Thirteen 
New Mexico artists have won a total of $93,600 in grants from this year’s Fulcrum Fund.
Administered by 516 ARTS, the funding comes from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, with a portion from the Frederick Hammersley Foundation for the Arts. Applications came from 105 artists in 18 cities throughout New Mexico. This year’s guest jurors were Laura Copelin (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona, and Ballroom Marfa, a contemporary art space in Marfa, Texas), Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo), Oregon’s Portland Art Museum and Marvella Muro (Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles).
The grants range from $3,500 to $10,000, fund manager Claude Smith said.
“Across the submission pool, there’s a lot of people wanting to do projects about time and deep reflection,” Smith said. “I wonder if some of that relates to the pandemic and how art can play a role in mediating that trauma.”
Other topics include the environment and climate change.
The Fulcrum Fund serves as a support structure to enable artists to expand existing work and explore new directions. It is intended as a springboard for experimental artistic projects that might not fit traditional museums and galleries.
In 2020 and early 2021, 516 ARTS disbursed $321,000 to 255 artists and art spaces statewide through the Warhol Foundation and the Frederick Hammersley Foundation, playing a key role in pandemic relief efforts.
The jurors selected the following proposals:
• JC Gonzo, Santa Fe, Cuidado. An independent, self-published zine featuring emerging artists based in the Southwest.
• Tytianna Harris (Navajo), Albuquerque, American Indians of the Southwest. Abstract-experimental textile work examining the life ways and design of Indigenous cultures in our area.
• Jessica Krichels, Albuquerque, Pressing Letters: A Collaboration of Literary Broadsides. Handmade literary broadsides on a letterpress created by collaborations.
• Akilah Martinez (Navajo), Gallup, DigiNewMex. A virtual environment connecting New Mexicans through a magical immersive digital landscape.
• Dylan McLaughlin (Diné), Albuquerque, Wires Under Tension. An experimental music composition and performative installation.
• Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, Farmington, Miss Nalgas USA 2022. A performance artwork featuring a faux beauty competition for self-identifying Latinas over 50.
• Karl Orozco and Michael Lopez, Albuquerque, Risolana. A community Risograph (a brand of digital duplicators) studio celebrating the power of printmaking as a tool for community dialogue.
• Nayeli Navarro and Elsa Lopez, Pecos, Weaving back to Center/Tejiendo de regreso al centro. A creative, multi-lingual community art practice revitalizing the traditional art form of backstrap weaving.
• Adrian Pinnecoose (Navajo and Southern Ute), Albuquerque, Collective Equilibrium. Highlighting digital applications and fabrications in Indigenous art.
• Sara Rivera, Albuquerque, Entre nacer y caminar. A large-scale text sculpture made from cast gypsum toys found in Albuquerque’s early childhood centers.
• Justin Rhody, Santa Fe, No Name Cinema. No Name Cinema is a microcinema dedicated to showcasing experimental, avant-garde and underground film and video.
• We Are Longing for a Future (collective), Albuquerque. A multi-phased project featuring a group of queer, trans and Indigenous artists.
• Adrian Wall (Jemez Pueblo), Ponderosa Reconnecting – Time, Self and the Celestial. A site-specific, mixed-media sculptural installation.
