Café con Leche: Carol Brey on the City's Quality of Life Department

Greg Smith talks with Carol Brey, director of the City of Las Cruces Quality of Life Department, about the surprisingly broad portfolio her department oversees: the Branigan Library system, four city museums, senior programs, and public art. Brey traces a career that moved from library administration in Illinois and El Paso to overseeing 600 American Spaces cultural centers for the U.S. State Department in nearly 130 countries before she returned to Las Cruces in 2022. The conversation covers the city's growing public art program (now including 20 art pieces at bus stops), the "Made You Look" selfie campaign encouraging residents to interact with public art, and the latest on the Amador Hotel restoration — exterior work resuming soon and a $4.8 million state grant in hand to bring the first floor back into public use.