The 29th annual Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts honored five artists and arts supporters in an online ceremony on May 6. Local performer Carlos Medina hosted the event, which featured performances by the Albuquerque mariachi band Mariachi Xóchitl and multidisciplinary artist and performer Theo (Satya) Kutsko, who received the Melissa Engestrom Youth Artist Award. Kutsko is a junior studying theater at the New Mexico School for the Arts and is vice president of NMSA’s Gay Straight Alliance. The nonprofit Lightning Boy Foundation, founded in memory of Pojoaque Pueblo hoop dancer Valentino Tzigiwhaeno “Lightning” Rivera, received an award for its dedication to empowering Indigenous youth and preserving cultural roots. The Santa Fe Independent Film Festival was honored with an award as an arts innovator, providing professional opportunities for artists, helping to extend the tourism season into late October with its annual festival, and helping to establish Santa Fe as a destination for filmmakers and film enthusiasts. The Culture Connects Award

went to Israel Francisco Haros Lopez, a co-founding member and artistic director of Alas de Agua Art Collective, which creates opportunities for artists of color, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex, and asexual and/ or ally artists. Philanthropists Andrew Wallerstein and Mary Sloane received an award for their support of local arts venues and institutions, including SITE Santa Fe, the New Mexico School for the Arts, the Center for Contemporary Arts, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. santafenm.gov/news/detail/ mayo rs_ awards_ for_ excellence_ in_ the_ arts