The Santa Fe Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) announced on April 6 its permanent closure to the public. The institution in a press release highlighted the Covid-19 crisis, changes in film distribution and consumption, and ongoing fundraising issues among the reasons for the closure. The CCA, which for forty-four years presented exhibitions of contemporary art as well as foreign, experimental and independent films, canceled all programming and closed its doors immediately after the announcement.
Since July 2021, the CCA has been led by Executive Director and Chief Curator Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota). Means was one of the few Native American women to lead an American arts institution. She had recently secured a three-year grant for the arts center of $100,000 a year from the Ford Foundation, with an option to renew for another three years.
“This difficult decision was not taken lightly,” Means said. “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.”
In an interview with Hyperallergic, former CCA deputy director April Chalay noted that the organization went through executive directors every two or three years, resulting in “a culture of instability and a huge lack of identity.” Chalay further cited a “colonial model” of fundraising, which relied on wealthy older white donors, and the resistance of these potential benefactors to diversification among the reasons leading to the closure. “Not many people will say, ‘I don’t like it because it’s getting browner or younger,’ but that’s absolutely what happened when the CCA found out [Danyelle Means]”, Chalay said. “We had people who started criticizing us and saying, ‘Your director is Indigenous and you’re doing an Indigenous show, are you just going to be an Indigenous arts organization? not what I want to give.
