EDIBLE COMMUNITY
Women of Radiance CELEBRATING IMPACT AND COMMUNITY AT THE SHINE AWARDS By Julia Mandeville · Photos by David Sánchez
Custom Shine Award pendants commissioned from local jewelry artist Chela Gurnee.
Amid the exquisite tableau of lavender fields and cottonwoods at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Cultural Center, friends, families, and collaborators gathered this March to honor some of New Mexico’s most extraordinary women. The event reverberated with the loving spirit and joyous energy of those in attendance, and marked the evolution of a longstanding annual tradition. For twelve years, Women & Creativity has brought together a broad consortium of partners to present a month-long program spanning Women’s History Month. In 2018, co-coordinators Dr. Shelle Sánchez, Valerie Martínez, Stephanie Cameron, and I reimagined our framework to highlight achievements in the creative fields, lift the efforts of innovative practitioners, and expand the landscape of local opportunities for formal recognition. Thus, the Shine Awards were born. This initiative elevates women’s contributions to the arts, creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership with a shared vision. It celebrates artists across disciplines, creative businesses, and nonprofit organizations as well as established professionals and emerging leaders. The common thread is that they work with purpose and intention, shift how we see things, and make positive contributions to community. 42
edible Santa Fe | EARLY SUMMER 2018
Inaugural awardees were selected following an open and public nomination process. At the ceremony on March 29, each was introduced by another woman of her choosing, and the invited presenters offered inspiring, powerful, and emotional testaments to the beauty and impact these award recipients generate in the world. They received generous prizes from local woman-owned businesses and gorgeous custom pendants—commissioned from local jewelry artist Chela Gurnee—to wear as daily reminders that they are seen, heard, appreciated, and adored. Women & Creativity and media partner edible Santa Fe are thrilled to feature the Shine Awards recipients for 2018, with excerpts from the many supporting narratives we’ve collected about each. Helen Atkins is an emerging artist from Albuquerque. She graduated from UNM in 2016 with a BA in studio arts and is currently artist-in-residence with ArtStreet (a program of Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless), program assistant and teaching artist with Harwood Art Center, project coordinator for Artful Life’s International District Youth Artist Team, and a curator and gallery assistant at Patrician Design. She was a lead apprentice with the Mayor’s Art Institute from 2012 to 2017.