The events will take place from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM on Tuesday, November 30, at the museum, which is located at 710 Camino Lejo, on Museum Hill in Santa Fe.  Click for driving directions to the museum.

“This will be an entertaining, educational, and memorable evening and a wonderful celebration of Native American culture,” said Lisa Strout.

The evening includes a tour of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture’s exhibit Here, Now, and Always, and includes a screening of the film Miss Navajo from acclaimed Navajo filmmaker Billy Luther.  

About the Exhibition: MIAC’s exhibition Here, Now and Always tells the story of the Southwest’s oldest communities. From elder to younger, each generation has taught the next: we are here now, and we will be here always. Here, Now, and Always is a major exhibition based on eight years of collaboration among Native American elders, artists, scholars, teachers, writers and museum professionals. The voices of fifty Native Americans guide visitors through the Southwest's indigenous communities and their challenging landscapes. More than 1,300 artifacts from the Museum's collections are displayed and accompanied by poetry, story, song and scholarly discussion. For more information, see:  www.facebook.com/IndianArtsCulture.

About the Film: From World of Wonder Productions and filmmaker Billy Luther, whose own mother was crowned Miss Navajo 1966, the film reveals the inner beauty of the young women who compete in this celebration of womanhood. Not only must contestants exhibit poise and grace as those in typical pageants, they must also answer tough questions in Navajo and demonstrate proficiency in skills essential to daily tribal life: fry-bread making, rug weaving, and sheep butchering.

The film follows the path of twenty-one year-old Crystal Frazier, a not-so-fluent Navajo speaker and self-professed introvert, as she undertakes the challenges of the pageant. It is through Crystal's quiet perseverance that we see the strength and power of Navajo womanhood revealed. No matter who takes the crown, this is a journey that will change her life.

Interspersed with pageant activities are interviews with former Miss Navajos, whose cheerful recollections of past pageants break the tension the current contestants are undergoing.  Their memories provide a glimpse into the varying roles Miss Navajo is called upon to perform: role model, teacher, advisor and Goodwill Ambassador to the community and the world at large. For more than fifty years, Miss Navajo Nation has celebrated women and their traditional values, language and inner beauty. 

As winners of the pageant, women are challenged to take on greater responsibility, becoming community leaders fluent in the Navajo language and knowledgeable about their culture and history. The film reveals the importance of cultural preservation, the role of women in continuing dying traditions and the surprising role that a beauty pageant can play.  For more information, see https://www.missnavajomovie.com.

Sen. Tom Udall Announces Arts Grants for New Mexico

U.S. Senator Tom Udall recently announced that several arts organizations in New Mexico will receive a total of $40,000 in matching grants to support the creation and presentation of artistically excellent works to the public. Previously, he had announced $232,500 in similar matching grants for New Mexico organizations.

These grants are funded through the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the Challenge America Fast-Track grant program.

“The arts and humanities are not only engrained in our state’s culture, they are also a central driver of our economy and primary source of income for many families,” said Udall, a member of the Senate Cultural Caucus. “These matching grants will enrich New Mexicans’ lives by extending access to traditionally underserved populations.”

The National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Fast-Track grants are awarded to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations. This round of awards includes 170 grants to organizations in 42 states. These grants generate, on average, $7 from non-federal sources for each dollar awarded.

A complete list of projects is included below:

• $10,000 to Sawmill Community Land Trust in Albuquerque to support the Carneul Road Parade and Fiesta, featuring a performance by the theater company Wise Fool New Mexico
• $10,000 to Mimbres Region Arts Council, Inc., in Silver City to support the Youth Mural Program, through which youth are paired with professional artists to create murals expressing the culture and history of the Grant County region
• $10,000 to New Mexico Literary Arts in Santa Fe to support the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project
• $10,000 to Taos Center for the Arts to support the Youth Mosaic and Mural Project under the direction of artists George Chacon and Katie Woodall

Two weeks ago, Udall announced $232,500 in matching grants to support the creation and presentation of artistically excellent works to the public for New Mexico organizations:

• $30,000 to 516 ARTS in Albuquerque to support the exhibition, Latina/o Visual Imaginary: Intersection of Word & Image
• $15,000 to AMP Concerts in Albuquerque to support the Globalquerque! Festival
• $10,000 to NewArt New Mexico, Inc. in Albuquerque to support Global DanceFest 2011
• $10,000 to Opera Southwest in Albuquerque to support the production of Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) by Giachino Rossini
• $12,500 to Outpost Productions, Inc. in Albuquerque to support the 5th Annual Creative Soundspace Festival
• $10,000 to Central Consolidated School District #22 in Kirtland to support the Naturally Native series at the Phil L. Thomas Performing Arts Center
• $10,000 to Lensic Performing Arts Center Corporation in Santa Fe to support the 11th annual Nuestra Musica festival
• $20,000 to Museum of New Mexico Foundation in Santa Fe to support the touring exhibition, From Function to Fine Art: Native American Baskets
• $25,000 to Music at Angel Fire, Inc. to support music from Angel Fire's 28th anniversary Chamber Music Festival
• $40,000 to Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival to support the 39th annual Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
• $50,000 to Santa Fe Opera to support a new production of Antonio Vivaldi's opera Griselda

Governor Bill Richardson and Robert Redford Announce “Milagro at Los Luceros” Initiative

Mr. Redford has written an open letter to the people of New Mexico. Click to read it (pdf).

Click for a description of Milagro at Los Luceros 2010-2011 Programming (pdf).

This is fabulous news for Native American and Hispanic filmmakers, writers and actors, as well as New Mexico's artistic community generally, and all New Mexicans. Governor Bill Richardson and acclaimed filmmaker and environmental advocate Robert Redford today announced the details of a unique collaboration called “Milagro at Los Luceros.” Programs will begin this spring and will include a series of labs, workshops, and discussions. The focus will be on creating and expanding training programs in film, arts, and the environment.

“It’s extraordinary for a person the caliber of Robert Redford to collaborate with state government to create a new kind of initiative that will address film and film arts as they relate to jobs and jobs training,” said Governor Richardson in a statement released today. “It’s a great gift from Robert Redford to the state of New Mexico.”

“I have always wanted to explore new ways to enable underrepresented voices -- Native American and Hispanic in particular -- to tell their own stories in their own ways on their own turf,” said Mr. Redford. “I also believe in arts as an economic driver, and I look forward to helping a new generation of storytellers prove that with me and with the state of New Mexico.”

Today’s announcement is the next step in a process which began last May, when the Governor and Mr. Redford first announced the project which will be headquartered at historic Los Luceros in Northern New Mexico.

The collaboration includes Mr. Redford, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New Mexico Film Office, which is part of the state’s Economic Development Department.

The name “Milagro at Los Luceros” refers to “The Milagro Beanfield War,” the 1988 film directed by Mr. Redford and shot on location in Truchas, New Mexico.

Los Luceros lies northeast of the town of Alcalde, New Mexico, and was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1983. The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs purchased and operates the 148-acre property and is preserving its historic nature and integrity for the purpose of cultural, artistic, environmental, and educational activities.