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New collaboration kicks off with an online event exploring contemporary art collaboration in the current moment across the Southwestern U.S. and Northern Mexico. Desierto Mountain Time, a new cross-border contemporary art collaboration, invites the public to an online discussion about our interconnected region across the U.S./Mexico border and the five states of New Mexico, Chihuahua, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado. Our 13 arts organizations seek to engage, support, and amplify artistic practice as a means of political, social, economic, and environmental dialogue.

Led by special guest Eduardo Díaz, Director, Smithsonian Latino Center and Interim Director, National Museum of the American Latino in Washington DC, the talk will explore why it is important to build bridges between our communities and gives people a window into the authentic dialogue and artistic expressions of our region. This conversation is about how we have been challenged and changed by the pandemic, the racial reckoning, climate change, the continued attack on women’s bodies, and the shifting cultural demographics of America. We will explore the role of arts institutions in this moment and more specifically what opportunities we of this region can do to elicit positive change?

Featured panelists are: León De la Rosa Carrillo (Professor of Art, Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juárez); Kerry Doyle, Director, Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, The University of Texas, El Paso), Idris Goodwin, (Executive Director of Colorado Springs Fine Art Center at Colorado College), and Suzanne Sbarge (Executive Director, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque).

Eduardo Díaz says, “The Desierto Mountain Time collaboration presents a model for contemporary arts organizations seeking relevancy and meaning in our rapidly changing world. Through artist-led conversations and initiatives, this group of innovative institutions are addressing the issues of our time through world class exhibitions and programming while developing deep roots and strong relationships with one another and in the communities they serve.”

About Desierto Mountain Time

Organized by 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Desierto Mountain Time is a constellation of contemporary arts organizations in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, drawn together by our shared interest in making meaningful connections among local and international communities. Our network was formed at the beginning of the pandemic as a way to think regionally about our shared values and concerns, and explore the common themes among our programs. We aim to highlight and amplify each point in our shared constellation of arts organizations, and the distinct, yet multi-faceted identity of arts and culture in our region, across states and borders. Spanning the Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and High Deserts, Desierto Mountain Time shines a light on the hub of vital, interconnected arts activity happening in our linked region, and engages art as a means of political, social, economic, and environmental dialogue. Desierto Mountain Time is an open-ended project, which begins with a look at our individual exhibitions during the period of Fall 2021 through Spring 2022.

Visit DesiertoMountainTime.org and follow us on social media for the latest information about the evolving series of thematic conversations with artists, educators, curators, activists, and arts administrators whose dynamic practices integrate cross-border, regional, and global issues.