The Art World of Albuquerque
If you're a visitor to Albuquerque for the Movies & Meaning Festival, you'll no doubt want to experience some of the local sources of beauty. The city has a vibrant art scene, combining venerable fixtures with a thriving fringe and a bounty of folk arts and crafts.
University of New Mexico Art Museum
One of the main players in the art scene is, of course, the University of New Mexico Art Museum. With special strength in early American prints and the works of the Transcendentalists, the UNMAM also acts as fairy godmother to many smaller arts endeavors, sponsoring shows and lending its expertise to make more art and artists available to the public.
Just down the street from the KiMo Theatre is one of the most important independent galleries in Albuquerque. 516 ARTS features a diverse mixture of medium and culture. During the dates of the festival, the gallery will be showing two pop-up exhibitions, one themed around environmental justice, “Decolonizing Nature: Resistance, Resilience, Revitalization,” as well as one featuring experimental films from Cubano filmmakers. (If you just weren't getting enough film at the festival! Wink.)
National Hispanic Cultural Center
The NHCC has a substantial mission: celebrating and cataloguing the cultures born from indigenous America and the Spanish diaspora. You’ll find historical exhibitions as well as artistic ones: currently they’re featuring artifacts from the life of Mari-Luci Jaramillo (a daughter of laborers who became a U.S. ambassador), and during the festival they’ll have a show of contemporary works, “Fantasía Fantástica: Imaginative Spaces and Other-Worldly Collage.” Or there’s the in-between: follow the path of Frederico Vigil’s 4,000-square-foot mural, “Mundos de Mestizaje,” portraying thousands of years of Hispanic and pre-Hispanic history.
Seeking your very own calaveras? An easily-packed milagro, or three? Or just feasting your eyes? Old Town, ten blocks of historic adobe walkable from the KiMo, is heavy-laden with traditional rugs, pottery, and all the turquoise one could ever wear. Nob Hill, near the university, is also a gold (er, silver...) mine for beautiful clothing, crafts, and gifts.
Flamenco has a large following in the Albuquerque area, and Tablao is the premier venue. Enjoy tapas and the extensive wine list while watching performances from nationally noted performers. Reserved seating is available in advance, or you can purchase general admission tickets at the door.
The brainchild of Outpost Performance Space (a fixture of the jazz and blues scene in the Southwest), this cozy, insider-y gallery space focuses on New Mexico-based artists. Go here for a taste of local talent (UNM printmakers exhibit on April 30th), or go next door for a jazz show (Grammy-nominated saxophonist Donny McCaslin plays on the 27th).
Who's ready to soak up some SW culture?