Art City becomes a reality

Art City no longer is just a concept in Matt Monahan's head. It's now reality.

Three months after announcing at a Quay County Commission meeting his intention to build the large-scale sculpture park and campground on 40 acres a few miles north of Tucumcari off Highway 104, Art City held a soft opening in late April.

Eleven of 14 of the large sculptures planned for the site have been installed, with at least two more coming by the fall.

Art City is selling day passes at its visitartcity.com website so visitors can roam the complex. It also is taking reservations for recreational vehicles or so-called shiftpods, or higher-end tents, so people can stay there overnight.

In the last few months, construction crews built an outdoor kitchen, a firewood-heated hot tub, a sauna and a bathhouse - all made with cedar wood - plus bathrooms amid a stand of cottonwood trees. The complex uses city water and septic for sewer.

Crews also built a quonset structure between two shipping containers that will serve as a gift shop and storage.

Nearby, three small trailers with decks are set up. Two people from Joshua Tree, California, were set to come to Art City and stay there during a three-week artist residency.

"I'm really happy," Monahan said during an interview last week at the property. "Art City is a thing. We brought together a team of local folks and skilled artists and made it happen."

"I've always thought that Tucumcari needed something. And I hope Art City is it," he added.

Monahan said since the soft opening in late April, he's estimated more than 100 people have come through Art City, though he admits it remains a work in progress.

"We're working out our kinks," he said. "This is a place where people are going to come and get to see artists make art. They're going to get to camp out, hang out, enjoy Tucumcari and all of that it has to offer."

Monahan, an artist himself and an entrepreneur, in 2016 founded The Most Famous Artist, a global community of hundreds of artists.

A proponent of technology, artificial intelligence and social media, his Instagram account has more than 161,000 followers.

Monahan once resided in Los Angeles and Santa Fe, then moved to Tucumcari in 2021 with the vision of art and artists moving there and bringing an economic boost to the city, much like Marfa, Texas. His mother also lives in town.

His art-as-commerce vision evolved into Art City, which he said is self-funded. He plans to generate revenue from camping and visitation fees while it serves as a vehicle to nurture artists.

The 40 acres he bought from Gary Balzano sit east of Liberty Mesa and affords a distant view of Tucumcari Mountain to the south.

Monahan said he truly appreciates Art City in the morning and evening, amid the golden rays of the sun and the sounds of nature.

He said the quonset structure will serve as shade during the summer, though the cottonwood trees will do that, as well. Monahan said a dozen wild turkeys also roam the property.

Near the quonset stands the "Electric Dandelions" artwork, which glows with multicolored LEDs at night.

Among the other sculptures on the property are "Lips," resembling a set piece from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" movie; "The Mind's Eye," displayed at the Burning Man Festival; the shimmering "Evolution Field"; "Launch Intention," a paper airplane that's actually made of metal; and "Facing the Fear Beast," a monster-looking creation made primarily from tires.

One recently reassembled work is "Museum of No Spectators," where visitors are encouraged to paint or hang their own art.

Coming in June in the cottonwoods is "Paradisium Forrest," which Monahan said will resemble a stand of treehouses.

Another artwork coming in the fall, "Catharsis," will encourage visitors to leave tokens of remembrance of deceased loved ones.

Heather Stewart, a Los Angeles resident who's been helping Monahan with Art City's development since December, said the complex is "amazing."

"There's a lot of people out there who say they're gonna do stuff, and there's not that many people who actually get it done," she said. "It's exciting to see somebody have an idea and actually make it happen."

Charley Landes, who came from Puerto Escondido, Mexico, a month ago to be Art City's general manager, said he arrived when just a couple of art pieces had been installed but none of its basic infrastructure.

"To see it all come together the way it has is really impressive because there's not a lot of projects like this out there ... not at this scale in a location like this," he said.