The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs has submitted a capital outlay request for 18 museum and historic site improvement projects to the state legislature.
Altogether, the request for money totals nearly $7 million, with a $1 million request for design, repair, and construction work at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe making up the largest item.
The department is also asking lawmakers for $832,000 in state funds for design and construction upgrade work at the New Mexican Museum of Space History in Alamogordo.
Some $725,000 will target planning, design, and construction work, as well as exhibition improvements, at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.
A slightly smaller request of $675,000 will go to the Albuquerque-based National Hispanic Cultural Center for the planning, design, and construction of improvements to the institute’s facilities and exhibits.
Lawmakers meeting in what is officially the First Session of the 55th Legislature will also be tasked with approving $490,000 for planning, design, and construction work to the Taylor-Mesilla Historic Property in southern New Mexico.
That property is dominated by a large adobe structure, parts of which were originally constructed in the 1850s.
The smallest Cultural Affairs capital outlay request, at $95,000, is for planning, design, and construction work at the Jemez Historic Site in Jemez Springs.
That site in northern New Mexico is the home to the archaeological remains of the 16th century Native American Giusewa Pueblo.
By Garry Boulard
