New Community Opportunities
The mission of the Questa Creative Council (QCC) is to strengthen community through arts, culture, history, and education. The council is excited to announce exciting opportunities to engage the community through their work.
The Pandemic Poetry Project has restarted in hopes of bringing the community together again through QCC’s first project based in literary art forms. After a strong and positive start last year, Betsy Irwin, QCC Member, professional artist and writer has created a way for community members young and old to express themselves through the written and recited word.
In the wake of so many changes and grievances, the Pandemic Poetry Project allows people to find an outlet by means of artistic word-weaving. “We want to illuminate how poetry flows through our lives — from nursery rhymes to rap music. We’ll share different poetry forms and techniques to help writers create a format for their work,” Irwin said.
The council will be using the pandemic as a general topic for this project to encourage students to find positive outcomes through difficulties.
Workshops to create, finalize and perform poetry are being planned for this spring and summer and will be open to all community members, regardless of age or experience level. These workshops are especially beneficial for young writers to learn and grow. Irwin has also developed accompanying lesson plans, making it easy for local teachers to introduce the idea of submitting their work while adhering to New Mexico’s curriculum guidelines.
“We especially want to include homeschoolers in the project,” Irwin remarked. “This will be a great way to help parent-teachers to round out their kids’ English program in a unique, community-oriented way.” For more information about upcoming dates for this project, visit questacreative.org/art-for-everyone.
The Questa Art Tour is back after an extraordinarily successful Art Tour event in 2022. Last year’s two-day event saw an estimated 829 visitors, with 57 artists and craftspeople participating in the tour, located at 18 art hubs ranging from Questa to Sunshine Valley. Vendors reported great success with art sales, with five vendors reporting sales between $500-1000, 10 vendors saying they brought in over $1000 and four vendors reporting over $3000 in sales.
Planning for the 2023 Art Tour is underway and there is a call for local artists interested in participating in the tour! Eligibility requirements include living north of the intersection of Highways 64 and 522, south of Sunshine Valley and west of Red River. Eligible and interested artists can find more information at questacreative.org or at northernnewmexicoartists.com. People can also inquire directly by emailing questacreativecouncil@gmail.com.
The Questa Art Tour is a Questa Creative Council event, supported by NM Arts, Chevron, and many local businesses and local sponsors. The Questa Creative Council would like to extend a special thank you to Peggy Trigg for her work and dedication in managing and growing the event over the past several years. Her work and dedication has established a solid foundation to continue to be the best Studio Art Tour in the state.
