
By Brian C. Nixon | Oct 14, 2025
However finely one may write about an event, it is the lived encounter that lends words their true gravity.

By Brian C. Nixon | Sep 30, 2025
It feels almost inevitable that Colombian composer and vocalist Lucrecia Dalt would unveil her latest work, A Danger to Ourselves, within the walls of Santa Fe’s Institute of Contemporary Art.

By Brian C. Nixon | Sep 19, 2025
Sam Shepard’s life unfolds like a play in four acts: a California boyhood under wide skies; the restless, electric rise in New York as an Obie-winning playwright; a New Mexico chapter...

By Brian C. Nixon | Sep 17, 2025
It’s a story I don’t often tell, but the one time I greeted Robert Redford—actor, director, and cultural icon—was in a Santa Fe bathroom at the St. Francis Auditorium.

By Brian C. Nixon | Sep 13, 2025
To call composer and artist Raven Chacon a “creative” is an understatement.

By Brian C. Nixon | Sep 4, 2025
Driving north on U.S. Route 550 from Albuquerque to San Ysidro, New Mexico one sees magnificent mesas, majestic mountains, ancient Pueblos, and beautiful geography.

By Brian C. Nixon | Aug 21, 2025
Walking into 516 ARTS on Central Ave in Albuquerque, New Mexico I immediately encounter a large musical score on the wall.

By Brian C. Nixon | Aug 5, 2025
After reading three biographies about famed artist Agnes Martin, I still feel as though I don’t really know Martin as a person, the warts and wonder of the woman.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jul 30, 2025
In the book The Spirit of Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico author Nicolasa Chavez sheds light on the story of flamenco and its worldwide appeal.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jul 30, 2025
It sounds like a bad joke gone wrong: What does a former professional baseball player, a post-punk musician, a jujitsu master, the protestant reformation, and Sodom and Gomorrah have in common?

By Brian C. Nixon | Jul 25, 2025
Artist and teacher, Julia Lambright, knows a thing or two about stories. As a Russian-emigree to the US, Lambright’s story began in an orphanage in Moscow, then continued through schooling in the US.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jul 25, 2025
A solo cello. A candle-lined sanctuary. Light peering through stained glass windows. Four singers walk down an aisle, singing a meditative, harmonic song of praise.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jul 8, 2025
Time machines exist. They’re called books. Books transmit the thoughts and cultures from the past and bring them to the present.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jun 26, 2025
When you think of the state most associated with Georgia O’Keeffe, you probably think of New Mexico. Fitting: She lived in New Mexico for forty years.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jun 20, 2025
When people from out of town ask me about the first arts-dedicated space they should visit in Albuquerque, I immediately recommend 516 ARTS.

By Brian C. Nixon | Jun 8, 2025
On August 24, 1821, Spain and Mexico signed the Treaty of Córdoba, giving Mexico a large mass of land, including a significant part of what is now the western portion of United States of America.

By Brian C. Nixon | May 28, 2025
I first heard of the seminal string quartet Brooklyn Rider on NPR’s All Things Considered. If my memory serves me correctly, it was around 2010.

By Brian C. Nixon | May 13, 2025
Experimental, improvisatory music is not for the faint of heart.

By Brian C. Nixon | May 1, 2025
Pulitzer-nominated poet, translator, and educator, Arthur Sze, is a National Treasure.

By Brian C. Nixon | Apr 25, 2025
I don’t know what it is about experimental film that attracts me. Maybe it’s the poetic nature of the medium, a nonlinear methodology of expression.