Chama Valley Arts
Cultivating creativity, learning, and community through arts and culture
At Chama Valley Arts, we cultivate creativity, learning, and community through arts and culture. We fill the gaps in our schools, collaborating with Chama and Dulce Schools to host their students at our arts center and working with other organizations to provide arts enrichment experiences in the schools. We offer youth and adult classes, camps at the arts center, and are opening a new pottery studio. In 2021, we inherited the Chama Valley Art Festival and Studio Tour, which is now in its 18th year. We host annual events such as the Youth Creator Showcase and the Winter Art Market.
One excellent example of how our community has come to be a part of all we do was when the volunteers who were supposed to help set up for the Entre Flamenco performance both got sick. Our director, Anita Massari, thought she would manage on her own. That day, two different neighbors checked in to see how they could help. Our community takes ownership of the arts center.
This summer, we offered stipends to middle schoolers to help out at summer camp and had some stellar young leaders show up. The Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT) camp took place the week following the second Heart Strings camp. One student, Nicholas, decided to come to MCT after a great week taking care of the arts center and the younger campers. Nicholas played the part of the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk. He had some big solos and backstage he guided his younger cohorts to make better decisions during the long rehearsals and two performances. These experiences will reverberate through his continued growth as he enters seventh grade and develops life-skills, which will be much needed in his transition into high school and beyond.
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The Santa Fe Community Foundation invited its nonprofit grantees to submit stories related to our July topic of Arts & Culture.
Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
Last year, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian opened Carved Stories by Hopi artist Mavasta Honyouti. Featuring all sixteen low-relief carvings from the Coming Home series — created in tandem with Honyouti’s children’s book Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story — the exhibit recounts his grandfather Clyde Honyouti’s experience at an off-reservation federal boarding school. This Indigenous-led project offers a powerful and visually compelling reflection on Hopi life, culture, and history. As Brian Vallo notes, “Carved Stories… is both powerful and beautiful.”
Kha'p'o Community School
With support from the Native American Advised Fund, sixth-grade students at Kha’p’o Community School embarked on Our Voice, Our Stories — a year-long documentary project blending traditional Tewa arts and modern digital storytelling. Through pottery, weaving, sewing, and film, students explored their cultural identity and celebrated their voices as young Tewa people.
Truchas Services Center Preschool
The Truchas Services Center Preschool serves children from all the surrounding communities, providing supervision and appropriate curriculum for children ages 3 to 5 years old. The mission of the Pre-School program is "Children learning through playing".
