artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
County residents balk over cannabis permit
Santa Fe County’s approval for LRA Growers’ cannabis permit has sparked a neighborhood dispute in San Marcos and highlights procedural conflicts between the county’s community plan and zoning rules. The county’s Growth Management Department in April approved a permit for LRA Growers to begin outdoor cannabis cultivation on 10.22 acres in the area. Neighbors want the county to rescind that permission, citing a slow-roll on a process for them to update what’s known as community district overlay zones to account for cannabis operations. Commissioners held a hearing July 11 on the issue and plan to discuss it again at the end of the month. “This is not a case of the San Marcos Planning District Committee jumping up now and saying we want to enact some kind of regulations concerning cannabis,” San Marcos Association President Dennis Kurtz testified during a public hearing. “We have been in limbo. We feel like granting these applications and even considering them when we haven’t had a chance to fulfill our legal obligations is not really fair.” San Marcos is not the only community district on the waiting list for a plan update, according to District 5 County Commissioner Hank Hughes. “Both the 285 Corridor and San Marcos are wanting to update their plans,” Hughes says. “I guess the trouble is we don’t have enough staff to do all of these quickly.”
Immigrant rights lawsuit against CoreCivic resolved
A lawsuit contending guards employed by CoreCivic at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia pepper-sprayed asylum-seekers from Cuba andGuatemala has been resolved, according to the ACLU of New Mexico, which represented the nine asylum seekers and Santa Fe Dreamers Project. An ACLU spokesperson confirmed to SFR the lawsuit was resolved for an unspecified amount of money; CoreCivic CoreCivic denies all allegations of wrongdoing and asserts that facility staff acted reasonably under the circumstances. Those circumstances date to an incident in May 2020 when guards at the facility “allegedly deployed pepper spray without justification to break up a peaceful hunger strike. The strike was in protest of the facility’s lack of adequate precautions against COVID-19, dismal living conditions, and the withholding of status updates on their immigration cases,” a news release announcing the settlement reads. The Santa Fe Dreamers Project, ACLU of New Mexico and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, which also represented the plaintiffs, along with Montgomery & Andrews, P.A. have called for closure of the facility. “Asylum seekers come to our country looking for safety and humanity,” Santa Fe Dreamers Project Legal Director Deshawnda Chaparro said in a statement. “Instead, they are incarcerated. While in detention, asylum seekers are perpetually mistreated and are kept in the dark about their rights and the legal process they are subjected to in order to petition for asylum. The incidents leading to this lawsuit are a prime example of why immigration detention is not how we should treat immigrants or asylum seekers. We look forward to the day when all detention centers are closed.”
PRC announces planning sessions
The reconstituted Public Regulation Commission has embarked on a series of planning sessions to “establish a clear long-term vision for the agency,” the agency announced yesterday. Following voter approval in 2020, the PRC changed from a five-person elected body to a three-person appointed regulatory one—the latest in a history of changes for the state’s regulatory agency. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed the first three commissioners in January, although one subsequently resigned and was replaced following criticisms that he lacked the required educational qualifications for the position. The forthcoming virtual planning sessions, a news release says, will be geared at drafting “strategic goals related to the agency’s mission, vision and values” for fiscal years 2025-2027. “It’s exciting to embark on charting the course for the next three years at the NMPRC, ensuring that this agency continues its important work as regulators for the people of New Mexico,” Commission Chair Pat O’Connell said in a statement. “I’m especially looking forward to updating the agency’s mission, vision and values and establishing a set of well thought out goals with strong input from our leadership team, staff, and shareholders.” Commissioners held the first session yesterday and will hold the next four on Aug. 8, 23, 31 and Sept. 27. All will be available to watch via the PRC’s YouTube channel.
Back-to-school tax-free weekend commences
Students return to classes in Santa Fe Public Schools on Aug 15, which means back-to-school shopping starts…right about now. This weekend marks New Mexico’s Back-to-School Tax-Free Weekend, during which businesses can opt to deduct the sales of various merchandise made between 12:01 am today through midnight on Sunday, Aug. 6. Doing so allows businesses to sell qualifying merchandise tax-free. For shoppers, this translates to savings of 8% or more on qualifying merchandise, which include: clothing and shoes priced at less than $100 per unit; computers priced under $1,000; related computer hardware priced under $500; and school supplies under $30 per unit (find a complete list here). “I want the focus for New Mexico families to be on the excitement of the upcoming school year—not on worrying about which school supplies they can afford,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement announcing the tax-free weekend. According to a news release, the Taxation and Revenue Department estimates shoppers save about $5 million annually due to the tax-free holiday weekend. “This is a great opportunity for New Mexicans to save some money on clothes and other things they need for their families as children are heading back to school,” Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke said in a statement.
Listen up
All five operas for the Santa Fe Opera’s 2023 season have now opened, with several weeks left (through Aug. 26) to catch them (you can catch our thoughts on Orfeo, which opened last Saturday, here). To go behind the scenes, be sure to check out 95.5 FM Classical Public Radio’s interviews with this season’s singers, including a recent discussion with bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee, who sings the title role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman this season, and was Kurwenal in last season’s Tristan und Isolde. KHFM’s on-air hosts also conducted recent interviews with baritone Reginald Smith Jr., who made his Santa Fe Opera debut this season as Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca; and tenor Rolando Villazón, who sings the title role in Monteverdi’s Orfeo.
Fa-fa-fa-fa fashion
Last week, this newsletter noted that Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which produces Santa Fe Indian Market (Aug. 19-20), had launched a dedicated website for its acclaimed Indigenous fashion show. Now SWAIA has announced it intends to launch the first Indigenous Fashion Week next year in Santa Fe: May 2-5, 2024 (by the way, Forbes magazine recently deemed Santa Fe Indian Market the “world’s greatest art fair”). According to a news release, the four-day event will include a fashion symposia, a soirée and runway days showcasing the talent of Indigenous designers across North America, “while featuring artists who merge the boundaries between art, design and fashion.” Specific artists have not yet been announced (you can check out this year’s designers here, although the Aug. 20 fashion show has already sold out; tickets remain, however, for the gala on Aug. 19). “SWAIA’s Indigenous Fashion Show began in 2014 with no budget, a U-Haul to transport models to the outside runway location and a DJ with a microphone,” curator and art historian, Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation) says in a statement about next year’s fashion week. “To have the support of both SWAIA and the City of Santa Fe is immense. We plan to create the fashion hub for and to represent the diversity of Indigenous designers from the United States and Canada on a national platform.” Also on the fashion beat: Women’s Wear Daily highlights Meow Wolf’s new ‘80s-inspired track suits. Where might one wear such a get-up? “These tracksuits are perfect for journeys through crystal cloud caves, carnivorous caverns, or the cytoplasm infrastructure of microorganisms,” the company said in a statement.
NM announces arts award recipients
Speaking of fashion, fashion designer Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) is one of the recipients of the 2023 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, announced yesterday. Michaels appeared in season 11 of Project Runway in 2012, and received the prestigious Arts and Design Award from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian board of directors in New York City in 2014. Albuquerque-based musician, composer and artist Raven Chacon (Diné), also received the governor’s award, and received the Pulitzer Prize in music last year. Other recipients of this year’s governor’s award include Galisteo artist, writer and teacher Judy Tuwaletstiwa; Dixon stone sculptor Mark Ian Saxe; Belen visual artist Paula Castillo; and author J.C. Cervantes from Las Cruces. Judy and Ray Dewey from Albuquerque, along with Jim Harris from Hobbs received awards as contributors to the arts. This is the 49th year for the awards, which are bestowed by the governor in conjunction with the state Department of Cultural Affairs, New Mexico Arts and the New Mexico Arts Commission. “This year’s recipients come from every corner of the state, showcasing the immense possibilities of the arts across New Mexico,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “These artists are musicians, authors, sculptors and designers who push the boundaries of telling stories about the state and their lives through art. I am proud to recognize and show off such talent to the rest of the world.”
Warmed over
The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day with a high temperature near 91 degrees and north wind 5 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon, with weekend conditions just about the same.
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