The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Sante Fe, New Mexico, a major art and film venue in the Southwestern United States that opened in 1979, closed its doors for good on 6 april. A last-ditch fundraising effort by the centre’s board members was apparently insufficient to avert closure.
The sudden closure of the institution followed years of increasing instability for the CCA; while a official announcement cited changes in film distribution and fundraising issues as primary reasons for the institution’s demise, insiders pointed to the setback of the museum’s shift in program towards showcasing more socially conscious work and other fundamental problems of institutional identity.
In an interview with Hyperallergic, former CCA Deputy Director April Chalay described the “culture of instability” plaguing the institution after going through 19 directors over the past 11 years. Chalay also suggested that executive director and curator Danyelle Means’ focus on Indigenous art may have alienated donors. Means, who is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, curated the center’s well-received 2022 exhibit, Determined: A Contemporary Inquiry into Native and Indigenous Artists.
“Not many people will say, ‘I don’t like it because it’s getting browner or younger,’ but that’s absolutely what happened,” Chalay said. Hyperallergic. “We had people start to criticize us and say, ‘Your producer is Indigenous and you’re doing an Indigenous show, are you just going to be an Indigenous arts organization? Because that’s not what I want to give away.'”
Chalay also pointed to CCA’s continuing problem with the narrow grantmaking model typical of nonprofit organizations – most private donations are for specific shows or programs, not long-term initiatives like operations or research. pay.
“The problem with the traditional nonprofit board model is that it relies on a colonial model of philanthropy based on older white people from wealthy heritages having money and judging an organization large enough to give to,” says Chalay.
“For a non-profit institution that operates independently of state support, the annual donations needed to continue operating sustainably were not enough, particularly in the wake of the challenges of pandemic closures and reducing attendance,” Means said in a statement.
While the center’s announcement had a definitive tone, ACC Board Chairman David Muck told the Santa Fe Reporter the board meets to discuss the organization’s future amid a last-minute fundraising effort and public outcry.
“CCA has been in this position so many times, we were hesitant to do the boy who cried wolf approach once again,” Muck told the Journalist. “We didn’t think people would take us seriously.”
In response to a call for $300,000 in donations from board members, $165,000 has already been pledged. The $300,000 figure is a far cry from the institution’s planner operating budget for 2023 of nearly $1.3 million, which Muck described as an “overrun.”
A board meeting was due to be held on April 14 to assess fundraising efforts and whether or not the center can be brought back from the brink. Muck did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the CCA, the results of the last board meeting and the fundraising campaign.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, dire projections indicated that a third of American museums could be threatened with closure, although a subsequent investigation revealed that only 15% were at serious risk. Even so, a number of prominent and regionally influential non-profit organizations have closed, including the Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary ArtCalifornia and the Grand Rapids Urban Institute of Contemporary ArtMichigan – citing the pandemic as a mitigating factor in the decision.
