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AT A GLANCE:
Taos Talking Pictures, New Mexico

Goal Areas:
Use technology to improve existing programs

MIRA status:
Round: 2
Grant Type: CSO

Contact:
Taos Talking Picture
1337 Gusdorf Road
Taos, New Mexico 87571 505-751-0637
ttpix@ttpix.org

Taos Talking Pictures and the New Mexico Community Education Association acted together as a single New Mexico CSO.

Taos Talking Pictures (TTP) is a nonprofit media arts organization founded in 1994. TTP is dedicated to encouraging the thoughtful production and informed consumption of mass media. It offers year-round film and educational programs, culminating with the Taos Talking Picture Festival, held each April. The goal of the festival is to help provide tools for our audiences to better recognize, consider, and improve their media environment. The New Mexico Community Education Association (NMCEA)is a nonprofit education organization based in Taos and dedicated to promoting community education throughout New Mexico.

As a MIRA CSO, the two organizations planned to expand three TTP programs:

  • Taos Pueblo (Native American) Video Libraries--a collection of Native-produced videos available for free individual and group screenings,
  • Forum Nights Series--a monthly, community-based dialogue about contemporary issues related to the mass media
  • Teen Media Conference--a comprehensive series of workshops, screenings and discussions for students who are interested in film and video production and in media studies
NMCEA would act as administrator, publicist, and outreach coordinator for the Forum Nights series and participate in in a year-round video production component of the Teen Media Conference. In order to achieve these goals, the two organizations would expand their administrative capabilities, increase publicity and outreach, improve and refocus their web pages and purchase equipment. To expand the video libraries, the organizations would organize and increase the library holdings at on and off-site locations. To expand the Forum Nights Series, they would design and implement six new nights at a variety of sites in the community.

The two organizations believe their efforts would allow the projects to mature into powerful media literacy learning tools that would enhance Taos area citizens' skills in analysis, deconstruction, and demystification of mass media. This media literacy education could help break down the biases, angers, separations, and stereotypical viewpoints that abound within the Taos tri-cultural communities.