artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
Neighbors oppose opera’s housing plan
The Santa Fe Opera’s proposal to rezone and redevelop apartment buildings it owns on Camino de los Marquez has drawn neighbor opposition. Under the proposal, the 50-unit Axton Apartments would become an 83-unit complex with two three-story buildings, according to planning documents. Santa Fe Opera Executive Director Robert K. Meya tells the Santa Fe New Mexican the plan is to accommodate more of the opera’s singing and technical apprentices, given the rising housing costs in Santa Fe. During a neighborhood notification meeting earlier this week, however, neighbors reportedly mostly opposed the expansion, citing concerns about traffic, among other issues. “Adding another 33 units ... that’s basically close to another 100 people who are going to be driving in at 2 o’clock in the morning, just getting out of their cars and making a lot of noise just getting to their apartments,” one resident said during the Zoom meeting. “Traffic is also a problem. It’s too big of a development for the neighborhood.” Meya says when the apartments aren’t being used by apprentices during the opera’s season, they are rented to others in need of temporary housing, including state legislators.
Feds award millions to NM farmers
The US Department of Agriculture yesterday announced $400 million to help farmers in the West address drought and conserve water. According to a news release, at least 18 irrigation districts, including Elephant Butte, may receive funds up to $15 million. “Agricultural producers are the backbone of rural communities across the West and many of them are struggling under prolonged drought conditions,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says in a statement. “USDA is taking an ‘all hands’ approach to help address this challenge, including these new partnerships with irrigation districts to support producers. We want to scale up the tools available to keep farmers farming, while also voluntarily conserving water and expanding markets for water-saving commodities.” US Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee and co-signed a letter in April calling upon Vilsack to provide more assistance to farmers in arid states, praised the new funding. “This investment will strengthen our long-term resilience against future droughts and highlights our unwavering commitment to tackling this critical water issue,” Luján says in a statement. The USDA says it also is setting aside funds—with a target of $40 million—for Indigenous communities.
Back-to-school tax-free weekend underway
New Mexico’s back-to-school tax-free weekend kicked off at 12:01 am today and continues through Sunday. Officials say the event can save shoppers up to 8% on eligible purchases, which include clothing and shoes priced at less than $100 per unit; computers priced under $1,000; computer hardware priced under $500; and school supplies less than $30 per unit for use in standard, general-education classrooms. “New Mexico families should be getting excited about the coming school year without having to worry so much about being able to afford school supplies and clothes for their children,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says in a statement. “Doing their shopping this weekend can help with that.” Some Santa Fe Public Schools students already got a jump on gathering supplies during a give-away July 31 at Santa Fe High School. Organizers tell SFR they handed out 1,200 kits. Ruth Perez, the school district’s event and engagement specialist says the increase in supply bags proved helpful in making the event successful. She notes that last year, the district ran out of bags less than 20 minutes after opening.”This time, we haven’t really had to turn anybody away; we’ve been able to get at least some supplies to everybody,” she says.
Expanding outside
More than 68% of New Mexico’s outdoor recreation businesses expect to expand in the next three years, according to a new survey released yesterday by the state’s Outdoor Recreation Division. The survey received 105 responses from mostly small businesses—50% employ three people or less—in 21 counties; 42.3% of respondents have operated for more than 20 years. “New Mexico is poised to continue growing in the outdoor recreation sector,” Acting New Mexico Economic Development Department Secretary Mark Roper, under whose department the division lies, says in a statement. “We are pleased to see that around 70% of outdoor recreation businesses are looking to expand in the next three years and nearly 60% are marketing to individuals outside of our state.” Most of the businesses said they need help expanding marketing. Earlier this year, ORD awarded more than $873,000 in one-time federal dollars to more than 40 nonprofits for such purposes. Officials say they also intend to support for-profit businesses through programs such as the recently launched ActivatOR Outdoor Recreation Growth Accelerator, in partnership with CNM Ingenuity, run by Axie Navas, ORD’s first director when it launched in 2019. “It’s invigorating to see the caliber of New Mexico outdoor recreation businesses participating in the inaugural outdoor growth accelerator, ActivatOR,” Navas says in a statement. “From established manufacturers to start-up hospitality companies, these brands are the present and future of the state’s formidable outdoor industry.”
Listen Up
SFR’s Best of Santa Fe 2024 hit the streets (and the internet) on Wednesday, and we will be celebrating the hundreds of winners from 5 to 9 pm tonight in the Railyard. Come join us for food, music and lots of fun, including the Santa Fe Salutes: Taylor concert, which will start at 7 pm. To learn more, listen to the most recent episode of Cline’s Corner, in which SFR Culture Alex De Vore talks with host Lynn Cline about all things Best of Santa Fe (and other SFR topics).
Talking street art
Multimedia artist Thomas Vigil has been working with spray paint and stencils for as long as he can remember, including as a teenager growing up in Española when graffiti constituted his main artistic outlet. These days, Vigil—whose work was part of the 2018 Gen Next: Future So Bright exhibit at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art (now known as the Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum)—shows regularly at EVOKE Contemporary (500 S. Guadalupe) and will host a special demonstration at the gallery this weekend (1 pm Saturday, Aug. 3) titled Thomas Vigil: Santero from the Streets. SFR’s Adam Ferguson caught up with Vigil in advance to discuss his work and why he considers himself a “lowbrow” artist. “Lowbrow is more outsider art,” Vigil says. “I’ve always felt that way as an aerosol artist. When I was showing my work in the Spanish Market, people would stop and walk into my booth because what I did caught their eye, but as soon as I explained to them that my work was done with spray paint, they were almost disgusted by it and would immediately walk out. I don’t know why, but spray paint is kind of classified as this outsider or rebellious art form. But it has changed over the last decade or so with the predominance of Bansky becoming so famous and selling his artwork for millions of dollars, as well as so many other street artists.”
This and thats
The Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta (Sept. 25-29) ranked ninth in USA Today’s line-up of the country’s best wine festivals, and includes a slew of tastings, dinners and more (tickets are on sale now). AFAR magazine includes Albuquerque on its list of the six “prettiest” experiences to be had this fall (yes, apparently, fall is basically already here). That experience, of course, is the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Oct. 5-13), and tickets also are on sale for that already. The Travel, meanwhile, includes White Sands National Park on its list of national parks that are better than the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee (an oddly pointed list in our opinion). “As a completely different landscape and biome to the Great Smoky Mountains, tourists will immediately see what this park has that America’s most popular national park doesn’t,” The Travel writes. “But one of the least obvious and most surprising things that White Sands has is African oryxes.” (Actually, the National Park Service tries to keep the oryxes out of the park.) While White Sands is apparently a great alternative to the Great Smoky Mountains, RVtravel.com reports that Carlsbad Caverns National Park is the top choice in the state when it comes to where people would like to have their ashes spread, data that emerged from this kind of morbid survey by Choice Mutual insurance company.
A good day to party
The National Weather Service forecasts a partly sunny day, with a high temperature near 88 degrees and a 70% chance of precipitation, mainly after 3 pm. Saturday looks about the same, with chances for showers declining to 30% on Sunday.
Thanks for reading! The Word had already planned to link to the latest Harper’s Index, but now does so in honor of the late Lewis H Lapham. RIP.
