Arts and Culture Department

Our Mission

We provide leadership by and for the City to support arts and cultural affairs. We create and fund programs, cultivate connections, and recommend policies that promote and sustain the arts and our creative economy. Centering inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, we connect residents and visitors alike to the vibrant arts and cultures of Santa Fe.

Our Values

Approachability

We welcome the participation of artists, nonprofits, businesses, educators, and the public in our work. We serve as a resource to them and are dedicated to facilitating discussions considering all viewpoints.

Commitment

We are dedicated to leadership that advances the arts in Santa Fe and to serving as a true community organization, partner, and collaborator.

Creativity

We embrace forward-thinking policy approaches that result in innovative, imaginative, synergistic programming and create economic sustainability in our community. 

Integrity

We demonstrate professionalism and fairness in our work, are informed and prepared on issues affecting our community and are diligent and culturally aware in our decision-making.

Learning

We are knowledgeable and discerning about arts and creativity in Santa Fe. We remain informed of local and national trends in the arts and actively develop our understanding of and engagement with all art forms.

“Culture embodies the shared complex and diverse heritage of a community, including its tangible and intangible virtues…It is the quiet and restless imagination that becomes expression, from which emanates writing, song, performance, painting, sculpture, cuisine, dance, design, and story. When recognized, coalesced, and leveraged, culture is transformative. It ignites creativity, consciousness, and capacity."

-Culture Connects Roadmap

Focus Areas

Creative Spaces

• Sustain spaces throughout our entire community that promotes creative dialogue and exchange.
• Identify and activate a network of creative spaces throughout our community, focusing on existing and nontraditional venues.
• Support the development of authentic places across our city for people to live, work and gather formally and informally.
• Prioritize the creative sector in community development; ensure adequate infrastructure for creativity.
• Cultivate projects and programs that activate public spaces through creativity and the arts

Economic Growth

• Develop strategies that advance our community’s cultural assets for long-term viability and profitability.
• Provide stewardship of our cultural resources and responsible promotion of the Santa Fe brand.
• Coordinate efforts that market our multiple accessible arts activities to increase visitors and attract the creative industry to our community.
• Offer micro-grants to support the development of new cultural resources and nontraditional/cross-discipline activities.
• Build infrastructure and capacity to support a thriving creative economy.

Engagement

• Provide all Santa Feans access to and participation in the creative life of our community.
• Survey and assess the cultural needs of the community.
• Facilitate discussion and collaboration to encourage participation in the arts by everyone in the community.
• Galvanize cross-disciplinary programming that builds on existing public events and venues across our city.
• Enhance infrastructure and outreach that boost participation in arts and cultural activities.

Youth Arts

• Support a continuum of opportunities for youth to benefit from our community’s cultural resources.
• Ensure all students have access to in-school and after-school arts education programs; be a resource for such programs.
• Foster the development of mentoring, internship, and apprenticeship programs in the creative sector.
• Partner with youth organizations and agencies across our community.