Albuquerque 35 Flamenco Festival poster created by Santa Fe artist Erin Currier. Courtesy/TIN

Flamenco News:

Each summer, the National Institute of Flamenco and the University of New Mexico host the Albuquerque Flamenco Festival, bringing the world’s best flamenco artists to Albuquerque.

This year, Flamenco Albuquerque 35 returns June 11-18.

For eight days, the city vibrates to the rhythm of flamenco and becomes the cultural epicenter of this form of art. This tradition celebrates flamenco, the incredible art form that UNESCO declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The appeal of flamenco is its ability to explore the full range of human emotions with an intense, vibrant quality that leaves audiences and students captivated.

The purpose of this project is to preserve and promote the art, history and culture of flamenco to national and international communities. While the presentation aspect is primarily cultivated for those seeking an aesthetic experience, the educational piece aims to promote unique and culturally relevant learning experiences for artistic practitioners, theorists, and newcomers.

The educational aspect of the festival includes a series of more than 30 workshops that cover many aspects of flamenco, such as the history and development of the art, dance, music and specific flamenco sounds and rhythms. These courses are available and designed for students of all ages and backgrounds, creating a multi-generational and diverse atmosphere that fosters excellence, knowledge, and personal growth.

Producing the Flamenco Festival for 35 years, the National Institute of Flamenco has been instrumental in building and growing an incredible community.

New Mexico is considered the center of flamenco in the United States, and this one-of-a-kind event, unparalleled in the quality of its scope and programming, attracts thousands of students and patrons.

The Albuquerque Flamenco Festival is the most affordable and highest quality option for flamenco enthusiasts and students who want to participate in an exciting and visceral festival experience. A number of festivals celebrating the arts take place each year; it is the precision, vigilance and cultural relevance of the vision of the Flamenco Festival that sets it apart from others.

For more information, click here.

About Artist and Illustrator Erin Currier

Each year, the National Institute of Flamenco seeks an artist to produce an image that reflects this unique festival and its important heritage. This year’s festival image was created by Santa Fe-based artist and illustrator Erin Currier.

“My art practice has taken me on a lifelong ‘minimal’ adventure filled with action and magic, which includes training in Beijing with Kung Fu masters; tango dancing in Buenos Aires; in the riots in Chile; dine on dirt floors with Tibetan exiles in Nepal and at the dinner tables of famous filmmakers in Italy; on the couches of Panthers and Weather Underground; in the medicinal ceremonies of the Amazon jungle; on Tahrir Square with a million Egyptians… I am a humanist artist: resolutely narrative, and for whom art and the social world are inseparable. I use the proceeds from the sale of my art to witness the world first hand, i.e. when I sell a painting, I buy a plane ticket and I’m off! said Currier.

“It all started with a natural integration of my socio-political beliefs with a pure joy of making art, and has since developed into an artistic practice through which I integrate human realms – its individuals, cultures and struggles. – with its waste, in order to solve the problems that I am most passionate about,” said Currier. “I have been to more than 50 countries, immersing myself, to the best of my ability, in the daily life of countries like the Nepal and Nicaragua, cities like Istanbul and Caracas, studying languages, traveling on foot or by bus, drawing, making friends and picking up destitute commercial “trash.” Inevitably, I return to my studio in Santa Fe to create series of works that are exhibited and collected internationally.

To learn more about Currier and his works, visit erincurrierfineart.com

Flamenco Albuquerque Festival 35 is made possible by the University of New Mexico Department of Theater and Dance, National Hispanic Cultural Center, National Endowment for the Arts, Bernalillo County, City of Albuquerque, Mayor Tim Keller’s office, the City of Albuquerque Arts & Culture, Heritage Hotels and Resorts, Acción Cultural Española, The Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce Convention and Tourism Department, TourSpain, The New Mexico Humanities Council, the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain and SPAIN/USA Foundation, New Mexico Arts, WESTAF (The Western States Art Federation), Instituto Cervantes and the following offices, departments and programs of the University of New Mexico: the Office of the President, the Provost’s Office, the Office of Student Affairs, the Office of Global Education, Friends of Dance, and the Latin American and Iberian Institute.