CURATE with Cyndi Conn
• – • CCA | Muñoz-Waxman Gallery space
About the speaker
What if the most important creative act isn't making something new... but knowing what to keep?
Curator and creative strategist Cyndi Conn has spent her career at the intersection of art, culture, and systems change. In this talk, she takes curation off the gallery wall and into everyday life, exploring it as a habit of mind. Through personal story, cultural provocation, and hard-won professional insight, she asks: What do you actually trust yourself to pay attention to? And what are you ready to let go?
In a world that makes conformity easier than ever, Cyndi reminds us that trusting your own discernment isn't a luxury. It's how we build the lives and communities we actually want.
Cyndi Conn is a curator, producer, and innovation leader working at the intersection of art, culture, philanthropy, and strategy. As founder and president of LaunchProjects, she leads transformative efforts to reframe complex challenges and shape bold new futures. She serves as Director of Learning and Innovation at Anchorum Health Foundation and has previously led Creative Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Data Platform, and the Center for Contemporary Arts. She is a recognized voice in creative strategy, cross-sector collaboration, and community-centered change.
Local partners
The Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe (CCA) is a community-supported arts center featuring the best in cinema, contemporary chamber music, immersive theater, contemporary art, poetry and more. They offer a year-round schedule of activities and host many events each and every week made possible through the collaboration of several non-profits who make CCA their Santa Fe home.
The City of Santa Fe Economic Development Department supports a thriving local economy by fostering entrepreneurship, supporting businesses, and promoting innovation. Their initiatives help build a vibrant community where creativity and commerce can flourish.
CrashMurderBusiness, our 2026 coffee partner, is a whimsical cafe with a serious passion for community and great coffee. Their name, inspired by a playful chat about animal group names and the community among our animal friends, reflects their mission to create a gathering spot that sparks conversations about everything from ferrets in ties to deeper topics like equity and kindness—all over a perfect cup of coffee.
Additional details
JUNE’S MUSICAL GUEST
We are thrilled to welcome Derek Rutkai to CreativeMornings Santa Fe. Recording and composing since 2001 under the name Akwanaut, Derek works at the edge of instrumental and experimental music. In 2019 he discovered modular synthesis, and his practice has since evolved into something genuinely one of a kind… improvisational sound woven together with procedural visuals, all driven by the modular synth itself. Eerie and playful in equal measure, his work is as much something you see as something you hear.
A fitting guest for a morning built around Curate. Derek doesn’t just make music. He makes choices, in real time, about what belongs.
SIGN UP FOR 30 SECOND PITCHES
We’re opening the floor this month for up to five community members to take 30 seconds and tell us what they’re working on, looking for, or putting out into the world. Consider it your curated moment in the spotlight. Interested? SIGN UP HERE.
THE VENUE
Each month we meet at The Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in the Muñoz-Waxman Gallery space. CCA Santa Fe is located just west of Old Pecos Trail, behind the New Mexico Military Museum and Santa Fe Children’s Museum. Free parking is available in multiple lots onsite.
NEED A HAND? Everyone is welcome at our events, and we want it to feel that way! Enter the CCA Munoz-Waxman Gallery via ramp from the upper parking area or level walkway from the lower circle drive. If you need a special accommodation, just let us know prior to the day of the event via email. If you’d like to reserve ADA seats right up front or need ASL assistance, please let us know in advance.
What is the event like? CreativeMornings is about community and inspiration. Come for both! Doors open at 8:30am, and we’ll have coffee, and a light breakfast ready for you. Coffee time is great for meeting the other CreativeMornings attendees. The talk will start at 8:55 followed by Q&A. We like giving hugs and high-fives.
Location
Hosted at
CCA | Muñoz-Waxman Gallery space
1050 Old Pecos Trail Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico United States 87505
When
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