Vital Spaces Announces #NMtwinning - A Social Media Art Challenge with Prize Money

Santa Fe, NM, April 20, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Vital Spaces today announced the launch of a new social media art challenge inviting New Mexicans to recreate or reinterpret works of art in local collections and post their pictures to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter using #NMtwinning. Partnering institutions include: New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of International Folk Art, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

Beginning on May 4, 2020 and continuing for the next four weeks, five submissions from each week will be randomly selected to receive a $200 prize thanks to a generous grant from the Falling Colors Foundation. One of each of the five weekly prizes will be designated for a submission from a middle or high school student. At the end of the four weeks, staff members from each institution will vote on the top three submissions and those winners will each receive a prize of $300. The winners of all the prizes will have the choice of receiving the money personally or of donating it to the All Together New Mexico Fund. Vital Spaces plans to hold a show of the winning works at our exhibition space on Santa Fe’s midtown campus when we reopen.

“We were inspired by other trending social media projects recreating or reinterpreting classic works of art like @covidclassics, #betweenartandquarantine, and #mettwinning,” says Vital Spaces founder and executive director Jonathan Boyd, “And we thought why not encourage New Mexicans to have fun exploring the digital collections of institutions right here in Santa Fe with the added benefit of the prize money providing at least a little help for a number of families in the state suffering economic hardships right now.”

“We are thrilled to partner on this initiative that brings the fascinating art collections of five different New Mexico art institutions into people’s homes and inspires creativity during this difficult time,” says Manuela Well-Off-Man, the Chief Curator at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, “We look forward, after the stay-at-home orders have been lifted, to welcoming new visitors to our museum whose interest was piqued by this project.”

To participate, individuals need to:

1. Pick a work of art from one of the online collections of Vital Spaces' partners:
- Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: https://collections.okeeffemuseum.org/
- Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts: https://www.coeartscenter.org/coe-collection/
- IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts: https://iaia.edu/mocna/mocna-collection/
- Museum of International Folk Art: http://collection.internationalfolkart.org/collections
- New Mexico Museum of Art: http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/collections

2. Reinterpret the work of art in your home - this can mean reproducing the artwork with your body or everyday objects or creating a new painting, drawing, poem, song, or scene inspired by an existing work. Please create reinterpretations that honor and respect the source material. Culturally insensitive posts will not be included in the randomized drawings for the prizes.

3. Post the reinterpretation and the labeled original on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

4. Make sure to follow Vital Spaces and include the hashtag #NMtwinning and where you live to be considered for a prize. If you are a middle or high school student, include that as well.

5. Tag the collection the work is from (@okeeffemuseum, @coeartscenter, @iaiamocna, @internationalfolkartmoifa, @newmexicoartmuseum) and Vital Spaces (@vital.spaces) so that they can repost their favorites.

6. Look out for a DM letting you know if you’ve been selected as one of the prize winners. While anyone is welcome to participate, you must live in New Mexico to be eligible to win a prize.

7. Repeat steps 1–6 each week if you want.

Reach out to contact@vitalspaces.org for more information.

About Vital Spaces
Vital Spaces is a Santa Fe-based 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to sustain and enhance Santa Fe's cultural vibrancy by creating affordable spaces for artists working in all media to create, present, connect, and teach. Our focus is on fostering a collaborative creative community and supporting people, ideas, and artforms that are underrepresented in Santa Fe's commercial art scene.