The Eight Northern Indian Pueblo Council’s annual Arts and Crafts Show has been cancelled for what may be the first time in its 38-year history.
The Council’s Governing Board voted unanimously to postpone the show until 2010, citing “the current economic situation of its communities,” Council Executive Director Michael Miller said.
It was originally scheduled for July 18 and July 19. Next year’s show is scheduled for July 17 and July 18, 2010.
Miller said the decision came after only about 50 or 60 participants signed up for the 2009 show, compared with about 200 in previous years.
“It probably had to do with earlier shows, the artists didn’t do well,” Miller said. “Talking to people at other shows, this year there’s been a lot of lookers, but not a lot of buyers. Unfortunately, when it comes to art, that’s one of the first things people are going to cut back on.”
Miller said some artists, who travel to the show from tribes throughout the country, told him they could not afford the costly trip and overnight stay this year.
“For some of them, the trip costs a good $1,000, and they’re not willing to do it if they can’t recoup that cost,” Miller said. “They have to make a living, and that means being pickier with which shows they visit.”
Participants who had signed up will get refunds on their registration fees.
The Council also faced financial constraints of its own. Putting on the show costs about $100,000, Miller said. Because the Council spends most of its state and federal funding on social programs, the show’s budget depends almost entirely on booth fees, he said. But with only 60 participants, the show would have hardly raised a quarter of that budget.
The Council may still put on a smaller show this fall, likely in October, Miller said.
SUN Staff Report
The Espanola School Board violated the state Open Meetings Act by improperly advertising a closed-door meeting earlier this year, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.
State law requires the Board to specify what it will discuss before it goes into closed session. The Board failed to do that when it met in private Feb. 27 to screen superintendent applicants but listed only unspecified “limited personnel matters” on its meeting agenda.
Tony Ortiz, the Board’s lawyer, acknowledged that agenda was not specific enough in his response to a complaint the SUN filed with the Office after the meeting, according to a June 16 letter from Assistant Attorney General Andrea Buzzard.
While the Act calls for penalties of up to $500 for open meetings violations, Buzzard instead determined the Board had resolved the violation by later publishing revised meeting minutes “to accurately reflect the nature of the ‘personnel matters’ that the Board discussed during its closed meeting on that date.”
“We consider the matter closed and trust that in the future the Board will take care to ensure that its agenda listing of items meet (the Act’s) specificity requirement,” Buzzard wrote.
The Office has not yet responded to a separate complaint the SUN filed in mid-February regarding violations during a closed meeting the Board held Nov. 1, 2008.
The agenda for that meeting the Board gave the public stated it planned to discuss real estate and then-superintendent David Cockerham’s evaluation. Once behind closed doors, the Board followed a separate agenda with items that by law must be discussed publicly, including plans for holding a bond election.