After more than four decades, the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe has closed its doors to the public after a yearslong struggle with funding and low attendance.
KUNM sat down with CCA’s Executive Director and Head Curator Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota) to chat about the closure and dig into how the pandemic changed the art space.
DANYELLE MEANS: The economic situation coming out of COVID was incredibly difficult. Not just for the fine art side of what we do, but for the film and cinema side. We really didn't have the opportunity to bring back the types of crowds, nor really get the same sort of financial support from donors that we were getting in 2019.
You know, it's not one thing. But I think just the economic situation that we've been in, has really made people think twice about where those dollars go and what's important. I could argue all day that the arts are what's important. But, we're lumped in with all of the nonprofits and in Santa Fe, that's over 1200.
KUNM: This isn't really the first time the CCA has considered closing. According to a statement from your organization, your board was evaluating a closure back in December of 2021. That was the height of the COVID pandemic... How has the pandemic changed how we interact with art, and more specifically, cinema?
MEANS: One of the things is we were really early adopters in the mask mandate. We were doing social distancing. So, there was at least one seat between each patron, which, right there, takes half of our seats out of the auditorium.
There was a lot about the pandemic that hurt us. But the industry itself, especially with cinema, the industry itself was toying with theaters. In the early days, when we were opening, a lot of the industry was deciding: "You know what? Streaming works." So we would book films, and have those same films, in the week that we were supposed to open them, have them pulled because a distributor wanted to go straight to Netflix. That was absolutely devastating. We couldn't advertise any of our films. It hurt us tremendously, to have so few folks coming to the theater. It's only really been in the last couple of months that we've seen an uptick in our theater goers, and we were getting there. It's heartbreaking to now know that we're unable to keep that trend going.
KUNM: We're seeing other galleries and performance venues start to disappear from here in New Mexico and, really, across the nation. What's got to change so we can keep physical art spaces in the future?
MEANS: It's about community support. If you're unable to do something, financially, it's about volunteering. It's about showing these organizations that are meaningful to you that you care. Every dollar counts. It's hard because you know, we had these big grants, but the grants come in very specifically for programs. When you look at giving, giving really is about what you can give, what you're able to do to support an organization. The $5 and $10 and $25 donations, they add up. We were trying everything and ticket sales aren't enough. Even the cinema, as a standalone, would not be able to support itself. Even with a reduction in staff, with me out of the picture. It does not support itself in our status, that nonprofit, you're not in this for profit. We are in this to provide this crucial service to the community. And without the community support, we just can't do it.
The CCA says any tickets purchased for future events will be automatically refunded.
