CAFE CON LECHE WITH GREG SMITH
Tuesday 8-9 AM Friday 2-3 PM Rebroadcast
Join Greg Smith with the Arts and More on Café con Leche.
Greg comes to KTAL and Café con Leche via his role a few years ago as the executive director of the Doña Ana Arts Council. Nan Rubin originally invited him to guest host the program the first Tuesday each month to talk about what was happening with the arts in our community. When Greg left the Arts Council, Nan asked him to continue hosting the program once a month, and when Nan left Las Cruces, Greg was asked to take over the program the rest of the Tuesdays each month. He’s been happy to continue in that larger role with an emphasis on the arts but also bringing in the occasional expansion into other realms.
As the son of an Army officer, Greg lived in a wide range of homes across a broad swath of the Western Hemisphere before college took him to College Station, Texas, to be amongst one group of Aggies. In the United States, the Smith Family lived three times in El Paso; twice in California (Fairfield and Monterey); and one time each in Anchorage (Alaska), Fort Sill (Oklahoma), and Bloomington (Indiana). After Bloomington, the family lived in Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Salvador (El Salvador), and Balboa (Panama Canal Zone) before their third stint living in El Paso. Rarely were they in one home more than a year, and often the family moves occurred in the middle of the school year. Those who have served in the military or grown up in a military family probably are familiar with that routine!
In college, Greg studied architecture, was on the swimming team, served on the student senate, and helped produce an alternative newspaper. Meanwhile, with his father’s retirement from the Army, his brother and parents moved to Las Cruces. His mother found a welcoming niche in the arts in Las Cruces with jewelry and painting and continues to paint even now. Greg continued to live much of the year in various locations in Texas (Houston, Runge, Victoria, and Austin), returning to the family home in Las Cruces for holidays and breaks. Eventually, he shifted gears, got a teaching certificate and MA in Austin and taught there for twenty years. At the end of that time, Las Cruces beckoned, and he came home.
Once in Las Cruces full-time, Greg started a home design business and dove into several non-profit and grassroots efforts. From getting downtown revitalized and promoting historic preservation efforts to seeing an Olympic sized pool built, he frequently found himself interacting with elected and appointed officials at the City of Las Cruces. That seemed to logically lead to a successful run for a seat on the city council where Greg served for eight years before his three-year time with the Arts Council. Since then, he has been teaching an Introduction to Architecture course at DACC, continuing to host Café con Leche each Tuesday on KTAL, serving on several boards of directors and committees, and working on writing and residential design projects.
Another happy consequence of Greg’s efforts years ago at City Hall was his reconnection with a friend from earlier times in Las Cruces and their subsequent marriage. That happy union and various ongoing efforts keep Greg enthusiastic about our part of New Mexico and the opportunities here in the arts and other endeavors.
Greg comes to KTAL and Café con Leche via his role a few years ago as the executive director of the Doña Ana Arts Council. Nan Rubin originally invited him to guest host the program the first Tuesday each month to talk about what was happening with the arts in our community. When Greg left the Arts Council, Nan asked him to continue hosting the program once a month, and when Nan left Las Cruces, Greg was asked to take over the program the rest of the Tuesdays each month. He’s been happy to continue in that larger role with an emphasis on the arts but also bringing in the occasional expansion into other realms.
As the son of an Army officer, Greg lived in a wide range of homes across a broad swath of the Western Hemisphere before college took him to College Station, Texas, to be amongst one group of Aggies. In the United States, the Smith Family lived three times in El Paso; twice in California (Fairfield and Monterey); and one time each in Anchorage (Alaska), Fort Sill (Oklahoma), and Bloomington (Indiana). After Bloomington, the family lived in Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Salvador (El Salvador), and Balboa (Panama Canal Zone) before their third stint living in El Paso. Rarely were they in one home more than a year, and often the family moves occurred in the middle of the school year. Those who have served in the military or grown up in a military family probably are familiar with that routine!
In college, Greg studied architecture, was on the swimming team, served on the student senate, and helped produce an alternative newspaper. Meanwhile, with his father’s retirement from the Army, his brother and parents moved to Las Cruces. His mother found a welcoming niche in the arts in Las Cruces with jewelry and painting and continues to paint even now. Greg continued to live much of the year in various locations in Texas (Houston, Runge, Victoria, and Austin), returning to the family home in Las Cruces for holidays and breaks. Eventually, he shifted gears, got a teaching certificate and MA in Austin and taught there for twenty years. At the end of that time, Las Cruces beckoned, and he came home.
Once in Las Cruces full-time, Greg started a home design business and dove into several non-profit and grassroots efforts. From getting downtown revitalized and promoting historic preservation efforts to seeing an Olympic sized pool built, he frequently found himself interacting with elected and appointed officials at the City of Las Cruces. That seemed to logically lead to a successful run for a seat on the city council where Greg served for eight years before his three-year time with the Arts Council. Since then, he has been teaching an Introduction to Architecture course at DACC, continuing to host Café con Leche each Tuesday on KTAL, serving on several boards of directors and committees, and working on writing and residential design projects.
Another happy consequence of Greg’s efforts years ago at City Hall was his reconnection with a friend from earlier times in Las Cruces and their subsequent marriage. That happy union and various ongoing efforts keep Greg enthusiastic about our part of New Mexico and the opportunities here in the arts and other endeavors.