artdirector@sfreporter.com
COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 788 new COVID-19 cases (that’s a 46% decrease from last Friday’s single-day case numbers, although Tuesday’s reporting tends to be lower following the three-day counts on Monday), bringing the statewide total so far to 332,975; DOH has designated 284,484 of those cases as recovered. Bernalillo County had 263 new cases, followed by Doña Ana County with 104 and Sandoval County with 61. Santa Fe County had 15 new cases. The seven-day statewide test positivity rate remains at 10.6%, above the 7.5% target.
The state also announced seven recent deaths; there have been 5,491 fatalities statewide. As of yesterday, 666 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 56 more than the day prior.
Currently, 87.3% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 75.1% are fully vaccinated. Among that demographic, 29.2% have had a booster shot. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 65.5% of people have had at least one dose and 56.3% are fully inoculated. Among children ages 5-11, 22.4% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 10.4% are fully vaccinated. In Santa Fe County, 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 85% are fully vaccinated.
The City of Santa Fe will be hosting Moderna vaccinations for people ages 16 and older between 10 am and 3 pm on the remaining Thursdays in December—Dec. 16, 23 and 30—at the Public Safety Building on the Midtown campus (adjacent to the Greer Garson Theater). Anyone who received an initial vaccination with either Moderna, Pfizer or J & J can receive a Moderna booster. Walk-ups are allowed, but registering on the DOH website recommended. Bring a vaccination card and photo ID. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds must be accompanied by a parent or guardian or have a signed consent form (available on the DOH website).
Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase, Deputy Health Secretary Dr. Laura Parajón and state Epidemiologist Dr. Christine Ross will provide a COVID-19 update at 2 pm today on the DOH Facebook page, and with Spanish translation on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s YouTube page.
New Mexicans can register for a COVID-19 vaccine here, schedule a COVID-19 vaccine booster here and view a public calendar for vaccine availability here. Parents can add dependents to their vaccine profiles here. You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
State Senate approves federal spending plan
State senators yesterday approved a plan on a 36-4 vote to allocate $478 million in federal relief dollars toward New Mexico’s roads, airports and state parks. HB2 now returns to the House, which had approved the original bill, to consider amendments made in the Senate. If approved, lawmakers would still have more than $720 million to administer in January’s 30-day session. Though passed overwhelmingly, the spending plan had its critics, including Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who voted against the bill and characterized it as having been rushed when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham added the budget to the redistricting special session’s agenda. Discretion over administration of the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds remained in dispute until last month when the state Supreme Court ruled in the Legislature’s favor. The bill includes, among other items: $142.5 million for road repair projects statewide; $123 million for broadband projects; $50 million for construction of a new acute care hospital, likely in Valencia County; $7 million to the Economic Development Department for outdoor recreation grants; and $10 million to the Environment Department to plan, design and construct projects to improve surface water quality and river habitats statewide.
The state Senate has yet to resolve a dispute over redistricting the Senate map; Native American leaders oppose a bill that altered a previous version endorsed by various pueblo and tribal leaders. The All Pueblo Council of Governors yesterday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, who met with tribal leaders Monday, thanking him for the meeting and reiterating their support for the original plan, which they say adheres to the redistricting principles that guided the work of the APCG Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee: “protecting the voting rights of Native citizens; incorporating Self Determination into the process; and adhering to the highly valued concept of creating Senate boundaries based on communities of interest.”
Bug out
After a decade of providing hands-on insect education, Harrell House Bug Museum will be shutting down, with owner Wade Harrell saying he received less than 30 days notice from Santa Fe Place mall that he needed to vacate by Jan. 3 to make room for a national company. The museum moved from DeVargas Center to Santa Fe Place in June “We’re really just heartbroken about it,” Harrell tells SFR, who says he can’t afford to relocate. “It doesn’t feel real. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut when they told me and it’s just been, honestly, like somebody died. We’re reeling from it and we don’t have time to do that.” Antonio Guerrero, marketing manager for Spinoso Real Estate Group, which manages Santa Fe Place, says the mall offered the museum another location at the mall for the same price. “We love Harrell House Bug Museum and are committed to helping secure a new home at Santa Fe Place,” Guerrero writes in an email. Those spaces, Harrell says, all have problems—lack of access to water and repair needs, for instance, and it’s unclear whether the mall will work with Harrell on costs. The shutdown puts the kibosh on the museum’s future plans for student field trips and clearly struck a chord with Santa Feans who learned of its demise on Facebook: “This is awful news!” one wrote. “My family adores the bug museum and the love, passion and knowledge you shared. You will be greatly missed.” Traveler’s Market reportedly also has been asked to vacate.
City seeks arts commissioners
The City of Santa Fe’s nine-member Santa Fe Arts Commission has two openings it hopes to fill come March. It is now accepting applications through Jan. 13. Commissioners advise the City Council on a variety of arts-related issues, including contracts, public art projects, awards and positions such as poet laureate and city historian. The commission, when possible, meets monthly, fundraises for initiatives such as Culture Connects, the Mayor’s Arts Awards and others. Commissioners must live in Santa Fe County. “We, The Arts Commission for the City of Santa Fe, strive to support new and exciting programming and to reach new levels of diversity, inclusion and equity in our city’s art funding,” Chair Alma Castro said in a statement. “The commission seeks members of the arts community who are committed to these same values to be a part of our team. The Arts Commission is attempting to broaden its efforts to recruit, going beyond past methods, to try and reach those voices who need to be heard! Serving on the Arts Commission is needed now more than ever as we navigate through key issues surrounding Santa Fe.” Two-year terms will begin in October. Apply here.
Listen up
When Donald Trump’s presidency began, Brooke Williams walked into the wilderness: Southern Utah’s Mary Jane Wilderness, near Moab, to be specific. When it ended, Williams returned. The resulting book, Mary Jane Wild: Two Walks & a Rant, documents his experience in nature alongside his sense of the Trump presidency and its lasting effect. The book also discusses “how walking in the wilderness heals, helps him identify, then adapt to changing modern conditions, and understand the role wildness continues to play in the evolution of life.” Williams, who is married to writer Terry Tempest Williams, has spent 30 years advocating for the wilderness, and also is the author of several other books, including Open Midnight and Halflives: Reconciling Work and Wildness. Collected Works Bookstore hosts Brooke Williams at 6 pm tomorrow via Zoom; register here and order the book here.
Celebrating Native cuisine
Salon talks with chef Freddie Bitsoie (Diné), a chef, New Mexico native and author of New Native Kitchen: Celebrating Modern Recipes of the American Indian, described by Publisher’s Weekly as an “exceptional debut” in which “a diverse and flavorful cultural history comes alive.” Bitsoie partnered with James Beard Award–winning author James O. Fraioli to author the book’s recipes. A former executive chef of the Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Bitsoie explores Native American cuisine’s evolution across the country, and tells Salon he wanted to look at Indigenous foods in new ways to show it is “growing” and “has a future.” Bitsoie talks about his childhood forays in the kitchen; his growing interest in Native American food culture that developed as a college anthropology major; and the central importance of squash to his cooking. “My family always had varieties of yellow squash, zucchini, and gourd squash,” Bitsoie tells Salon. “And so that’s why I cook with a lot of squash. And people will say, ‘Gee, there’s a lot of squash recipes in this book.’ And it’s just one of those staples that my family always had.” You can also watch the talk here, and hear even more from Bitsoie and snag a few recipes in this recent New Mexico Magazine feature.
O’Keeffe in fashion
Designer Ulla Johnson’s Pre-Fall 2022 show receives a Vogue spotlight in which the models’ backdrops may look familiar. That’s because the show was shot at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, once the stomping grounds for artist Georgia O’Keeffe (the magazine refers to the location as Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch but, as Ghost Ranch’s history explains, the artist owned 7 acres, wanted to buy it all but eventually became friends with its first director after owners Arthur Pack and his wife Phoebe gave the ranch to the Presbyterian Church in 1955). At any rate, Johnson has a new logo and a new look, which “not coincidentally” emphasizes “utility” in the form of “…parkas and washed engineer-striped denim used for wide-leg trousers and skirts with handkerchief-style hems.” Johnson normally places “romance at the fore,” Vogue writes, but for the new look “she was talking up the ‘muscularity’ of certain pieces. An oversized herringbone coat had a slightly more masculine sensibility; a cropped jacket with an exaggerated collar accompanied by full cropped trousers struck a gamin-like note; and there was perhaps a boyishness to vests that fit snugly over familiar, more feminine shapes.” The company itself describes the campaign as “inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of ‘the faraway’, the New Mexico terroir through O’Keeffe’s hand carries an emotional weight much as do the clothes of Johnson’s design. Shapes are both languid and architectural, tracing the body as O’Keeffe traced the contours of the desert.” Edit note: We’ve corrected Johnson’s mis-spelling of O’Keeffe’s last name in the aforementioned quotes.
Wet and windy
A light drizzle fell as we set the alarm clock last night. It remains too dark to tell if snow fell overnight (we think not), but the forecast winds have arrived in force. As for the rest of the day, rain showers are expected before 8 am, followed by a chance of snow showers (with accumulations of less than an inch) between 8 am and 11 am, with some thunder, a high temperature near 44 degrees and, yes, more wind possible gusting as high as 40 mph.
Thanks for reading! In the spirit of optimism, The Word is reading and sharing a list of the best places to travel in 2022 (Sri Lanka sounds nice).
