A great day at Nob Hill Summerfest 2011!
Tom Guralnick, Zenobia, & Mayor Richard J.Berry

23 YEARS OLD & BUYING OUR BUILDING!

Outpost has some exciting news! After 23 years of leasing our facilities, on October 14, 2011 Outpost purchased its home! While it’s something we have dreamt of since the beginning, we always wondered how we could make it come to fruition. Thanks to the generosity of the McCune Charitable Foundation in Santa Fe and the McCune Foundation in Pittsburgh as well as several generous individuals, Outpost was able to raise the money for a down payment and buy the building which has been such a terrific home for us since 2000. It is indeed a “dream come true” and one more step towards Outpost becoming the institution in the community that we’ve envisioned since our founding in 1988. While outwardly nothing much really changes immediately, we wanted you, our loyal followers, to be among the first to know. In the upcoming months we will embark on a capital campaign in order to pay off the mortgage, make important renovations (both aesthetic and practical) and build a facility and organizational reserve fund to ensure the building’s and the organization’s security into the future. We’ll be announcing our goal soon and we hope you’ll jump on board with the effort.   

Meanwhile we keep moving forward with our programs (what’s a building without the great stuff that happens inside it?). The 6th Annual New Mexico Jazz Festival this past July, was a tremendous success (check out the photos by our friend Paul Slaughter and others on page 42 of our Fall 2011 Newsletter). How did you like that Nob Hill Summerfest with 30,000 people? If you liked it, tell Albuquerque’s Mayor, City Council, and Cultural Services Department without whose support it couldn’t have happened. We had a great fall season with many sold-out, exciting shows by artists including Maria Muldaur, Eric Vloeimans, and Aaron Goldberg who performed at Outpost for the first time; others like René Marie, who returned after a long hiatus; and other “regulars” who are part of the family like Susan McKeown, Rahim AlHaj, the Women’s Poetry Slam, and Javon Jackson & Jimmy Cobb.

The Spring 2012 Season is being put on the schedule page as things are confirmed.  Some of the highlights include the Charles Lloyd New Quartet with Maria Farantouri; Jane Monheit (she'll do two nights— one a benefit evening for Outpost); the Brad Mehldau Trio; the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and many more . And the lineup for the 7th Annual New Mexico Jazz Festival (July 13-29...mark those calendars!) is also falling into place and will be announced soon.

Former saxophonist that I am, let me just toot our collective horn for a minute and say what a great thing this Outpost Performance Space is. But let me remind you that we can’t do it without you (and why would we want to?). Your support is what keeps it going! So let’s start with this: if you’re not a member already, become one today. Go to Outpostspace.org and do it via paypal; or give us a call. Support Outpost! And start getting those member discounts.  And feel free to make  extra 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE gifts. WEe did great with our Year End Appeal.... a real accomplishment given the less than stunning economy. So THANKS! But member/donor or not, please come see us soon in our OWN organizationally-owned, Outpost Performance Space.

Tom Guralnick,
Outpost Founder and Executive Director,December 2011