new mexico funding for wide variety of cultural projects approved

A new Santa Fe museum dedicated to and celebrating contemporary art has been approved for a $4 million appropriation in state funding.

The Vladem Contemporary museum at 404 Montezuma Street is going up both inside and adjacent to the former Halpin State Archives Building within the larger Santa Fe Railyard.

The appropriation will fund  the facility’s planning, design, and construction.

The museum is named in honor of Santa Fe philanthropists Robert and Ellen Vladem, who earlier contributed $4 million to get the project going.

The Vladem Contemporary art museum is one of more than a dozen cultural affairs facility funding projects passed by the New Mexico State Legislature this spring and subsequently approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Other appropriations winning approval include $1.3 million for improvements to the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Dona Ana County; and $1.1 million for facility upgrade work at the Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe is slated to get $1.2 million for exhibition construction and gallery renovations; while just over $1 million will go for facility, theater, and exhibit improvements to the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

Smaller projects making it through the legislative process include $900,000 for improvements to  the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo; and $800,000 for site and facility improvements at the Taylor-Mesilla Historic property in Mesilla.

In signing the legislation, Lujan Grisham remarked that “sound investment of public funds is essential for the State’s economic growth, protection of New Mexico’s natural resources, and the quality of life of New Mexico communities.”

By Garry Boulard

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