Flash n e w s , g o s s i p , a n d i n n u e n d o f r o m a r t / d e s i g n / a r c h i t e c t u r e
iLSAF Initiates New Land-based Art Biennial
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Burt and Lucy Harwoods’ Taos Legacy Lives On
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inety years ago, two transplants from Europe made a philanthropic gesture that significantly shaped the artistic and cultural development of the Taos area. When Elizabeth (Lucy) Case Harwood (1867–1938) and husband Elihu Burritt (Burt) Harwood (1855-1922) moved to Taos in 1916, they purchased a cluster of adobe structures on Ledoux Street, to which Burt made additions and improvements over the next several years. Patterned after the buildings of Taos Pueblo, it came to be known as El Pueblito and is said The Harwood family. Photo by Burt Harwood. to have been the first non-Native multiplestoried home in Taos and the first to have electricity. While would become the Harwood Museum of Art we know today. the Harwoods lived there, El Pueblito became a Southwest To mark this 90-year milestone, the curatorial department of style salon of sorts, a gathering place for lively discussions, the Harwood Museum of Art embarked on a yearlong quest to lectures, and art exhibitions—and home to Taos’ first public shed new light on the extraordinary lives of Burt and Lucy, who library, initially composed of the couple’s extensive book col- formally studied art and contributed considerably to foundlection. In 1923, following the death of her husband, Lucy ing Taos’ then-fledgling art community. Recently unearthed donated the compound to the Harwood Foundation, which documentation from a variety of sources, including archives of
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Fall 2013–Spring 2014 Trend
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TOP: courtesy of T.i.m.e. at coyote canyon; Bottom: courtesy of The Harwood Museum of art
rtists who are moving off the canvas and out of the gallery to express their aesthetic vision have a vital new resource for funding, direction, and public education. Established in the summer of 2013, the Santa Fe–based International Land-Sensitive Art Foundation supports projects that reflect the tenets of the experiential art practice championed by critic Nicolas Bourriaud as “relational aesthetics.” The brainchild of Executive Producer Chuck Zimmer of New Mexico Arts, Director Manuelito Wheeler from the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, and curator Eileen Braziel of Santa Fe, the mission of Maneulito Wheeler, Director of T.I.M.E. at Coyote Canyon and iLSAF’s president the nonprofit iLSAF is to fund the work of thoughtfully selected artists who create temporary, land-sensitive, iLSAF seeks to move ephemeral art from the political arena interactive art installations that promote community relation- into the private sector. ships and encourage audience response. Its ultimate goal is The organization recently held its first fundraiser, timed to to develop and manifest major land-based art biennials, such the fall equinox, on Sept. 19–22, 2013. Invitations went to poas T.I.M.E. at Coyote Canyon, slated for summer 2014. As tential donors, sponsors, and major press entities, including at part of New Mexico’s Art in Public Places program, T.I.M.E. Chaco Canyon catered by students from Crownpoint’s culinary (Temporary Installations Made for the Environment) projects arts program, as well as a traditional mutton feast hosted by are spontaneous public artwork experiences with a strong a Navajo family at their ancestral home near Coyote Canyon. cultural focus. While continuing to partner with the state, —Kathryn M Davis