'Proud of what we’ve done': Farmington arts foundation sunsetting after more than 10 years

• The foundation derived its funding from Connie Gotsch’s estate of approximately $1.5 million.
• Gotsch had directed that the money be used to encourage the arts and support artists in San Juan County.
• The Connie Gotsch Arts Foundation awarded hundreds of grants for various projects over 11 years.

Officials at a Farmington-based foundation that has provided millions of dollars in funding to local arts organizations, projects and individuals over the last 10-plus years have announced they will be calling it quits at the end of the year.

Mick Hesse and Cathy Pope, two of the founders and current board members of the Connie Gotsch Arts Foundation, made the announcement in a May 1 news release, explaining that the organization’s funding is due to expire at that point. The foundation will cease operations on Dec. 31.

The foundation — which was launched in 2013 after the 2012 death of local artist and radio host Connie Gotsch, for whom it is named — derived its funding from Gotsch’s estate of approximately $1.5 million. Gotsch had directed the money be used to encourage the arts and support artists in San Juan County.

Before her death, Gotsch met with her friends Hesse, Pope and Kristen Cochran, according to the news release, and asked that they form an organization to meet her goal.

Over the next 11 years, the Connie Gotsch Arts Foundation did exactly that, awarding hundreds of grants for various projects. The organization has its fingerprints all over the San Juan County arts and cultural scene, having provided money for bricks-and-mortar projects, concert series, educational and therapeutic programs, recording projects and even scholarships for music lessons for disadvantaged young people.

“We had a pretty good run,” Hesse said, assessing the length and breadth of that list, and the impact the foundation has had on the development of arts and culture in the county.

Foundation officials were able to stretch Gotsch’s original $1.5 million estate into more than $2 million through investments and some additional donations, according to the news release, allowing them to carry on the benefactor’s dream for more than a decade.

But Hesse and his fellow organizers always knew the foundation did not have the resources to operate in perpetuity, he said.

“Partway through this process, I think it was about five or six years ago, we brought up the question of, ‘How long is this going to last?’” he said. “This seemed like the right time (to end it).”

A long list of recipients

Among the entities to benefit from foundation funding over the years are the San Juan Symphony, the San Juan College Foundation, the city of Farmington, the Caliente Community Chorus, the San Juan Jazz Society, the Southwest Civic Winds and Inspire HeArt.

The foundation provided more than $120,000 to the symphony over the years, prompting Chandra Stubbs, the symphony’s executive director, to express her gratitude to the organization in a 2023 letter that was quoted in the release.

“Your investment in our organization has enabled us to continue to bring world-class music to our community,” Stubbs wrote. “The San Juan Symphony has always been dedicated to providing access to classical music to all members of our community, and your support has made this possible … “

Hesse said he was proud of the foundation’s support of the symphony over the years, as well as its funding for the Young Audience program through which a group of 12 to 15 musicians, a visual artist, dancers and a poet toured local schools, performing for fifth-grade students and discussing their work. The program reached thousands of young people throughout the county over several years, offering many of them an introduction to various creative pursuits.

“It gave them an insight into what they could consider when they got into sixth grade (and were eligible to take part in band, choir and art programs),” Hesse said. “ … That’s a wide swath of introducing kids to the arts.”

Pope said one of the organizations she was most pleased to have provided funding for is Inspire HeArt, an Aztec-based nonprofit organization that offers art and music therapy programs for young people experiencing mental distress.

“I think that’s a worthwhile project,” she said. “That’s a fantastic part of what we do.”

Christy Clugston, the founder and CEO of Inspire HeArt, said the foundation had provided more than $20,000 for her organization over the past few years to purchase art supplies. She recalled how gratified she was when, shortly after launching Inspire HeArt in 2020, foundation officials paid a visit to the organization’s home in the Aztec Theater and took a genuine interest in what Clugston and her husband Danny were trying to accomplish.

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Inspire HeArt had only a shoestring budget at the time, and Clugston acknowledged that she had neither the skillset nor the patience for sitting down and writing a well-crafted grant application. But Hesse guided her through the process step by step, she said, even refusing to let her quit when Clugston said her frustration got the best of her.

“I’m an artistic, not an analytical person,” she said. “He had so much patience with me. … That was going way beyond. He believed in us enough to put in the time.”

Eventually, Hesse became a mentor for her, Clugston said, demonstrating the kind of graciousness and commitment to community-building that she said is rare these days. Clugston said all the foundation officials made the same impression on her.

“They are some of the kindest people I have ever met,” she said.

Clugston said she was sorry to hear the foundation will be ceasing operations at the end of the year.

“It is sad, but I don’t think there’s a way to thank them enough for what they’ve done, especially for us,” she said, noting how the foundation helped Inspire HeArt reach many more young people than it would have been able to otherwise.

Helping fund all that jazz

Farmington jazz band leader Delbert Anderson also has seen many of the causes with which he is associated benefit from foundation funding. When his group, the Delbert Anderson Trio, was getting its start in 2013 and 2014, he said a grant the foundation awarded to his group allowed it to take a jazz introductory program into nine or 10 San Juan County schools — the first in a series of such initiatives the group now takes part in regularly.

And when Anderson founded the nonprofit San Juan Jazz Society several years ago and began holding free, weekly jazz jam sessions in local parks, it was the foundation that underwrote many of the costs associated with the series, he said.

“That was sort of my entry into the community,” he said. “And it’s grown into a group of musicians and community members who really like jazz.”

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The process of working with foundation officials taught Anderson how to properly write a grant proposal, a skill he apparently has mastered these days, as he has managed to attract hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding from regional and national organizations for music concert series and educational programs. That has helped Anderson elevate his own profile, as he and his group now travel internationally and were the subject of a New York Times profile last year.

There is no overstating the importance of that early support from the foundation in helping Anderson establish his credibility, he said.

“It was very crucial,” he said. “They made it very easy to understand. They were always there to help us through the application process.”

Pope said those kinds of success stories make her proud, but she said the foundation’s biggest contribution to arts and culture development in San Juan County may take years to become evident. Hundreds of young people who wouldn’t have been able to take music lessons without the foundation’s scholarship progrram have developed a love for an instrument, she said, and that is something that will benefit them for years to come.

“We hope so,” she said. “That was one of the goals — to have a lifelong impact on kids interested in music or the arts.”

The foundation’s impact also will continue to be felt in other ways. Hesse noted that his organization has provided the city of Farmington with $35,000 to purchase musical instruments for the new Boundless Journey Adventure Park. It also supplied the San Juan College Foundation with $600,000 a few years ago to renovate the college’s little theater, which has been renamed the Connie Gotsch Theatre.

Part of the foundation’s arrangement with the college is that local nonprofit arts groups are allowed the use the facility for free once a year for their events, Hesse said, ensuring that his organization’s legacy will continue well beyond the end of this year.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done,” he said. “We’ve made an impact and hopefully planted some seeds that will grow further.”

The release indicates the foundation will continue to accept applications for grants and scholarships through Oct. 1, but any organization or individual receiving funding must complete their project by Dec. 15. Applications can be requested by writing PO Box 6475 Farmington, NM 87499 or emailing conniegotschaf@gmail.com.

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