On Stands Now
November 2024

Questa  •  Red River  •  Cerro  •  Costilla  •  Amalia  •  Lama  •  San Cristobal

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Questa Creative Council Update

The Questa Creative Council is dedicated to strengthening community through arts, culture, history, and education.

Courtesy photo
Michael Rael and Chris Arellano play a traditional song together.

Northern New Mexico Music: Past & Present Concert


By MARTHA SHEPP


The virtual Facebook Live concert on May 21 was so generous in feeling: the elders who gathered with project director and musician Chris Arellano in Costilla’s historic plaza shared songs, stories, and history with those who tuned in. The video remains on the QCC Facebook page, so you can watch it anytime!


Chris’s interviews with Joseph Marquez, Ernie Marquez, Bernie Torres, and Michael Rael are now available at these links! https://questastories.org/2021/05/21/joseph-marquez/, https://questastories.org/2021/05/21/ernesto-marquez/, https://questastories.org/2021/05/21/bernie-torres/, https://questastories.org/2021/05/21/michael-rael/.
This project was supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts, and Taos Community Foundation.

NeoRio

By CLAIRE COTE

In case you missed NeoRio 2020, you can look at the artworks https://leapsite.org/neorio/home/exhibition/ and the roundtable discussions at https://leapsite.org/neorio/home/artist-roundtables/.

NeoRio is entering a new phase, as an evolving project. A retrospective of the event’s 11 years at Wild Rivers Recreation Area, on the rim of the gorge will be made into a film, and archives will be catalogued. The film will have a public showing: we’ll keep you posted. We are so grateful to everyone who has made NeoRio possible all these years! NeoRio is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts, Taos Community Foundation, with additional sponsorships from Questa Economic Development Fund, Questa Del Rio News, Zia Event Design, North Star Toys, Questa Lumber and Hardware, and generous individual donors and volunteers.

Contact LEAP director Claire Cote for more information, and read about all the QCC projects at QuestaCreative.org.

Questa Studio Tour

By PEGGY TRIGG

The studio art tour is almost set, with over 40 artists registered and ready to show their work at their own studios or in a hosting hub. With 14 stops on the tour (several new hubs, in El Rito and Sunshine Valley), visitors will have the opportunity to meet our local artists, see their studios and galleries, and purchase that special piece of artwork so unique to this area. One new hub will be at Virsylvia Farms in Sunshine Valley.

They will feature artwork as well as a petting zoo for the kids! Come to the QSAT, August 14-15, from 10 am – 5 pm. Maps will be made available as the date gets closer. More information at https://northernnewmexicoartists.com/ or Peggy Trigg at pegtrigg@gmail.com.

Authors

  • Questa Creative Council Board member and artist: Martha Shepp preaches the gospel of the power of creativity. One of her loves is to collaborate with open-minded genre-free artists like Mark Dudrow, playing life-affirming works that can’t help but spark the innate creativity of listeners like you. Her expressions also take form with words, choreography, and visual art... with ever expanding mashups of all the above.

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  • Claire holds a Bachelors in Fine Art and Cultural Anthropology from the University of New Mexico (summa cum laude, 2004) and a Masters in Art and Ecology from Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England (distinction, 2008). Claire's anthropological training and global travels inform her work. Her respect for the diversity of planetary ecology and the geo-socio-cultural particularities of Place are the basis for her commitment to environmental and social justice and life-long learning.

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  • Questa Creative Council Board member and artist: I paint the Southwest because I love the land! Being raised in the country, I have a strong tie to it. It’s a sense of deep emotions, of memory, and of history. While I am painting, I try to capture the feeling of the place, what is all around me: the smells, what I hear, and what I see – a complete picture. My abstracts represent “My Other Side.” I play with emotions through color, shapes, and energy to make playful compositions.

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