Albuquerque–ALMA (Apprenticeships for Leaders in the Mosaic Arts) has been approved for a $35,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the Valle De Oro tile mosaic mural project. For this project, ALMA will design, create, and install multiple hand-made tile mosaic murals at the Valle De Oro Wildlife Refuge located in Albuquerque’s South Valley neighborhood. ALMA’s Valle De Oro project is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding.
“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as ALMA re-engage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “Although the arts have sustained many [of us] during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”
This project celebrates Albuquerque’s unique natural environment and explores our varied relationships with the land. Through a community interview process, ALMA staff has been working with members of the neighboring communities of Mountain View and Pueblo of Isleta to create designs that reflect the values, cultures, and experiences of the people who live there. ALMA will employ a small group of select young adult apprentices from those communities to work under the direction of lead artists Margarita Paz-Pedro and Vanessa Alvarado. Each installation will capture a different story, and thanks to the longevity of the tile, each one will remain part of the story of Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge for hundreds of years to come.
For more information about ALMA please visit www.almatile.org