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Valerie is Executive Director and Core
Artist with Littleglobe:
learn more about this work (including some of the projects below) at
www.littleglobe.org.
Artist-to-Artist & "Ask Me Who I
Am" Reading and Exhibition--
with CYFD Youth and their Mentors
Sunday, February 5, 2012
2-3:30 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public
Domenici Education Bldg.
National Hispanic Cultural Center
1701 4th Street SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Art by Jerry G-- (Youth Artist)
FEATURED WRITERS AND ARTISTS: Brandy Jones, Erick Niiha, Jerry G--,
Trevor Benally, Lauren Huichan-Rivera, Erin Forrest, Carlos Contreras,
Lonnie M--, Kimberly Mathes, Megan Tetreault
THE PROGRAM
The Artist-to-Artist Program (May-December 2011) paired professional artists
with CYFD youth for a ten-month creative apprenticeship. Mentor-Artists and
youth worked closely together to create poetry and artwork while engaging in
a dialogue about art, creativity and the possibility of living life as an
artist or writer. On February 5th, join us for a reading and exhibition of
the artists’ work. The project has been sponsored by the Global Education
Fund and directed by Littleglobe (Valerie Martínez, Project Director).
Also reading will be youth poets featured in the anthology: Ask Me Who
I Am: Writing and Art by New Mexico CYFD Youth, an anthology
produced from the Open Books project (2010), also sponsored by the Global
Education Fund and directed by Valerie/Littleglobe. Copies of the anthology
will be available for sale—proceeds go to Adelante, Youth Advocates for
Foster Care Youth in NM.
THE NEED
Young adults (ages 16-21) who are transitioning out of CYFD care are some of
the most inspiring AND challenged youth in New Mexico. Most have witnessed
and/or endured abuse and neglect and lived in numerous foster homes. Those
who have not been adopted by age 16 will likely age out of CYFD care without
finding a permanent family. All face a tenuous future. Yet, these youth are
remarkably creative. Their writing and art reflect deep wells of imagination
and expression that rise from a lifetime of challenges.
Most often, these and other young artists lack the financial resources to
develop their creative talents via private lessons, classes or workshops.
They attend public schools which are struggling to provide art classes. And
many have changed houses and schools so often that they lack the
concentrated attention and mentorship that might encourage their creative
abilities. The Artist-to-Artist Program (led by Project Director Valerie
Martínez) was designed to devote professional and mentoring attention to
young writers and artists, nurturing their creativity and providing them
with ideas and options for life as a creative person.
SPONSORS
The Global Education Fund (GEF) is dedicated to supporting
marginalized youth and adults worldwide with projects related to arts,
education and humanitarian service. Littleglobe is a New-Mexico based
501(c)3 organization that exists to create collaborative art, nurture
community capacity, and foster life-affirming connections across the
boundaries that divide us. The Littleglobe artistic team collaborates with
community participants, affiliate artists, community organizers, and partner
organizations in the creation of socially meaningful works of art,
installation and performance.
The Artist-to-Artist Program thanks the McCune Charitable Foundation
for its generous support for this program. Warm thanks also to Shelle
Sanchez and the Education staff at the NHCC.
For more information, contact Valerie Martinez at valerie@littleglobe.org,
505-603-0866
LOCATION AND DIRECTIONS
The National Hispanic Cultural Center is located at the Intersection of 4th
& 8th Streets and Avenida César Chávez (Bridge Blvd.) in Albuquerque.
From I-25, take the Avenida César Chávez exit and drive WEST over the
railroad tracks. Enter the campus on 8th Street (turning SOUTH). Park in the
lot straight ahead. The Domenici Education Center is the first building on
the right that as you turn in on 8th street.
RIVERS RUN THROUGH US
2012: Santa Fe
River—from Santa Fe Lake to Cochiti
“In those days the Santa Fe River ran and sang. It’s true? you ask,
staring at the empty
bed, dust rising at the
end of Avenida Cristobal Colon. There was water? Now, we
dream of blue winding blue way….” (from "Blue Winding, Blue Way" by
Valerie Martínez)
In the late spring of 2012, a small
group of women will walk the length (46 miles) of the Santa Fe River. This
four-day journey will serve as a deep exploration of our river and the Santa
Fe Watershed and is designed to engage, create awareness, educate, and
illuminate our relationship with the earth.
In 2007, American Rivers
designated the Santa Fe River as the most endangered river in the United
States. Local environmental groups, concerned citizens, river enthusiasts,
environmental artists along with the county and City of Santa Fe have worked
to bring her back. These efforts must continue.
Rivers Run Through Us will bring
life to our river and to our communities through the act of walking,
carrying water and offering messages of hope and possibility. Along the
way there will be singing, music, poetry and art as well as audio
interviews, conservation projects, water testing and more. Some will walk
with us for a time and others will meet us along the riverbank as we move
along.
In anticipation of the walk, outreach
will include working with neighborhoods and communities along the river,
school groups, churches, environmental organizations and other individuals
and communities who are invited to meet us along the way—honoring,
protecting and celebrating the river.
photos: Bobbe Besold
United in their passion for our river and
water, this project was initiated by Bobbe Besold and Dominique
Mazeaud, two environmental artists, along with Valerie Martínez,
poet and former Santa Fe Poet Laureate (2008-2010) and Rachel Boothby,
OSM/VISTA volunteer. We are a gathering of voices for the river: artists,
environmentalists, scientists, poets, and river-lovers, working to connect
people to the river and to each other.
Our current sponsoring organizations are
WildEarth Guardians, The Santa Fe Watershed Association, Littleglobe,
and the Western Hardrock Watershed Team. We invite other
organizations to partner with us as the project unfolds.
Bobbe Besold’s primary focus is to
create art for Earth’s sake, in part by engaging, educating and
collaborating with diverse groups. Currently, her art and design (called
“Watershed”) is being cast into concrete walls for a pedestrian underpass
for the City of Santa Fe.
www.bobbebesold.com. Rachel Boothby is an AmeriCorps OSM/VISTA
volunteer in service to the Santa Fe Watershed and Railyard Park + Plaza.
This year she is connecting her roles as community organizer and non-profit
manager with arts administrator as she connects the arts with the Santa Fe
Watershed Association and Railyard Stewards. Rachel believes bringing the
arts and sciences together develops stronger environmental stewardship.
Valerie Martínez is a poet, educator and collaborative artist whose work
embraces the idea of art as a force for global transformation. Her
award-winning books of poetry include Absence, Luminescent; World
to World and Each and Her. She is Executive Director and Core
Artist with Littleglobe, an artist-run non-profit that works with
communities to create significant works of art and performance. She was the
Poet Laureate of Santa Fe from 2008-2010.
www.valeriemartinez.net.
Dominique Mazeaud's performance The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande
launched her devotion to water. During seven years (1987-1994) she performed
her monthly ritual. She began her pilgrimage in the Santa Fe River walking
her way down to the Great River, “the beginning of my water-education, a
life-long journey.” Since then, Bobbe and Dominique have collaborated on
several performances honoring the river. Among them, “Sixty Water Weaving
Women” took place at the Roundhouse in 2008, and in 2009 in Albuquerque. It
was part of the Land Art /New Mexico, a major art festival where artists
respond and “collaborate” with the land.
One Thousand Poets for
Change
A GLOBAL EVENT--A HUNDRED THOUSAND
POETS IN 450 CITIES IN OVER 100 COUNTRIES
Saturday, September 24, 2011
An Evening Concert and Reading
7-9 p.m.
The Projects
3614 High Street
Albuquerque
Synergy--La Onda
de la Palabra/Wave of the Word
September 2010 - Fall 2012
A team of three artists, Valerie Martínez, Cynthia Cook, and Catalina
Delgado Trunk,
are
working together with past and present members of the homeless community to create art, poetry,
and spoken performance. The
project, called Synergy: La Onda de la Palabra/Wave of the Word began
in September 2010 and continued, this spring, with two exhibits that opened on April 1, 2011
and May 13, 2011 (see below) with spoken word performances. The
culmination of the project will be a book release in
the Fall of 2012. The book will document the collaborative process and culture of the
Albuquerque arts community, creating a legacy of arts for the City of
Albuquerque and participating artists/organizations.
Two Installations (Mixed Media, Papel Picado,
Poetry) &
Spoken Word Performances
April
1-28 - Harwood Art Center, 114 7th St. NW, Albuquerque
Opening, April 1st, 6 p.m. with performance
May
13-31 - National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque
Opening, May 13, traveling from downtown ABQ (with the Axle
Roving Gallery) east to Central Ave.,
then
west (11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.) with art and performance poetry, ending at the National
Hispanic Cultural Center (5:30-7), Domenici Education Center
Gallery--schedule below.
"Pushing through the door to messages
•10:00-11:15 Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, 1217 1st Street NW
from the other world—piedras negras,
•11:25-12:20 Amy Biehl High School, 123 4th Street (4th and Gold)
piedras blancas, piedras grises.
•12:30-1:15 Noon Day Ministry (parking lot) 101 Broadway NE
Dreaming a body of water,
• 1:30-2:30 Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE
a body of peace." --Solange
Buscunan
• 2:45-3:45 Wining Coffee Co., 111 Harvard Drive SE (Harvard and Central)
• 4:00-7:30 National Hispanic Cultural Center 1701 4th Street SW/Domenici
Ed. Building
Valerie has been working closely with
Artstreet client-artists to nurture writing-in-progress--poetry, fiction,
memoir--as well as generate new work. Examples of this work will
appear with the artwork created for each exhibition. Valerie and the
Artstreet writers have also created a spoken-word script from twenty poems
written by the group--entitled "Like a Halo on the Ground"--which will be
performed at both exhibition openings (April 1 and May 13) and on the route
toward the NHCC (Noon-5 p.m., May 13) with a
performance troupe of Artstreet writers. Please
join us for one or more of these events.
La Onda is supported by a grant from
the National
Endowment for the Arts to Albuquerque
Health Care for the Homeless (AHCH) for this collaborative project, a
partnership between ArtStreet, the Harwood Art Center, and the National
Hispanic Cultural Center. Artstreet is a
community-based project and collective open studio space where art is used
as the connection for community-building for those without and those with homes. Art therapists also facilitate group closed studio sessions for
clients.
Lifesongs
Sunday, May 8, 2011, 4 p.m, Santa Fe.png)
Lifesongs, a project of The Santa Fe Opera Education and Community Programs
and Littleglobe, is an arts-in-community project that generates original
musical works created by elders in nursing homes and hospice care in
collaboration with professional musicians and artists and youth and
community choirs. The participants work with New Mexico composers,
musicians, visual artists, and writers over a period of months to create new
pieces that are performed by local musicians and choirs including Young
Voices of The Santa Fe Opera; Dolce Suono of the University of New Mexico;
Your Song, a threshold choir; and other performers.
Lifesongs, in its fourth year in 2011, specializes in the capacity to meet
people where they feel comfortable and seeks to provide a safe environment
which each person is truly witnessed. Each piece is created from an
in-depth collaborative process in which participants find an expression for
something of meaning in their lives. Most of the participants originally
feel they are not “musical.” Even so, with some gentle exercises in poetry
writing, their use of visual arts materials, and the help of a midi
keyboard, com puter
and some instruments, their participation contributes significantly to each
musical piece that shares something of great meaning to them, having
discovered the depth of expression that comes at transitional times or the
end of our lives. Lifesongs works include songs of love, homages to family
and friends, contemplations, and simple prayers for freedom and peace.
Lifesongs collaborating artists include: Acushla Bastible, Jeff
Brown, Frederick Frahm, Deborah Fort, Charles Gamble, Valerie Martínez,
Panaiotis, Henry Shukman, Robby Rothschild, Molly Sturges, and Andrea
Fellows Walters. Partners include: Ambercare Hospice Care, Albuquerque and
Santa Fe; The Lensic Performing Arts Center; The National Hispanic Cultural
Center; Santa Fe Care Center; and The Santa Fe Complex. 2010 participants
include: Jennie Garcia, Kenneth Luke, Ruth Sager, Alice Van Baak, Thomas
Vorce, Bob Wyatt, The Bits and Pieces Song Writing Group of Santa Fe Care
and elders from the Barelas neighborhood in Albuquerque.
Burning Down the Boundaries: Lighting
a Path to the Future
Monday, December 13, 2010
6 p.m.
University of New Mexico Albuquerque campus
Valerie, Molly Sturges and their
UNM students hosted a community-engagement experience/performance promoting
an end to racism and the beginning a new era of racial tolerance.
Students, faculty, staff and visitors were invited to a creative ceremony to
"burn down" racist notions, experiences, and events of the past and then
usher the community into a new age.
This event was the final project for students in a UNM
Honors course entitled “Sharing the Same Space: Creative Community
Engagement and Racial Healing.” Seventeen students enrolled in the class, led by
Littleglobe artists. Students in this course have explored the ideas and issues
at the heart of racism and intolerance. At the same time, students were
introduced to the theory and practice of community-building through creative
engagement.
Sage Award: Twenty Women
Making a Difference (2009)
Valerie
Martinez wins Sage Award for "Twenty Women Making a Difference"
Sage Magazine, the Albuquerque Journal’s
monthly magazine for women, awarded Valerie one of its "Twenty Women Who
Make a Difference" Sage Awards, created to celebrate the magazine’s 20th
anniversary. The award focused on 10 different professional fields.
“When we launched this list, we knew many New Mexico women had moved into
highly visible and influential roles on the state’s most pressing problems,”
SAGE editor Carolyn Flynn said. “I’m inspired by not just their
achievements, but the generous spirit and positive outlook they bring to
their work.”
Recipients of the Sage Magazine Award:
State Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, superintendent of the Gadsden
Independent; Karen Sanchez-Griego, Atrisco
Heritage Academy School principal; LaDonna Hopkins, vice president
and chief development offi cer at the United Way;
Patricia Serna, co-founder and executive director of North Central
Community Based Services; Supreme Court Justice Petra
Maes; Lt. Gov. Diane Denish; Rachel O’Connor, the state
DWI czar; Linda Davis, a fourth-generation cattle rancher;
Tracy Hephner, co-owner of Wagon Mound Ranch; Bette Korber, an
immunologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory;
Margaret Werner-Washburne, a UNM biological sciences professor;
Joan Woodward, executive vice president for integrated
technology systems at Sandia National Laboratories; Susie Marbury, an
architect who founded Sustainability Week and the
GreenBuilt Tour; Dr. Cheryl Willman, director and chief executive
offi cer of the state-of-the-art UNM Cancer Center;
Dr. Arti Prasad, director and founder of the UNM Center for Life;
Nancy Youngblood, an award-winning third-generation
Santa Clara potter; Valerie Martinez, Poet Laureate of Santa Fe and
Executive Director of Littleglobe; Kathleen Avila,
philanthropist and businesswoman; Barbara Stoller, director of New
Mexico Small Business Innovative Research.
This site was last updated
02/02/12
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