Following the Ninth

Director Kerry Candaele presents his global, cinematic journey that explores the heart and soul of one of the world’s greatest compositions. Speaking with Guillermo Figueroa of the Santa Fe Symphony in an online webinar, Candeale discusses how Ludwig van Beethoven, completely deaf and adrift from the people he loved, composed his Ninth Symphony as an act of transcendence near the end of his life. It has become a worldwide anthem of hope, from the protests in Tiananmen Square to the resistance movement in Pinochet’s Chile.

Speakers

Kerry Candaele has filmed all over the world, including China, South Africa, Morocco, Indonesia, Chile, and many European countries. He taught history and politics at Occidental College, Cal State Dominguez Hills and Marymount Manhattan College. He has worked with NGOs in Guatemala, East Timor, the West Bank and Gaza City on democracy building projects. Kerry is the author of three books and many articles on U.S. history and popular culture. His writing has appeared in The Nation, USA Today, the Huffington Post, Symphony Magazine, Alternet, and other print and online publications. His most recent book, Journeys With Beethoven, co-authored with Greg Mitchell, covers the making of his film Following The Ninth. He is also a composer and musician, with three released albums.

Guillermo Figueroa is the Principal Conductor of The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, the Music Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado, Music Director of the Lynn Philharmonia in Florida, and is the founder of the highly acclaimed Figueroa Music and Arts Project in Albuquerque. He has performed to critical acclaim around the world, including at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, with many of the leading artists of our time, including Itzhak Perlman, YoYo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Placido Domingo, Joshua Bell, Olga Kern, Janos Starker, James Galway, Midori, Horacio Gutierrez, the Emerson and Fine Arts String Quartets. A renowned violinist, Guillermo’s recording of Ernesto Cordero’s violin concertos received a Latin GRAMMY® nomination in 2012.

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The Board of Directors for the Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe (CCA) has voted to close the organization after serving the Santa Fe and northern New Mexico community on its forty-fourth year of operation. The decision was reached after careful consideration of options presented during its current strategic planning initiative.

“Closing a cherished, community organization like CCA is one of the most difficult decisions a board can make,” said David Muck, CCA Board Chair. “However, we simply couldn’t secure the level of individual donations required to achieve the high quality of programming and exhibitions envisioned by CCA’s professional staff and board of directors,” he continued.

Many nonprofits in the U.S. were hit hard by Covid and CCA is a good example. The CCA Cinema closed during Covid, and attendance was slow to resume, reflecting national downward trends in moviegoing post-Covid as reported in multiple news outlets, such as IndieWire and others. In 2023, the organization forecast the cinema to perform at only 50% of pre-Covid levels, resulting in monthly losses. Though grants and individual donations to the organization were up significantly in 2022 and 2023, they simply weren’t enough to make up the difference in the annual budget and cover both current and planned exhibitions and operations.

“This tough decision did not come lightly,” said Danyelle Means, CCA Executive Director and Head Curator. “For a nonprofit institution that operates independently of state support, the annual donations needed to sustainably continue operating was not enough, especially in the wake of challenges from pandemic closures and reduced attendance,” Means continued.

CCA did have its share of recent successes: CCA Executive Director Danyelle Means had secured a three-year grant of $100,000 per year from the Ford Foundation, with an option to renew for another three-year period. The organization was also the recipient of a $50,000 inaugural grant from Ruth Arts Foundation, as well as other granting organizations. Self-Determined, a 2022 CCA exhibition, was listed as one of the world’s Top 50 Exhibitions of 2022 by Hyperallergic magazine and CCA’s new monthly Closer Looks cinema series was a hit with film enthusiasts.

The CCA board of directors considered closing the organization in December of 2021, but voted to remain open in 2022 in hopes of a recovery post-Covid. However, despite the hard work of CCA staff and the accomplishments like the ones mentioned above, the shuttered period during which the cinema was closed proved too challenging to overcome. CCA Cinema’s final day of public operations is Thursday, April 6, and all upcoming CCA gallery exhibitions and public programs are cancelled.