HOMECOMING: NMSA ALUMNI
October 25–November 16, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION
October 25, 5-7pm
PANEL DISCUSSION
October 26, 2-3:30pm
NEW NEIGHBORS NMSA AND FORM & CONCEPT CELEBRATE
A DECADE OF CREATIVE ART PRACTICES IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
Homecoming celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the New Mexico School for the Arts by highlighting the creativity of Visual Arts Department alumni while also acknowledging the community of artists that helped them grow. This juried alumni exhibition features works from the graduating NMSA VA classes of 2012-19, as well as invited guest artist educators who have contributed to the creative education of NMSA’s students over the past decade. NMSA Visual Arts alumnus Diego Suarez, class of 2012, will serve as juror, alongside form & concept Director Jordan Eddy.
Now in her 4th year as Visual Arts Chair, Karina Hean first began teaching at the nationally-accredited tuition-free arts school in its third year after inception. “The changes I’ve witnessed here are strong, and not just from building to building. Every year we’ve become better and better at understanding what each student needs and wants in order to manifest the vision they have for themselves—as an artist, as a citizen, as a person and as an academic. It’s really about getting New Mexicans ready to live here in a way that helps promote and better our lives and culture in this state.”
Hean named the milestone exhibition to draw on the notion of home: “We have a shared history at NMSA, of growth and experience. There’s a sense of home and culture particular to each department, and the students know they are leaving a family that they can come back to. We’re there for them.”
Homecoming coincides with the opening of the new NMSA campus in the Railyard Arts District in Fall 2019. The Visual Arts Department aims to support the creative efforts and futures of its alumni through a continuing connection to the school, curriculum, and the vibrant neighborhood of partners and supporters in Santa Fe and the Railyard Arts District. Through participating in Homecoming, Visual Arts alumni can reconnect and also inspire the future of the school.
“We teach through a lot of contemporary art exposure,” Hean continues. “For us to be able to have form & concept so close by, highlighting regional artists, craft-based fine art and native voices—it’s important to us. We might move in,” Hean laughs.
Juror Diego Suarez is a visual artist and designer based in Seattle, WA. He was a part of the first graduating class of NMSA in 2012 and received a BFA in Art from Cornish College of the Arts in 2016. His work has been exhibited in Seattle, Santa Fe and New York.
Select Guest Artists:
Mira Burack, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Jeffrey Milburn, Luanne Redeye, Walker T. Roman, Piers Watson