Chelsey Johnson Named Santa Fe’s Arts & Culture Department Director

The city of Santa Fe today announced it has hired a new director for the Arts & Culture Department, formerly the Arts Commission, following the unceremonious departure of former Director Pauline Kamiyama earlier this year.

Incoming Director Chelsey Johnson comes to Santa Fe by way of a rather impressive slew of academic positions, including that of associate professor at the College of William & Mary; visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College; and as an associate professor of English at Northern Arizona University, where she also directed the undergraduate and MFA programs in creative writing, according to a statement from the city. She has already relocated from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Santa Fe full time. Prior to her academic career, Johnson’s work included time with Kínlaní Mutual Aid, the Flagstaff Family Food Center, the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project and Portland’s Writers in the Schools program.

“I come from a literary background in my own practice, but I’ve always been a huge aficionado of the visual arts, performing arts, music, theater, film—all that stuff,” Johnson tells SFR. “My community has always been artists of all kinds, more so than academics. I’m really excited to just be in a community with [so many interdisciplinary artists].”

The city announcement says Johnson beat out more than a dozen candidates for the position, with Santa Fe’s Director of Community Development Rich Brown noting Johnson “brings a healthy dose of curiosity, emotional intelligence, academic rigor and a focus on the future expansion of the arts.”

She will take on a wide spate of duties in her new position, including oversight of the Art in Public Places program, as well as naming the future city historian and poet laureate. She’ll also work closely with the Arts & Culture Department commissioners, which include such notable Santa Feans as Vital Spaces Executive Director Raashan Ahmad, curatorial professional Winoka Yepa (Diné) and longtime local arts worker Anne Wrinkle, among others. Additionally, Johnson will be responsible for the department’s strategic action plan, the announcement reads, which includes working with the Office of Economic Development, installations at the Santa Fe Community Gallery within the Santa Fe Community Convention Center and more in 2024. In addition to receiving the advice of the nine commissioners, Johnson tells SFR she’ll oversee a staff of four.

“I’m coming in with an open mind and a clean slate,” she explains. “And I’m really looking forward to getting to know all the commissioners and the people in the neighborhoods and overlooked communities who have great artists among them who have yet to be uplifted. The DIY world is super-important to me. Those are the kinds of communities I feel most at home in, and I believe in not just sustaining the well-known cultural institutions; I think it’s super important for a city that cares about art and retaining its locals as well as new talent to sustain a scene.”

The Arts & Culture Department has not been without its turmoil. In 2020, the city cut its budget due to pandemic concerns, and Kamiyama’s exit was controversial and not widely publicized. Former commissioner Alma Castro, a current candidate for City Council, resigned from her post in March, at the time citing both the loss of Kamiyama, who had led the department since September 2019, and a since-stalled proposal to rebuild the felled Plaza obelisk that was topped by protestors on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020. In a letter to Mayor Alan Webber, Castro said she was concerned by “how disconnected the community is from the governing body and the lack of representation that they feel.”

Prior to leaving her position, Kamiyama had kickstarted a search for muralists who might have completed public works on two exterior walls of the Community Convention Center. That project never came to fruition.

Rather than comment on the Plaza obelisk or the recently torn-down Kit Carson obelisk on Federal Place, Johnson tells SFR that today is her first day and she’ll operate in “listening and learning” mode a while longer before chiming in.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story has been updated to reflect Johnson was an associate professor at NAU rather than an assistant professor.