Artist-in-Residence
2026 New Mexico Arts Artist Residency
Sandia Mountain Natural History Center
Project Intent
Each residency will take place over a six-week period in which the artist resides and works in Cedar Crest, New Mexico. Artists will have access to and are encouraged to interact with the land, culture, visitor center and the surrounding area.
The culmination of the residency centers the artist’s research and development of new work that showcases ideas and work created during their six-week stay at Sandia Mountain Natural History Center.
Public engagement opportunities include, but are not limited to an artist talk or exhibition, workshop, temporary site-specific installations, performances, etc. Artwork and community engagement should be safe and appropriate for both children and adults, ADA compliant, and should not permanently alter the environment when removed.
Residency Timeline
Call for Proposals launched………. Friday, August 8, 2025
Submission Deadline………………Friday, October 10, 2025
Artists Notified………………………Late October 2025
Residency Time Frames
March 6, 2026 – April 17, 2026 (Residency I Period) Artwork and Community Engagement Activity
April 24, 2026 – June 5, 2026 (Residency II Period) Artwork and Community Engagement Activity
Proposed timeline is subject to change. Selection criteria used by the Review Committee shall include, but is not limited to: Quality of concept, strength of proposal, quality of previous artwork, and proposed project’s attention to the culture and history of the historic site.
Residency Stipend
An all-inclusive stipend of $14,000, including but not limited to: gross receipts tax and all applicable state and federal taxes for the services performed, insurance, materials, shipping/mailing charges, airfare/travel, car rental, gas, contract labor and services, etc. will be awarded in the form of two payments per residency period: the first ($7,000) upon receipt of signed contract (and approved PO), the second upon completion of public engagement activity ($7,000) at the conclusion of the residency.
Residency Information
Lodging for the artists will be provided by the Sandia Mountain Natural History Center at the Caretaker’s Casita, a small one-bedroom adobe building that is historically rustic. The Casita comes fully furnished and has a vintage kitchen equipped with a stove, dishwasher, bathroom with tub and shower, and easy access to miles of trails within the Sandia Mountain range.
The selected artists will be responsible for arranging their own transportation expenses to and from Sandia Mountain Natural History Center, in addition to their own food expenses. The nearest grocery store is the Triangle Grocery (one mile away) and big box stores are a 15 – 20-minute drive in Tijeras, NM and Edgewood, NM. The nearest major airports are in Santa Fe, NM and Albuquerque, NM. Internet access is not provided in the residence but can be connected to the main buildings.
This residency is managed by the Art in Public Places program whose offices are in Santa Fe, NM. We rely on the onsite partnership of our site’s Executive Director and staff to manage daily aspects of the live-work space.
APPLY HERE
About Sandia Mountain Natural History Center
Sandia Mountain Natural History Center (SMNHC) is run by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science along with Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). It is located on land owned by APS in Cedar Crest, NM. Their environmental educators create and lead ecology programs for 5th graders, as well as other grade levels and the general public. The SMNHC provides ecology lessons and activities for use in the classroom and outdoors, and a large collection of videos teaching about and exploring natural places in the Sandia Mountains and throughout New Mexico. Learn more here.
About New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
Just minutes away from Albuquerque’s lively Old Town Plaza, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science takes you on a journey to the stars and through New Mexico’s past, from the formation of the universe to the present. Learn more here.
Useful Links and Information
About Sandia Mountain Natural History Center (SMNHC)
Sandia Mountain Natural History Center – New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
History of the Center
Directions to SMNHC
SMNHC Trail Map
2025 New Mexico Arts Artist-in-Residency
Los Luceros Historic Site
Chris E. Vargas
Chris E. Vargas begins the second residency on April 25 until June 6, 2025. Vargas’ artwork uses humor and performance to explore the complex ways queer and trans people negotiate spaces for themselves within historical and institutional memory. His work at Los Luceros will center on Mary Cabot Wheelwright and her collaboration with two-spirit Diné weaver Hastíín Klah. Their work together highlights an intersection of cultural and gendered autonomy, as well as resistance to erasure, which will inform a speculative film and video project bridging past and present.
Vargas earned his Master of Fine Arts from the Art Practice department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Executive Director of MOTHA, the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art. He received a Creative Capital award in the Emerging Field category in 2016, a John C. Guggenheim fellowship in 2020, and a Latinx Art Fellowship in 2024-25. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
Learn more about Chris E. Vargas here
Enjoy the video of Chris E. Vargas’ Residency here
Jason Garcia
Jason Garcia ended the first residency on April 18, 2025. Using traditional Pueblo pottery techniques coupled with printmaking, Garcia juxtaposes customary and contemporary methods with his Ancestral Tewa cultural knowledge. He plans to use his time at Los Luceros conducting field visits of Tewa ancestral villages located near the site. He will create concepts and sketches as the basis for clay tiles illustrated with comic book-style narratives as a continuation of a body of work called, “Tewa Tales of Suspense.”
Garcia earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico and his Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. His work has been exhibited at museums throughout the country, including the National Museum of the American Indian, Arizona State University, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, among others. He resides and works in Santa Clara Pueblo, NM.
Learn more about Jason Garcia here
Enjoy the video of Jason Garcia’s Residency here
2024 New Mexico Arts’ Artist-in-Residence Program
Lincoln Historic Site
Marcus Xavier Chormicle
Emerging Las Cruces-based artist, Marcus Xavier Chormicle (Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians/Chicano), creates work that focuses primarily on family, memory, and the intersection of class, race, and history in the American Southwest. Through a site-specific photography practice, he aims to connect the history of place to current circumstances of his family as the subject of imagery. Marcus received a Bachelor of Journalism with a Minor in Digital Marketing and Studio Art from Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, Arizona. Upon completion of his academic studies, he returned home and founded the Cristian Anthony Vallejo Memorial (CAV) Gallery, an art space in downtown Las Cruces, NM. The gallery serves as an extension of his artistic mission to hold space for family, assert their inherent value through art and engage community. While in residence, Chormicle will explore the legacy of the Oryx species in Southern New Mexico as it relates to colonizing histories of land and peoples in the region. He intends to deepen his understanding of the Oryx habitat as well as interrogate visual representations of the animal through materiality across the Lincoln Forest, Sacramento Mountain and surrounding communities. To learn more about Marcus Xavier Chormicle, visit his website. Marcus was in residence from Friday, February 23, 2024 to Friday, April 5, 2024.
Dylan McLaughlin
Dylan McLaughlin (Diné) is a multimedia artist, educator and researcher who looks critically to share stories of ecological extraction and climate change, with special attention to their impact on Indigenous communities, through his creative practice. Dylan received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in New Media Art from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM and later went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Art & Ecology from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque, NM. He is a 2022 recipient of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT Award and has participated in exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Santa Fe, NM; SITE in Santa Fe, NM; 516 Arts in Albuquerque, NM; and Denver Art Museum in Denver, CO among others. While in residence, Dylan will explore algorithmic music composition by drawing upon local data on multi-species migration. He commonly weaves together themes of Diné mythology, ecological data, and environmental histories that culminate in experimental music composition and land-based performance. To learn more about Dylan McLaughlin, visit his website. Dylan was in residence from Friday, April 26, 2024 to Friday, June 7, 2024.
2023 New Mexico Arts’ Artist-in-Residence Program
Bosque Redondo Memorial Historic Site
DezBaa’ and David Henderson
DezBaa’ (Diné) is an accomplished artist in the film industry, including as a SAG-AFTRA actor, a WGA screenwriter, and an indie producer. Currently, she is a Staff Writer on the AMC series Dark Winds. David Henderson (Diné), her father, is a septuagenarian Navy veteran, Los Alamos National Labs retiree, and Film Digital Arts student at Northern New Mexico College. DezBaa’ and David Henderson premiered a documentary featuring David’s journey of self-discovery, as well as a series of interviews with Memorial staff, historians, medicine people, and more. The documentary features Henderson while he documents his past, which is part of his Northern New Mexico College class projects. Neither of them grew up within the Diné culture or with the language – a reflection of both circumstance and survival. They are now both cultivating language revitalization and cultural teachings in their respective homes, as well as for Henderson’s grandchildren, who are Navajo Nation citizens. Together, DezBaa’ and Henderson will interview historians, scholars, and NMHS staff about Bosque Redondo Memorial and the Navajo Long Walk. To learn more about DezBaa’, visit her website. DezBaa’ and David Henderson were in residence until May 2023 .
Dakota Mace
Dakota Mace (Diné) is an interdisciplinary artist who focuses on translating the language of Diné history and beliefs. In Dakota’s words, “My project is a continuation of an ongoing project titled “Dahodiyinii (Sacred Places),” looking at the importance of land and place. The stories shared will show the relationship we, as Diné people, still communicate with our ancestors and the memory or imprint they left within the land. The work is intended to be a multidisciplinary installation with photography, video, audio, and performance to show how our bodies are archives, a collaboration between time and materials while exploring the idea of impermanence. For many Indigenous people, memories are embedded within the land. Through this project, I explore how we, as Diné, see ourselves, how our bodies store these memories, and how those histories continue to affect Diné people.” Dakota Mace’s project focused on the vastness of Din’tah (the Diné homeland), rich with the narratives that exist within the landscape. The Diné hold a close relationship to their home, and each area has sacred significance and places of stories. View the project here.
To learn more about Dakota Mace, visit her website.
Dakota Mace was in residence until June 2023.
Page header image, Sandia Mountain Natural History Center
