New South Valley mural dedicated. Public artwork is part of Bridge Boulevard redevelopment

Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·3 min read
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Jul. 19—A 1977 Monte Carlo lowrider, the "Three Sisters" and the old Barelas bridge are just three of the vignettes in the new mural near Bridge and Coors SW.

The publicly funded 572-square-foot artwork is part of the Bridge Boulevard renovations and was dedicated Thursday.

"Glimpses of Our Barrios" is meant to showcase the Southwest Mesa and South Valley communities, said Interim Bernalillo County Manager Shirley Ragin.

The mural features other vignettes of the South Valley: the skate park at Alamosa, a crane and cattails to represent the bosque, a brightly colored roadrunner, a South Valley soccer team, the Five Points Community Church, which sits down the street on Bridge and is currently undergoing renovations, and a green chile roaster framed by red chile ristras.

The muralist behind the new artwork, Paz, has created other public art for the Albuquerque and Bernalillo County area, including a mural down the road from the new one called "La Comunidad," which was painted in 1998 and recently renovated.

The stems of the bright sunflowers that frame each vignette are made from clay tiles. Armijo and Alameda elementary school students helped complete the mural by etching figures into clay tiles featured in the central image of the Three Sisters.

Paz said he wanted to depict "the Three Sisters, which are corn, squash and beans, and a staple of Indigenous people throughout this hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere, and so it's essentially a nongender-specific spirit, who represents the spirit of growth and the earth, surrounded by pumpkins and squash blossoms and bean plants and the corn. ... The tile that's in the center is actually an abstract of the anhinga, which is a water bird, and it's a sacred medicine to a lot of Indigenous people."

How does Bernalillo County fund public art?

For every general obligation bond project, Bernalillo County commits 1% of the funding to public art connected to the project. In June, Bernalillo County commissioners approved increasing the percentage that the public arts funding gets from general obligation bonds from 1% to 1.5%, for future bond package proposals up for voter approval.

The new $50,000 mural is part of the Bridge Boulevard renovations, phase one of which is complete. The full cost to build phase one came in at $18 million, including funding from gross receipts tax, according to county spokesman Austin Munn. The first phase was part of a revitalization effort that county commissioners approved in the early 2000s and included new safety features and drainage to reduce standing pools of water and flooding issues.

Two more phases are planned, and there will be public art pieces connected to those phases as well, said Public Art Project Coordinator Kent Swanson. Phase two is under construction and is expected to cost $9.5 million to build, including money from New Mexico gross receipts tax, according to Munn. Phase three is still being studied and will move into design soon, so there is not an estimated construction cost yet.

According to Ragin, the overall Bridge Boulevard Corridor redevelopment plan includes upgrades to roads, sidewalks and public spaces to make the area more pedestrian friendly, safer pedestrian and cyclist routes, improved transportation options, better traffic flow management, and new green spaces and landscaping.

"But the cornerstone of our plan is economic development," Ragin said. "We're looking to attract new businesses and support existing businesses, which create jobs and stimulate the local economy."

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