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Chinati and, along with associ-
ate director Rob Weiner, led a
small, resourceful team of com-
mitted people, who would bring
the Chinati Foundation from a
financially destitute organization
to the flourishing center of con-
temporary art that it is today.
That team included locals
Ramon Nuñez, who has now
been foreman at Chinati for over
20 years and Guadalupe
Catano, who, along with
Esteban Alvarez, was Chinati’s
caretaker for many years in the
late 80s and 90s.
“Chinati was not known to
many people back then,” says
Stockebrand. “If you tell people
you’re in the middle of the
desert somewhere in West
Texas, and there’s a sprawling
collection, they don’t under-
stand what that means. It
changed over time,” she adds.
“People came, press came, and it
became better known.”
Stockebrand also reflects on
her own evolving experience of
the town. “I certainly remember
that after seven years of living
here, I still thought, ‘Oh, God,
how much longer?’ That
thought doesn’t occur any-
more,” she says. “Now you have
a town where younger people
want to live and even raise their
children. There’s real potential
for the future here if it’s handled
carefully and people don’t try to
develop too much too quickly.”
This fall, Stockebrand, who
mounted the first exhibition on
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24
Cenizo
First Quarter 2011
Judd’s architectural work in
1989, handed over her director-
ship to art historian and Judd
expert Thomas Kellein. As the
final accomplishment of her 16-
year tenure, Stockebrand has
published a gorgeous compre-
hensive catalog with Yale
University Press, the first to
come from the foundation.
The Lannan Foundation
opened its doors to its first resi-
dents in 1999, and, soon after,
other cultural institutions came
to Marfa. In 2003, Virginia
Lebermann and Fairfax Dorn
founded Ballroom Marfa as a
center for the public exploration
of contemporary art and cul-
ture. Ballroom has hosted art
exhibits, films and musical per-
formances. There also came the
Marfa Book Company and,
more recently, Marfa Public
Radio.
“Chinati started bringing
people in, and the town just
grew,” says Halpern. Thompson
recalls that by the late 90s and
early 2000s, “the word had got-
ten out to the art communities
throughout the country, and the
artists were coming out and
working, and people were open-
ing galleries.”
The relationship between the
various communities living side
by side in Marfa isn’t always a
simple or easy one. “Sometimes,
it has to be said, it’s separate but
equal,” says Halpern. “But West
Texans make it work. Everyone
treats each other with respect,
and we all coexist out here.”
Thompson concurs: “Very few
of the old guard from the ranch-
ing community come out to art
events, but that’s okay. There’s
room for all of us.”
While there’s certainly a lot
happening in Marfa that doesn’t
have to do with Donald Judd, it’s
hard to imagine how things
would look if he hadn’t come
here in the early 70s. His arrival
invited, perhaps unintentionally,
the varied cultural life that has
arisen since.
“Just think,” says Stocke -
brand, “what the town would be
like if he hadn’t restored and
preserved all these buildings and
the fort, too.”
As for why people continue to
move to Marfa, Thompson says,
“it comes down to very simple
things. People are attracted by
the landscape and the purity of
the air,” she says. “The big sky
and the peace and quiet. They
all mention the friendly people,
too.” Halpern agrees that,
“Marfa is just a great place to
live,” adding that, “we’ve
watched it grow out the window
on Highland Avenue. It’s incred-
ible.”
Quite a lot of that growth
can be attributed to the Donald
Judd and the Chinati Founda -
tions. “Now there’s a vibrant
culture here in Marfa,” says
Halpern. “Chinati is the yin to
ranching’s yang.”