Artesia Arts Council

Artesia Arts Council, Inc.
  Kittridge Marcy
  P. O. Box 782
  Artesia, NM 88211
  Tel: (505) 746-4212

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND

The mission of the Artesia Arts Council is to enhance the quality of life in Southeast New Mexico through the arts. Artesia is a rural community of 16,000. The opportunities to participate in or to attend live performances are very limited. Activities which result in hands-on artistic expression are rare.

The Artesia Arts Council was founded in 1975 by a group of citizens with a deeply-felt appreciation of the visual and performing arts and the nurturing of the heart and soul which is engendered through encountering such beauty. The result has been an organization which functioned primarily through the volunteers who designed by-laws, took responsibility for finding and providing performances, workshops, and procuring entertainers and artists from outside the area for the enjoyment of the general population.
  Since 2001 the current leadership of the Arts Council has built the offerings to about 35 events per year including children’s programs, workshops, a photo contest and many more performances by out-of-town artists. The goal is to have some form of family entertainment in Artesia every week of the year, except for a Christmas break.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

In 2001, the Arts Council purchased a 1935 movie theater, the Ocotillo, in downtown Artesia. The building was stabilized in 2003 by shoring up the roof and installing new heating, air conditioning, electrical wiring and fixtures. The theater currently consists of a half-dozen portable risers, a random collection of furniture and folding chairs on an unfinished concrete floor.

Early in 2006, the Arts Council hired an architect to remodel the Ocotillo into a first-class small theater with back-stage support areas and additional flat-floor space for exhibits, workshops, dinners and meetings of all sorts. At the same time, a theater director was hired to manage the theater for the benefit of the community.