May the 4th be With You!
This day marks ALMA’s 5th anniversary of becoming our very own non-profit organization. Our summer program just celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. We were housed under the City of Albuquerque and Harwood Art Center for many years before the leadership decided to start our own non-profit arts organization. We were hoping to have an Open House/Tile Sale/Anniversary Event this month, but for now, it is postponed. 🙁
Hello from Home!
ALMA has been working remotely from home, planning, organizing, and strategizing in the time of COVID-19. We are still planning on going forward with our summer program, slated to start on June 8th. We have a much smaller apprentice crew this year; that will help us in this time of social distancing. So far we have had to meet remotely to do all design work; it has been an interesting experience, one that I am sure many of you are experiencing. We are looking at new ways to share what we do with you through an online platform. Stay tuned!
Las Cruces City Hall Acequia Project
We have been working in collaboration with Las Cruces Public Art Program for the past two years to do a mosaic/painted mural. It is located on an Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) acequia access point in front of Las Cruces City Hall. We were able to complete the project in late February with the help of youth from Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Thank you all who helped fund the project and we are looking forward to working down there again.
Fundraising and Outreach
As with many arts organizations and businesses across the United States, we have had to put our planned fundraising and outreach events on hold. We know these are hard times for everyone out there and are not sure when or what our daily lives will look like once this pandemic is contained and manageable. This organization relies heavily on grants, contracts and fundraising for its annual budget. We are going to do our best to keep it going in these uncertain times, but we also rely on donations from our community. Please if you are able to donate anything to our organization to ensure its longevity we would be eternally grateful. See our website for ways to donate
Thank You…
Woodworker Mike Mulvey of Belen has generously donated a beautiful rustic wood frame that he fabricated to hold the mosaic tile. We will be creating a mosaic especially for this 18” x 19” frame, and we’ll be selling it as a fundraiser later in the summer, so stay tuned! Mike is a very talented craftsman who works with reclaimed and recycled wood. In addition to picture frames, he creates tables, boxes, and just about anything.
As always we appreciate you- our community. We hope you are all well and healthy and enjoying time with your family.
We are so grateful to our funders!
City of Albuquerque Public Art, McCune Foundation, Heart Gallery of New Mexico, Albuquerque Community Foundation & US Fish & Wildlife Service.