Tamarind Institute: Ready for a new home
My art explorations in New Mexico are at an end, but before I fly out I’m able to visit the Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico. Tucked into an unassuming stucco building on Cornell Drive SE in Albuquerque, Tamarind has focused on restoring the art of lithography in the United States. It was established as a result of June Wayne’s visionary proposal submitted to the Ford Foundation in 1959.
Tamarind is dedicated to traditional lithography, a planographic process that depends upon the mutual repulsion of grease and water on a heavy slab of limestone. Once the artist has finished drawing with the greasy black pigments upon the limestone slab, an artisan printer takes over and chemically treats the stones to stabilize the image for printing.
Gallery Director Arif Khan welcomed us on a short tour of the back of the house, showing us the artist’s studio, curating room, printshop, and storage of the stones. The artist studio is a small, quite space with high ceilings, brick wall, oriental carpet and a well worn desk chair that has somehow captured a little of the energy of each of the artists who’ve worked in it.
In the print shop, presses and print racks dominate the space, while color charts and ink cans fill the walls. On one shelf is a collection of old LP albums, that supply the source material for their weekly Vinyl Friday, when the studio gets down to old school tunes.
The collaborative nature of artists and printmaker pulses through the building as evidenced by the printmakers personal artifacts, such as coffee mugs and notebooks, sitting along side limestone slabs labeled in well known artists names.
Tamarind is in the process of a capital campaign to build a signature building for the Institute. Their goal is to raise $5 million, and so far have commitments for $4.9 million in public and private funding. You can become a Friend of Tamarind or call them at 505-277-3901 to help them reach their goal by making a donation in any amount.
It’s obvious that Tamarind has outgrown it’s current home. The one room gallery is small, with less than 10 prints hanging, the rest in flat files and print racks. The space is crushed between administrative offices in the front, and printmaking studios in the back. I found it surprising (and a bit refreshing) that it was such an unassuming place given it’s reputation and after seeing the abundance of high end galleries in Santa Fe. Their new home should be a welcome upgrade to the humble workspace they have now. I hope they can capture and move to the new building this old school energy and good vibrations that I felt there today.
Tags: Albuquerque, Art, lithography, Printmaking Studios, University of New Mexico, UNM