Latest news with #CollegeofSantaFe
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alumni hope to raise hype, funds to restore historic Greer Garson Theatre at midtown
By his own admission Tom Bartos is a better actor than he is a singer or dancer, but he still has fond memories of performing in a 1990 production of A Chorus Line as a student at the College of Santa Fe. Directed by one of the members of the musical's original Broadway run, the production kicked off the 25th season at the college's Greer Garson Theatre. 'We had to extend it a couple times, I believe, because it was selling out,' Bartos recalled in a recent interview. 'It was such a joyous, celebratory time for the theater.' In the ensuing 35 years, the college changed hands and subsequently went out of business, leaving the performing arts space Bartos remembers so fondly standing empty. As city officials conduct initial efforts to bring the theater back to life at the now city-owned midtown campus on St. Michael's Drive, he and a group of alumni are working to rally support. 'Everything I have now, everything I've learned or I've been able to achieve now, is because of that theater, because of that school, and I want to try to pay it back,' said Bartos, who now works as a video editor and has an Emmy for covering the 2022 Winter Olympics. Garson_Theatre_exterior.jpg (copy) The entrance to the Greer Garson Theatre Center in July 2024. Bartos is president of the newly formed Greer Garson Performing Arts Alliance, a nonprofit made up primarily of alumni from St. Michael's College, the College of Santa Fe and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. He said he views the organization as an advocacy group to gin up community support — and hopefully money — for a new iteration of the historic theater. The city is also taking steps to explore the theater's future. On Wednesday, the City Council approved a budget adjustment resolution to move $794,164 in lodgers tax revenue into the Arts and Culture Department's budget, $60,000 of which will go toward a feasibility study of future restoration and use of the Greer Garson as part of the redevelopment of former college campus. Arts and Culture Director Chelsey Johnson said the study will focus on the physical condition of the building and what a future management model could look like. Opened in 1965 and named after the Academy Award-winning actress Greer Garson, the theater at the College of Santa Fe was designed by Phillippe Register, who was responsible for many of the other iconic buildings on campus as well. At 32,628 square feet, the performing arts complex includes a main theater with an orchestra pit and seating for more than 500 people, a black box performance space that seats 90, and rehearsal rooms, classrooms and storage space. 020525 jw garson theatre Opened in 1965 and named after the Academy Award-winning actress Greer Garson, the theater at the College of Santa Fe was designed by Phillippe Register, who was responsible for many of the other iconic buildings on campus as well. The performing arts complex has been completely vacant since the Santa Fe University of Art and Design closed its doors in 2018 and would need significant upgrades to make it useable, Johnson said. 'It's been used by film crews as a wardrobe space, primarily, but because there's no sprinkler system in it, it's not up to code,' she said. 'So in order to be used even by them they have to have a fire safety professional on site at all times.' A request for proposals for a contractor for the study states the city ultimately seeks 'a developer and operator with the capacity and experience to rehabilitate and operate the Greer Garson Theatre' as a public theater with a range of community-focused programming, citing the Public Theater and Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City as models. The request for proposals states the city will dispose of the property in 'as-in condition.' The scope of work for the contractor includes conducting a building assessment, and creating redevelopment and operations and management strategies. Participation of city departments — including Tourism, Arts and Culture and Economic Development — and local performing arts organizations is stipulated, with LiveArts, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Creative Santa Fe and the Center for Contemporary Arts being specifically named as external stakeholders. 020525 jw garson theatre Members of the Metropolitan Redevelopment Commission get a look around the Greer Garson Theatre during a Feb. 5 tour of the midtown campus. On Wednesday, the City Council approved a budget adjustment resolution to move $794,164 in lodgers tax revenue into the Arts and Culture Department's budget, $60,000 of which will go toward a feasibility study of future restoration and use of the theater as part of the redevelopment of former college campus. The city was initially pursuing entering into an exclusive negotiated agreement with LiveArts for the redevelopment of the theater, similar to its plans for a film studio and visual arts center on the midtown campus. LiveArts was the only applicant who entered a proposal for the theater, and in March 2024 the city announced in a news release the bid was canceled after the two entities 'mutually agreed that the best path forward is for the City to redevelop the theater.' Johnson said the negotiations with LiveArts happened before she joined the city, but her understanding is that things didn't come together the way the parties hoped. 'It turned out to not be so feasible, which is, I think, partly why we're doing this actual feasibility study to really have a clear sense of what will help us to successfully redevelop and reactivate it,' she said. Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Director Daniel Hernandez said LiveArts remains an important partner and will have a seat at the table. 'We're going to include them in this conversation,' he said. SKM_450i24040217460 Actress Greer Garson outside her namesake venue in 1975. Hernandez said honoring the heritage of buildings like the Greer Garson Theatre is crucial to development at midtown. 'They're the landmarks for the future of midtown because they hold so much memory for people,' he said. 'People want to come back to midtown specifically to see these buildings.' The request for proposals sets a four-month timeline for the work, and Johnson said her hope is for the feasibility study to be completed by this fall, after which the findings will be shared with city councilors. Hernandez said an organization has been selected to complete the work and a contract is in the process of being finalized. He said the contractor is national a firm that serves as an arts and culture consultant but which also has a background in arts-focused affordable housing. 'We're excited to bring them on board,' he said. Along with the feasibility study, Hernandez said the city is also working with alum Kelly Kuhn to host some outdoor concerts in the midtown quad this fall. Hernandez said he's excited by the interest college alumni have for the project. To date, Bartos said, the Greer Garson Performing Arts Alliance has more than 200 members, mostly alumni from the 1980s and 1990s. The colleges 'didn't really keep up with alumni relations, so we're kind of doing double duty and trying to find all these people and track them down,' Bartos said. SKM_450i24040217480 The Greer Garson Theatre under construction, circa 1965. Part of reaching out to alumni from across the country as well as building connections within the local arts scene is exploring who or what entities might be able to support the project financially, Bartos said, noting that money will play a big role in any discussions of the Greer's future. 'With film it's easier because movies can make money,' he said. '… Live theater is a little different, especially in this town, since it's more visual art focused.' However, Bartos said he's optimistic a coalition of groups will come together so the Greer can resume its place in the city's arts and culture scene. 'If there's a way to bring people back ... it doesn't need to be preserved in amber or anything,' he said. 'It's going to change, but just as long as there's life on campus, I think that'd be a great thing that the alumni could be proud of.'
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmaker has been top advocate for advancing bilingual programs
State Rep. Yanira Gurrola found her calling in bilingual education. "For two or three years in this country, I thought, 'What am I doing here?' ' said Gurrola, D-Albuquerque, a trained engineer turned bilingual educator, in a recent interview. "But then I really fell in love with everything. I saw what the program did to my students, and that's when I became an advocate." Gurrola, 50, a former bilingual math teacher elected to her seat in 2022, has been a staunch advocate in the Legislature for bilingual and multicultural education measures, co-sponsoring almost every recent effort to bolster programs across the state. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, she first visited the U.S. as part of a church-led community service trip. She moved to Albuquerque in 2000. She wanted to get more involved in community work than her background in electronic industrial engineering allowed, she said. So, in 2005 she earned a master's degree in curriculum and instructional leadership from the College of Santa Fe. Even then she was lost, she said, until a counselor at the college told her a female Mexican engineer might be a role model for other women. 'And in that moment, I knew what she meant,' Gurrola said. 'So, I became a math teacher.' She worked for over a decade as a math teacher in several schools but ultimately found her place at Washington Middle School in Albuquerque, where she worked from 2006 to 2019. 021625-sfnm-nws-bilingualsidebar_002.JPG Rep. Yanira Gurrola, D-Albuquerque, listens as the session is called to order Friday on the floor of the House of Representatives. Six years ago, she left the classroom to work in professional development for Dual Language Education of New Mexico, a nonprofit that travels nationally and internationally to help schools and districts develop dual language instruction. Dual language, one of the five program models recommended by state's Bilingual Multicultural Education Advisory Council, calls for learning subject matter in a mix of two languages, either starting at a 50/50 split or starting with more use of the student's home language before gradually reaching 50-50. For kids in lower grades, the goal is to reach 50-50 by the third grade. "Every program, except the dual language program, is trying to fix the kid because they don't speak English," Gurrola said. "We don't value what they bring to the classroom." In a dual language program, students behave differently, she said. 'They became more involved in the school. They were happier. They behaved better — I mean, it was day and night. And year after year, I was trying to understand why. "And then that's when I realized — kids feel that they belong," she said. "They are part of something here.' The program is more than just a way to make kids more comfortable in school, Gurrola said. It harkens back to correcting legacies of cultural erasure. "Talk to any Native New Mexican," she said, "and they will tell you their parents were beat up for speaking their language." 021625-sfnm-nws-bilingualsidebar_003.JPG Rep. Yanira Gurrola, right, an Albuquerque Democrat, speaks with a colleague Friday in the hall outside the House Chamber. She sees bilingual and multicultural education as more than an academic approach — it's cultural preservation. "It's not just Spanish," she said, "Native languages were here before Spanish, before English. They've tried to eliminate them, but the culture and identify have survived." Spanish, too, has faced erasure, Gurrola said, something she saw firsthand in the school system. "Many parents felt pressured to stop teaching their kids Spanish after being punished for speaking it," she said. "Assimilation was the goal." Gurrola recalled one moment when a parent expressed relief after school staff made an effort to find a Spanish speaker. "He was so embarrassed that he couldn't communicate. And I said, 'You are communicating in your second language with somebody who speaks only one — and you are the one who feels embarrassed?' ' she said. Gurrola noted that under the New Mexico Constitution, she must be proficient in English to serve as a state legislator. 'I'm speaking English with you because that's the language of power,' Gurrola said from her office in the Capitol. 'I could speak Spanish — and I'm tempted to, since I'm better in Spanish — but that's the inner mentality."
