As I continue to venture around New Mexico taking in the sights, food and culture, I head southwest of Grants down the Ancient Way Arts Trail towards the El Morro Valley.  Along the way I pass the El Malpais National Monument and the Ice Caves, go up and over the continental divide, and arrive in El Morro.  Once here, I find the brightly painted Old School Gallery and a feed store on one side of the road and the Inscription Rock Trading and Coffee Co., the Ancient Way Café and a campground on the other side.   And practically in their backyard is the El Morro National Monument.

This is an area with truly extraordinary geographic and cultural significance.  El Malpais National Monument displays a landscape of lava flows, mountain ranges, and mesas, while providing much evidence of American Indian history.  Today, Indian groups including the Puebloan peoples of Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni, and Ramah Navajo, make their homes here and continue their traditional uses.  And, its neighboring National Monument, El Morro, is home to many ancient carvings and writings alongside sandstone cliffs.

My visit was filled with meeting practically the entire community and lots of food!  I had the opportunity to talk to Paula Tripodi, the executive director of the Old School Gallery, Maqui, the chef and general manager at the Ancient Way Café, Jonathan and Pam Pickens, owners of the Inscription Rock Trading and Coffee Co, and many more who were interested in learning about what I was doing.

This is a community that is using cultural entrepreneurship to come up with ways to attract more people to the area in hopes of building their community.  They truly depend on one another and wear many hats in order to survive.  In the coming weeks, you’ll learn more about the individuals I met and how they are using cultural entrepreneurship as the foundation to build their community and economy on.

Grants is a community that has gone through its boom and bust cycles and now, like other Western communities, is thinking about how it will sustain its economy for current and future generations.  Creating a sustainable economy involves developing new models of thinking about economic, cultural, and political paradigms. Furthermore, sustainable communities are more driven by human capital and depend on the entrepreneurial spirit to survive. 

Grants is starting to build a foundation of entrepreneurs, especially cultural entrepreneurs, who will be great catalysts to preserve and promote our cultures.  Local cultural entrepreneurs like Ava Peets and Robert Gallegos, leaders with the Cibola County Arts Council and mentioned in my previous posts, are just a few examples of individuals building cultural organizations that contribute to the entrepreneurial economy while creating a vibrant cultural community.

Grants has some other great initiatives including the MainStreet Program led locally by Randy Hoffmann, which is also a statewide initiative.  The New Mexico MainStreet Program is a “highly successful – community-driven, flexible approach to downtown revitalization.  It brings people together, fosters civic pride, economic revitalization, job growth, and restores the heart of our small communities and neighborhoods.”

The development of the Ancient Way Arts Trail supported by the New Mexico Tourism Department and New Mexico Arts has also been a dynamic initiative, led by Tom Kennedy of Zuni Pueblo and modeling how communities can collaborate to create cultural destinations. 

The Ancient Way Arts Trail was created to recognize the region’s uniqueness and is considered to be New Mexico’s first “multi-arts trails”.  Running from Grants to Zuni to Gallup, the trail highlights a variety of cultures including the Navajo, Zuni, Hispanic, Anglo, and Mormon.  The trail has 26 participating sites, representing more than 650 artists.  Along the trail you’ll find independent artists, galleries, museums, shops and so much more amid breathtaking scenery.  Over the next month, you’ll meet some of the artists and locals along the Ancient Way Arts Trail as I visit the area of El Morro.

As I wrap up my posts on Grants, one question remains in my mind.  Do they need more tourists to build the local businesses, or do they need more businesses to attract more tourists?  I’m curious to get your thoughts!