We Need Your Help

This Wednesday, December 10, the City Council will decide whether to support the work of Santa Fe Complex. This important decision will determine whether we can continue our efforts at Santa Fe Complex to create a community studio building connections across art, science and technology.

You Can Help

We’ve had tremendous community response to the complex since our grand opening in June. You can show the councilors your support by coming to the meeting on December 10 at 7:00 in the convention center at 201 W. Marcy. Or, if you prefer, you can call or email your counselor with a message of support for sfX. Better yet, you can do both. Click here to find your counselor’s contact information and see a map to the convention center. Read on to learn more about the council’s coming vote.

By Supporting Our Proposal to Build the Future

We are proposing a three-year economic & workforce development plan based at Santa Fe Complex and funded by the city with up to $165,000 per year for the next three years. (Technically, it’s an economic development professional services agreement under a request for innovative business development projects that was issued by the city’s Economic Development Department last August.) Our proposal was reviewed by city staff, which recommended its adoption to the Economic Development Review Subcommittee. ERDC unanimously approved staff’s proposal and forwarded it to the Business & Quality of Life Committee, which also unanimously supported sfX’s proposal.

If the council adopts these recommendations and our proposal, we will implement a three-part program focused on project-based business and workforce development. It will include:

Collaborative workspaces to expand the business opportunities and connections for Santa Fe’s knowledge-based workers who frequently operate as home-based businesses without broader partnerships;

Educational programs to expand the knowledge and skills of students across all socioeconomic groups through interactive, project-based internships and specialized classroom activities; and

Public forums and events to expand collaboration, community and involvement in the scientific, artistic and public issues of our time.

While Protecting the City’s Investment

We will make regular reports to the Economic Development Department on specific performance measurements. If we don’t deliver, we won’t be funded: An innovative but prudent approach to growing our economy while ensuring the city is protected during the proposal’s term.

And Uniting Santa Fe’s Strengths

We can meet this goal because our proposal builds on Santa Fe’s strengths. As a community studio creating connections across art, science and technology, we bring together the rich artistic and scientific traditions of our area, creating a common space for their practitioners to learn from each other.

We’ve had tremendous community response to this mission. Our mailing list has grown from zero to over 400 active subscribers; we’ve held 74 public events through December 3 with an average attendance of 30, or almost 2200 attendees in total; we have three active youth mentorship programs already underway in this school year, a mapping project to create a youth map for Santa Fe, and a long list of additional projects you can review on our website. Plus, we are proud to host such popular and important programs as Cafe Scientifique, a youth-driven science program, and the Q-Bios lecture series from Los Alamos National Labs.

Through a Community Connecting the Worlds of Art and Science

We’ve done this with over 6,000 hours of volunteer labor and the financial contributions of private donors and complex supporters. That’s not enough, however. Santa Fe Complex needs a baseline of financial support for it to grow and achieve its mission. The current economic crisis has slowed our fundraising and made the city’s support more important than ever.