Sherri Brueggemann retired as the City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Division Manager in April, a position she held for 18 years. And during that time, she participated in hundreds of projects that made Burque beautiful. But perhaps more importantly, she helped fund endeavors that stir up conversations about the future of art itself.
When asked to mention some projects Brueggemann thought were noteworthy additions to our public art scene — the ones that stood out among a massive list of her accomplishments — she remembered working on a collaboration between the city and university art departments to fund interactive art infused with technology. One such interdisciplinary art prototype by Italian artist Viola Arduini involved the relationship between humans, technology and nature.
“She used data that you can download from the internet in 15-minute intervals measuring the water level in the Rio Grande and another site that measures migratory bird patterns,” Brueggemann says. “She created an installation that was very artistic using shapes and feathers with lights behind them, and they lit up according to the water level and the migratory bird pattern. And so, to have artwork that is very sculptural — which is beautiful by itself — and actually tells you something about our environment is just awesome.”
Brueggemann served as Bernalillo County’s public art administrator for 10 years. She says she “volunteered her way” into being a part of public art in 1996 as a community organizer, putting together projects such as the Nob Hill street festival to celebrate the neon gateways that had just been installed at Girard and Carlisle. She was hired as an associate project coordinator that year and hit the ground running.
“I was so enamored with the idea of big art installations helping define our city that I became really interested and just kind of hung around,” she says.
Brueggemann’s contributions to public art in Albuquerque are numerous, to say the least. She was a founding member of the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network and served on that council from 2000 until 2002. She worked on the board of the New Mexico Route 66 Association and Albuquerque Arts Alliance, holds a Master’s degree from UNM’s School of Public Administration with an emphasis in arts and cultural policy and is a former adjunct faculty member at UNM’s College of Fine Arts in the Arts Management program. She’s hustled on projects such as the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Arts and Cultural Industries Economic Impact Study, the Downtown ABQ MainStreet Arts and Cultural District Steering Committee, the Cultural Directors’ Tourism Steering Committee and the Ambassadors for Spaceport America.
Throughout her years of community service, Brueggemann built partnerships with different nonprofits that provide artist training to young people and adults who may never have been introduced to public art. She says they were given those opportunities because the public art program created partnerships with organizations such as The Harwood Art Institute, the Apprenticeship for Leaders in the Mosaic Art program and Working Classroom in Barellas. According to Brueggemann, those three organizations are “absolutely critical to the exposure to public art” for aspiring artists throughout Albuquerque.
Looking back, Brueggemann says she is particularly proud of the work she did with Mark Leech, the city’s IT Director, and CNM’s tech-based art project called the Internet of Things IT Bootcamp. This year the program expanded to include UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning and the Predock Center for Design and Research. She calls it a “four-way partnership” giving artists specific training in ways to make their artwork more dynamic and interactive. The works were designed as prototypes envisioning things to come on Downtown Albuquerque’s still-under-construction Rail Trail. The bootcamp has produced intricate, multimodal compositions such as Owen Schwab’s unique sculpture, which Brueggemann describes as “a 10-foot tall, freestanding 360-degree theremin” that responds to the human body.
“It’s got a series of ‘columns’ or square tubing that are embedded with lights and a little sensor,” she says. “As you walk around it, it senses your movement, lights up and makes a sound.”
Brueggemann’s devotion to advancing public art in Albuquerque has opened big possibilities for the next generation of artists who aspire to leave their mark on the Duke City. Her work provided a blueprint for welcoming new creative minds to flourish, an evolving canvas for image, sound form, color, tone, pattern and cultural expression that might literally reach the stars someday. She says when the legislature agreed to use public art money to fund Spaceport America, it got her thinking way outside the box.
“If Spaceport America is the first place where, supposedly, people are going to leave the planet and become space tourists, what kind of public art would we put there?’” she says. “That speaks to the human experience. But more importantly, what if we were to actually welcome extraterrestrial visitors to New Mexico at Spaceport America? Just like all the amazing art in our airport that says ‘Welcome to Albuquerque, this is who Albuquerque is,’ what kind of public art would we create for intergalactic visitors that would say, ‘Welcome. You’ve landed here’?”
Reflecting on her career in public service, Brueggemann humbly says she was just “steering the bus” for thousands of people who helped bring public art to Burque since the implementation of the Art in Public Places Ordinance in 1978. Brueggemann credits the folks who approved the projects and, of course, the artists themselves.
“That’s 46 years’ worth of elected officials who have supported public art and hundreds of board members who were appointed by those elected officials and served in a volunteer capacity to actually make the decisions,” she says. “We did an artist impact study and realized that just over 1000 artists had participated throughout those 46 years. Without those folks out there making the art, none of us would have the opportunity to do these jobs.”
Brueggemann says not to worry, the department is in good hands, even with her moving on. She’s confident there are qualified candidates in the greater Albuquerque area to fill her shoes, and she knows there are potential successors who are just as experienced, involved, passionate and excited about public art as she was. She says she’s excited to see what their new vision might be and looks forward to watching the program grow, but she’s not about to quit the business. She’s already working with the city of Los Alamos, whose public art program is under review, and continuing a research project she’s been having fun with for about 10 years called the Intergalactic Cultural Relations Institute – no doubt inspired by her thoughts about art at Spaceport America.
“It’s a wishful, imaginative think tank considering the idea of art as intergalactic diplomacy for future contact with extraterrestrials,” she says. “It’s a deep dive thought process of looking at why we as human beings make art in the first place, and why we would make art for an audience that we don’t really know anything about. I’m not making judgments about anybody who has encountered any sort of extraterrestrial being. I personally am not an experiencer, and I think it’s amazing when people want to talk about that, but it’s an aesthetic inquiry into why we make art.”
Retirement does bring its perks. Brueggamann says you will probably find her at events such as the Albuquerque Astronomical Society’s Cosmic Carnival, the Space Fiesta and the upcoming Intergalactic Day at the Rail Yard Market. Now she has the time to explore her own creative ambitions, and the sky’s the limit, but beginning a new chapter in her interplanetary saga also rewards her with a special type of freedom here in Albuquerque. She says she’s been waiting her entire career to tell people to go vote for general obligation bonds.
“I’ve taken a little bit of an inventory of the things that I get to say differently now, not being a government employee,” she says. “It’s very clear when we can and cannot advocate for things on the ballot, and now I get to be an advocate. Without 46 years of general obligation bonds, we wouldn’t have these amazing opportunities for public art and to fund artists. The bonds and everything that the city builds with them are so important.”
Although she’s leaving her position, Brueggamann has nothing but optimism and high hopes for the next round of public art projects and her replacement crew. She’s also cooking up a few ideas of her own.
“Keep an eye out,” she says. “Because there are really great, fun things on the horizon.”