Santa Fe Community Gallery, 201 West Marcy Street, Santa Fe, NM
Hours: Tue-Fri 10a-5p, Sat 10a-4p through June 8, 2012
Did you know that the Santa Fe Community Convention Center includes a Community Gallery? It’s a nice little secret to discover, especially since it provides a venue for artists who might otherwise not have an opportunity to show their work. So many Santa Fe galleries, but so many more artists than exhibit spaces!
Santa Fe Community Gallery inside the Convention Center
The exhibit currently on display at the Community Gallery, “Odes and Offerings,” is the brainchild of Santa Fe’s Poet Laureate, Joan Logghe. (Yes, not only does Santa Fe have a community gallery, the City Different also has a Poet Laureate, pretty impressive for a city of 65,000!). To complete her poetry tenure, a project was devised for the Gallery whereby 36 writers were invited to collaborate with 36 visual artists to create works in tandem, paired up by Ms. Logghe and the Gallery’s Director, Rod Lambert.
Wish You Were Here: Artist, Donna Ruff; Haiku by Poet, Charles Trumbull
Each artist was supplied with two poems from the poets’ works and asked to incorporate a line, a phrase or a stanza into the completed work. Logghe states that “The idea is not a poetry-inspired piece, but a piece where the text becomes part of the work or art.”
Detail Panel from The Archaeologist as Full Moon: Artist, S.K. Yeatts; Poem with the Same Title by Poet, James McGrath
The works run the gamut of media, from photographs to sculpture to giclee prints to film. In some works, the texts are utterly obscured and in others, words boldly confront the viewer/reader. The gallery has thoughtfully provided texts for all the poems, so one can wander through the exhibit with literature in hand, which significantly enhances the experience. The exhibit is peppered with names familiar to Santa Fe arts-lovers; artists such as Jane Shoenfeld, Charles Greeley, Gail Rieke , Ann Laser, and Andrew Keim are paired with writers like the late Witter Bynner, Judyth Hill, John Brandi, Dana Levin (who brings us the Muse x2 Poetry Series), and Henry Shukman, who wrote a lovely and ruminative piece on Santa Fe for the New York Times.
The Mesa the Shadow Built: Artist, Charles Greeley; Poem with the Same Title by Poet, Judyth Hill
A variety of public events will be held in conjunction with the exhibit:
“Words Away” a reading by three Santa Fe Poets Laureate, Joan Logghe, Valerie Martinez and Arthur Sze, taking place in the New Mexico History Museum Auditorium on April 27 at 6pm
A four-hour Poetry Workshop with Ms. Logghe on April 28 from 1-4pm at the Gallery
A two-hour Visual Arts Workshop with Sabra Moore at the Gallery on May 5, from 12-2pm
A Poetry Reading featuring approximately half of the participating poets on May 16 from 6-8pm at the Gallery
A tw-hour Visual Arts Workshop with Suzanne Vilmain at the Gallery on May 19 from 1-3pm
A Poetry Reading by the second group of participating poets at the Gallery on May 23 from 6-8pm,
A Final Poetry Reading by Joan Logghe, featuring works penned during her service as Poet Laureate on June 8 from 5-7pm
“Let the mind and the soul swap places for a while.” from Jack’s Creek Soliloquy by Tommy Archuleta
This exhibit is worth the time…and you have plenty of time to see it, since it is up until June 8!
Look for It!
