Albuquerque nonprofit Warehouse 505 nurtures young artists

Berto Reyes first heard about Warehouse 505 on MySpace.

He started attending arts classes at the nonprofit about 15 years ago, he said. Today, he works as director of arts programming, overseeing the various visual and performing arts courses Warehouse 505 offers after school.

The center — opened in 2009 as Warehouse 508 — has since expanded to a multistory building in Downtown Albuquerque where youth ages 13 through 20 can take free, year-round classes in DJing, screen printing, photography, music production, mural painting and sewing.

“This kind of space has provided me the community to become an artist and what that means in Albuquerque,” Reyes said. “I’m grateful to this spot for sure. Now I’m just trying to pay it forward.”

A second home

Mina Mays joined Warehouse 505 a decade ago for the organization’s band class, then pivoted to photography. Like Reyes, Mays transitioned to full-time staff member after graduating from the program. She now works as operations manager, but still dabbles in art, she said.

“I just completely fell in love with it when I was younger, and it felt like my second home. I knew that I wanted to work here when I got older, if that was even possible,” Mays said.

Warehouse 505 serves about 45 to 50 students per day, according to executive director Robert Stokowy. The goal is to give young people professional experience in the arts that one day they may be able to use to make money, Stokowy said.

Some of the students in the DJ program have gone professional, and screen printing students can take the T-shirts they’ve made to local markets and keep the money they make through Warehouse 505’s youth entrepreneurship program.

“We need to start them when they’re in their formative years, when it’s crucial, and give them job opportunities,” Stokowy said.

Grants dry up

Though Warehouse 505 receives a majority of its funding from the city and county, many of the various arts grants available via the federal government have dried up, according to Stokowy.

“It was so easy to get grants before the second Trump administration, but when they cut everything, the accessibility went down drastically,” he said.

Federal grants from the National Endowment for the Arts were revoked by the Trump administration early last year — the result of shifting “grantmaking policy priorities,” federal officials said.

Nearby nonprofit contemporary art museum 516 ARTS lost a $30,000 NEA grant it had been receiving annually for the past decade, the museum’s executive director April Chalay told the Journal in January.

To create a financial cushion, Warehouse 505 now operates a printing business, offering clothing, stickers and banners — printed by adult staff members — for local businesses at what Stokowy said are competitive prices. All proceeds from the print shop go to supporting youth programming. Some of Warehouse 505’s current clients include Marble Brewery, the YMCA and the city of Albuquerque. 

“We’re not asking them for donations or charity, we’re asking them for their business,” Stokowy said. “We’re really advocating for keeping it local.”

Warehouse 505’s spring semester began March 16 and runs through the beginning of May. Youth programming is always free, Stokowy said, but adult arts classes are available for a cost.

“Everything is catered towards making the youth program free and accessible,” he said.

Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.