Ram Dass Foundation head Raghu Markus on ‘Becoming Nobody’

Director Jamie Catto’s quintessential portal to Ram Dass’ life and teachings weaves historic clips with engaging conversation to explore the vast question of ultimate freedom. From his days as Dr. Richard Alpert, the eminent Harvard psychologist, to his evolution as Ram Dass, one of the world’s best-known bridge between Eastern and Western philosophies, he has defined a generation of inner explorers and seekers of truth and wisdom. The film captures a loving man full of joy, wit, honesty and wisdom, now inspiring a new generation. (U.S., 2019; 81m) • Jamie Catto’s enjoyable documentary … proves a strong and moving reminder of Alpert’s spiritual insight.” –LA Times

About the speaker:
Raghu Markus spent two years in India with Maharaji and Ram Dass. He has been involved in music and transformational media since the early 1970s when he was program director of CKGM-FM in Montreal. In 1974 he collaborated with Ram Dass on the box set Love Serve Remember. In 1990 he launched Triloka Records and Karuna Music in Los Angeles, California. Triloka established itself as a critical leader in the development of world music and for 17 years was home to such artists as Krishna Das, Hugh Masekela, Walela, Jai Uttal and transformational media projects that featured Ram Dass, Deepak Chopra, and Les Nubians.

About the host:
Gay Dillingham’s credits as filmmaker include The WIPP Trail, narrated by Robert Redford, which casts a critical eye at our nation’s first and still world’s only underground nuclear waste repository and was broadcast nationally on PBS. My Body Belongs to Me, a children’s pro-active educational program on sexual abuse, earned the American Film Festival award for “Guidance & Values Education.” Her company co-produced Dr. Andrew Weil’s first PBS programs in the mid 90s. Her film Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary, made over the course of 17 years, follows the friendship between Leary and Dass. It screened internationally, including an American theatrical release.

2024 Copyright Center for Contemporary Arts – Santa Fe. All rights reserved.

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.