Nearly twenty projects – mostly related to the upgrading of museums and historic sites in New Mexico – have been approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for funding.
The projects were all submitted late last year to state lawmakers by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and altogether comprise just over $11.2 million in capital outlay funding.
The largest single-ticket item at $1.4 million will see improvements made to the New Mexico Museum of Space History, located at 3198 State Route 2001 in Alamogordo. Opened in the fall of 1976, the museum celebrates, through a variety of artifacts and displays, the country’s space exploration history.
The new work at the museum follows an upgrade of the projection system in the facility’s New Horizons Dome Theater & Planetarium, described upon completion as providing a “distortion-free viewing experience.”
Lawmakers and the Governor additionally approved $725,000 for improvements to the Santa Fe Botanical Garden at 715 Camino Lejo. That funding will target the eventual construction of water conservation features and amenities to an existing children’s garden.
Some $675,000, meanwhile, is set for upgrades at the nearby New Mexico Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, located at 710 Camino Lejo in Santa Fe.
Planned exhibit improvements to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, located at 1701 4th Street SW in Albuquerque, have been approved for a $635,000 capital outlay, while an outlay of $200,000 is set for improvements to the Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner.
The memorial, located at 3647 Billy the Kid Road, is dedicated to honoring the Dine and Nde tribes which in the 1860s were confined to a parcel of land measuring around 1 million acres. The new funding will go for exhibit planning, design, and construction work.
March 30, 2026
By Garry Boulard
