How creative can New Mexico get with $2 million?
You’re about to find out.
Among the dozens of bills passed by the Legislature this year and going into effect Saturday is a proposal by freshman state Rep. Reena Szczepanski, a Santa Fe Democrat, to establish a Creative Industries Division under the New Mexico Economic Development Department.
“It’s so exciting because I feel like we’re finally going to fulfill the promise of all the creativity we have in New Mexico, and this is the first step,” she said.
House Bill 8 called for a $67 million appropriation.
It ended up with $2 million in one-time money.
“We set that $67 million benchmark out there as a bold vision, and it’s going to take time to reach that bold vision,” Szczepanski said. “We based that on what we were seeing in a couple of other states in terms of investment, so my goal is to get recurring funding for the division in the coming year.”
Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, who co-sponsored the bill, said it plays off New Mexico’s “preeminent strength in the nation” of having 75% more visual artists per capita than any other state.
“We really did not have any focused economic development efforts that really worked with that sector on kind of a micro level to further promote it and develop it,” he said.
“Our creative economy has been important in the state for a long time,” he added, “but this was a way to create a focused economic development [initiative for] those sectors and further expand them.”
The new division has neither a director nor dedicated staff, which has led to some creative thinking to get it off the ground.
‘How to make it work’
Shani Harvie, coordinator of the Economic Development Department’s Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, is overseeing work on a request for proposals to hire a consultant to do community outreach and create a plan for the division.
Staff in the department’s MainStreet program, which according to its website “works throughout the state to help affiliated local organizations create an economically viable business environment while preserving cultural and historic resources,” is also contributing to the effort.
The MainStreet team, which does a lot of grants to local governments, will help write the request for proposals, said Bruce Krasnow, a department spokesman.
“We’re trying to put our heads together to try to make this work with a one-time appropriation,” Krasnow said.
“It’s obviously a lot harder when you don’t have dedicated staff for these programs, but it’s an important part of the state economy,” he added. “We’re here to get going on it. It’s something that lawmakers want us to do, and the governor obviously supports it. It’s just a question of how to make it work.”
The state anticipates awarding $1.8 million in local grants — about $100,000 each to 18 communities.
The grants would go to local governments for proposals that build the creative economy, including workshops, incubators and “makerspaces,” or collaborative work spaces, Krasnow said.
“All this is still being worked through, but a grant announcement is expected to be finalized before the end of August,” he said.
The remaining $200,000 is expected to be spent on a study that would include best practices.
“That will determine sort of what this division looks like as far as how many people and what those people do,” Krasnow said.
The funding itself can be spent on myriad purposes.
Though film is excluded, the bill defined “creative industry” broadly.
Under the bill, it can be “a business, organization or person engaged in creative enterprises, including performing, visual and literary arts; entertainment, media, information and broadcasting; applied arts and design, including architecture, landscape architecture, museum and gallery professions; promotion, marketing, graphics and industrial design; technology and computer system design, software design, coding and digital media; and crafts and artisan professions, including metal, wood, glass, ceramics, paper, printing, textile and culinary arts.”
‘The sky’s the limit’
Szczepanski said a working group already identified 16 projects that could benefit from grant funding. She gave these examples:
- Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo is interested in constructing a heritage center and museum;
- Taos wants to build campus of tiny houses where artists could live during residency programs;
- Roswell is interested in building a community clay-firing facility;
- Las Cruces wants to create a resource center where entrepreneurs can work on business plans and get advice to help turn “what might be a side gig into a full-time thing.”
“The sky’s the limit,” Szczepanski said. “We should be the center of the universe for creativity in America, and that’s what I’m hoping to see. If you’re a creative, you shouldn’t have to feel like you need to live in New York or L.A. to have that successful creative life you want. You should be able to do it right here in our state.”
The work will fall into three buckets: capital projects, workforce training and business development.
The bill requires half the money be awarded to projects or programs in rural or underserved communities.
“One of the reasons I was so excited to work on this bill is because we have been searching for ways to diversify our economy that aren’t just about Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe,” Szczepanski said. “How do we diversify the economy so that folks in rural areas have access to good-paying jobs? And this is a way that we can have those economic opportunities in rural areas.”
People from different backgrounds and levels of education can participate in the creative industry, she said.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of field,” Szczepanski said. “There’s just so many different ways that people can get involved and bring their own identity, their cultural heritage, their family traditions. We have craftspeople that have been passing some of these cultural arts down generation after generation. We can turn that into something that can support a family if we focus on it and if we invest in it.”
Steinborn called the new division a “clearinghouse” for growing New Mexico’s creative industry.
“I know that there may be some in state government who feel like they cater to that sector, but it was universally felt by those that actually do the work that that’s not been the case,” he said. “And sometimes, it’s also very valuable to put a name on it and create a big welcome mat, not only for people in the state who do that work but for people around the country or world that may be thinking of creating those jobs here in New Mexico.”
The idea of establishing a new division to grow the state’s creative industry economy had bipartisan support in both chambers of the Legislature, passing 56-10 in the House and 30-2 in the Senate.
But there were some holdouts.
Growing bureaucracy?
In the House, Rep. Debbie Sariñana of Albuquerque was the only Democrat to vote against the bill.
Sariñana cited issues identified in the bill’s fiscal impact report, which included duplication of efforts among existing agencies, and questioned whether the state government, which relies heavily on the volatile oil and gas industry for revenue, could afford to fund the division long term despite a windfall this year.
“I just wondered if once we lose gas and oil, is this one of the things that’s sustainable and is it one of the most important things we should be doing with the money,” she said Friday. “If we don’t have that money anymore, will it survive?”
Sariñana, who has served in the Legislature since 2017, said it wasn’t difficult to vote against the majority of her party.
“There are some votes that are difficult, but this one not so much because sometimes you’ve just got to go on your own and trust your gut feeling,” she said.
Rep. John Block of Alamogordo was among nine Republicans who voted in opposition.
Block, a freshman lawmaker, said his constituents had “extreme concerns” with the legislation and “the data that backed it up.” The fiscal impact report, for example, stated the duties of the proposed division would “significantly overlap” with those of existing agencies.
“My view is it’s probably going to add more red tape, more bureaucracy, and I just don’t think that’s the approach we should be taking,” he said.
Block said he, too, was concerned about the division’s long-term viability. He said he’s “sick of spending money” that may not be available in the future.
“Our budget is insane,” he said. “It’s $10 billion — a lot of it being wasted, and we need to see how we can ensure that the programs that have already been put in statute and funded are being carried out without … wasting more money on feel-good legislation that doesn’t do a darn thing except waste more money.”
Krasnow said the new division was modeled in part after the state’s Outdoor Recreation Division, which was created in 2019.
“It’s just kind of a clunky little thing right now that’s going to find a home in EDD,” he said. “But we’re excited about it. The sponsors are excited about it. The governor’s excited about it. You just don’t flip a switch,” he said. “If you look at outdoor recreation, they started with, like, one person. [Four] years later, they have three people. They’re running programming, running grants — but it takes a while when you start something new.”