Governor’s Arts Awards

A co-founder of The New Mexico Jazz Workshop in 1975, drummer Peter “Amahl” Amaral showcased world class artists in NM such as Mose Allison, Richie Cole, Herb Ellis, and Eddie Harris. He’s toured with greats like Natalie Cole, Junior Brown, and others. A 2020 New Mexico Music Hall of Fame inductee, he now hosts the Taos Jazz Bebop Society’s “NM Jazz Artists” series and has a radio show. A teacher of many NM drummers, at 83 he’s still swinging.

For more than 25 years, Kevin Box has pioneered a process that transforms the delicate beauty of paper into enduring sculptures in bronze, stainless steel, and aluminum. Through close collaboration with his wife Jennifer, world-renowned origami masters, and expert foundry and fabrication teams, the work emerges as a collective achievement—merging material innovation with artistic vision. Exhibited in fine art galleries and botanical gardens across North America and collected internationally, his sculpture celebrates creativity, collaboration, and timeless storytelling.

Experience the West through Tim Cox’s eyes. Tim paints what he knows: contemporary cowboys, horses, cattle, and ranch life. Among Tim’s awards are the Prix De West and two Great American Cowboy Awards from the National Cowboy & Western History Museum. He recently won the Desert Caballeros Western Museum’s 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Heart of the West gala. He is an Emeritus Member of the Cowboy Artists of America.

Rooted in dance, mentorship, and a welcoming space for the arts, Keshet Dance Company & Center for the Arts activates community and fosters unlimited possibilities through education, engagement, innovation, and the pursuit of justice. Founded in 1996 by Shira Greenberg, Keshet has grown into a multifaceted organization that brings together professional dance, inclusive education, entrepreneurial support, and transformative justice initiatives.

Cannupa Hanska Luger is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and cultural innovator whose expansive practice introduces new methodologies, ideas, and speculative technologies rooted in Indigenous innovation. Through installation, performance, and community engagement, he uplifts cultural continuity, ecological repair, and collective care. His work is exhibited and collected internationally.

Nacha Mendez, Gila Apache and Chicana, grew up in La Union, New Mexico, where she discovered her love for music at an early age. A nationally acclaimed singer and composer, she has been honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Award and the New Mexico Platinum Lifetime Achievement Award. As Executive Director of the Nacha Mendez Music Scholarship, she empowers young girls across New Mexico through scholarships, music education, and mentorship.

Connie Voisine is the author of the poetry book The Bower, which she began writing during a Fulbright Fellowship to Northern Ireland. Her writing appears in Poetry, The New Yorker, and other magazines and she was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2021. Voisine has been a professor in the Creative Media Institute at New Mexico State University since 2001 and lives in Las Cruces with her husband, Rus Bradburd and daughter, Alma.