Summer in the City

"Outside In has submitted proposals for a number of years, and we are simply continuing according to the city's procurement policy," Arts Commission Division Director Debra Garcia y Griego tells SFR. "We welcome anybody to apply, but they must be and usually are an incorporated business or a nonprofit organization that can handle the financials such as pulling permits and making sure the events are insured."

Outside In Director Michael Delheim, who seemed lackluster about another year of Bandstand oversight during a brief phone interview, sees the possible shift as a good thing for music-loving Santa Feans during a climate of local cultural change.

"We are not attached to doing Bandstand for next year, and we posted the link to the information on proposals on the Outside In website, because I want to encourage other people to apply if they think they have ideas for what it should be," Delheim says. "It really is a lot of work, and we do what we do, but I don't know if everything is really as good as it could be, so maybe somebody else has other ideas that could take the Bandstand to another level."

Delheim took control of the Summer Bandstand series after Outside In founder David Lescht died in 2012, and says he has since essentially operated the series on his own. The $50,000 in public money doesn't go far, he says.

"Everything that needs to be done from the booking and marketing to fundraising…everything has been just me. The city provides money, but it's less than a third of the budget needed, so you have to get out there and shake the trees for the rest," Delheim points out. "Maybe somebody has an organization that could produce this, I don't know, but we are going to apply for the contract and throw our hat in the ring. I just really want to get the message out there that just because we're throwing our hat in doesn't mean that others can't or shouldn't submit their proposals as well."

In the event that Outside In is outbid for the contract, the nonprofit—which Lescht founded in 1994 as a means of procuring instruments and providing music lessons and workshops for incarcerated youths, the elderly confined to nursing homes, developmentally impaired, the homeless and more—is likely to cease operations completely.

"The bad news is that if we do get the contract, the series will go on and on the way it has, which is bad news if you don't like it," Delheim tells SFR. "In the event we don't get it, we'll probably have to fold Outside In as well."

Delheim says he is comfortable with this possible outcome.

"I tried hard to keep David's legacy going, but it's not really my background…I don't have any background in nonprofit management or fundraising or all the things you have to do to run a nonprofit, and while I've tried my best to push the rock up the hill—and it's going well—if it all came to an end, I wouldn't cry about it," he adds. "It just feels like it's such a time of change in Santa Fe, and lots of new voices are coming to the table, and I really applaud that…if somebody has a really fresh vision of how to use that space for eight weeks in the summer, and it elevates things, I just think it'd be great for the city."

Garcia y Griego says she was unsure of the number of currently submitted proposals as of presstime, but she did point out that the deadline for submissions is 2 pm Monday, Dec. 28, at the City of Santa Fe Purchasing Office at 2651 Siringo Road, Building H.

Santa Fe Reporter