DAMI leadership transition ANNOUNCEMENT
Thank you Shawna and welcome Adrian!
Dear friends, partners, and neighbors of Downtown Albuquerque,
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Downtown ABQ Mainstreet Initiative and Arts & Culture District (DAMI), we thank Shawna Brown for serving as Executive Director of DAMI. Across 2025 and 2026, the District produced flagship events and programs including the Downtown Growers’ Market, Artwalk, and the ABQ Fermentation & Fungi Festival, paid over 145 local artists and culture bearers, supported over 300 micro-businesses, provided technical support to over 50 brick and motors, and welcomed over 90,000 visitors downtown annually. These numbers represent neighbors, makers, and business owners who chose downtown, and partners who helped make that choice easier.
This work reflects the leadership of Shawna Brown, who served as Executive Director over these two years. Under Shawna, the District maintained its accreditation with MainStreet America and New Mexico MainStreet, held its state recognition as an Arts & Cultural District, and grew downtown’s creative economy through lasting community partnerships. The board has reviewed DAMI’s impact report and financials, and we are proud to stand behind this important work.
This fall, Shawna initiated a leadership transition in partnership with the board. At her recommendation and after board review, the board approved Adrian N. Carver as our next Executive Director. Adrian brings more than two decades of experience in community development, public policy, and nonprofit leadership in New Mexico. We are confident in the experience and vision he brings to the next chapter of this work.
To Shawna: thank you for your service, your care for this community, and the strong foundation you leave behind. To everyone who makes downtown what it is: we look forward to building what comes next with you.
With gratitude,
Julia Youngs
Board President,
Downtown Albuquerque Mainstreet Arts & Culture District
To everyone reading this, near and far: Downtown Albuquerque is a gem.
I believe it is the city’s essential arts and cultural hub. More than 15 art spaces and 11 entertainment venues call downtown home, along with over 60 retailers, service providers, restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.
When I entered the role of Executive Director of the Downtown ABQ Mainstreet Initiative and Arts & Cultural District, my team and I knew it would be a transitional chapter, one that I was honored to accept. Over my 5 years with the organization, I’ve served as Associate Director, Special Projects Manager, and Downtown Growers’ Market Manager, which gave me a deep understanding of the organization and its immediate needs. I also knew bigger changes were coming to downtown: the formation of a Business Improvement District (BID), the implementation of Tax Increment Financing (TIF), and a shifting climate for the arts. I wanted to prepare the organization for those changes while honoring the reason I joined in 2021: arts-based community development.
That’s why as Executive Director, I am extremely proud of the projects we launched this year including downtown walking tours, new physical and digital placemaking maps, increased district storytelling, and an expanded ArtWalk Summer Series. With each project, we supported entrepreneurs, drove traffic to established businesses, enhanced the district’s visual character, built a positive image of downtown, and grew community involvement and partnerships along the way.
The arts has been our vehicle to economic vitality, and like many communities across the country, ours is watching city budgets tighten, and arts and culture funding is often the first line cut. At the same time, I am witnessing this shift push funders and organizations toward new approaches to explore how to drive economic vitality through additional avenues and new avenues for downtown investment.
This is one off the reasons I recommended Adrian N. Carver to the board as our next Executive Director. I’ve seen his work through the New Mexico MainStreet network and his strong background in community development, public policy, and nonprofit leadership. I am confident his experience will carry the momentum we’ve built as both a Mainstreet program and Arts & Culture District into this next chapter.
While I step away to pursue a new opportunity, I do so knowing the organization is ready for what’s next. Downtown ABQ Mainstreet has a proven record, strong partnerships, and the team to carry it forward. I'll be watching proudly as the next chapter unfolds. Thank you all for being part of my downtown journey!
In Community,
Shawna Brown
Outgoing DAMI Executive Director
Hello, Downtown Albuquerque!
If there’s anything I learned over a couple of decades of studying policy and places — it’s that you can learn a lot about a place by spending time in its downtown.
I was born and raised in Albuquerque, and downtown has always shaped how I understand this city.
Growing up between the International District and the Foothills, I couldn’t have drawn downtown’s boundaries on a map. To me, downtown was the part of the city where they named an elementary school after my Granny’s sister, Dolores Gonzales. On field trips to the zoo, I would swell with pride, pointing at the building from the school bus window and shouting, “That’s my Aunt Lola!”
That’s what a downtown does: it shows the world who it is and how we belong in its story. Everyone who comes downtown deserves to feel what I felt from that bus window.
Downtown is where we gather. It’s where we come together to:
celebrate, live, protest, make art, innovate, and do business.
Leading the Downtown Albuquerque Mainstreet Arts & Culture District is a responsibility I take seriously and a privilege I don’t take for granted. I look forward to being a steady and committed partner to the people, businesses, and institutional partners of downtown.
I owe a big thanks to one of those amazing people, Shawna Brown. Shawna has served this organization in nearly every role it has, from the Downtown Growers’ Market to the Executive Director’s office. Shawna leads with care and creativity. She has been at the helm through a period of real change, and I’m grateful for her generosity in this transition and for the foundation she leaves behind.
Main Street work at its best is small, steady investment in people and places: an artist who gets paid, a business owner who sees new customers walk in, a family that spends a Saturday downtown. With intention and focus, those investments multiply. That work continues and I hope to steward its growth.
The next chapter asks more of us. Public budgets are tightening, the way downtown is governed and financed is changing, and public perception still lags behind what people experience when they spend time here.
Downtown belongs to everyone who lives, works, creates, and gathers here. If you have ideas, concerns, or a project in mind, I want to hear from you. Downtown belongs to you.
See you downtown,
Adrian N. Carver
Executive Director
Downtown Albuquerque Mainstreet Arts & Cultural District
Community partner feedback
The ABQ Main Street program has had a profound positive impact on my ability to even have and grow a sustainable business in the state. Through the Growers Market and other events, it truly serves as an incubator for a growing business and I am grateful for the constant efforts of the team in always pushing forward with new ideas constantly.
— NM Creative Industries Division
The most effective Mainstreet in Albuquerque. Thats why we partnered with them.
— Community Partner
Downtown ABQ Mainstreet has a huge weight on its shoulders for the mass quantity and quality of projects it sustains and supports. It's surprising that so much is still able to happen and I look forward to seeing how we can support or help to continue thriving and growing the district.
— Small Business Owner
I am a HUGE fan of the impressive work being done by the Downtown ABQ Main Street team. They are fantastic partners and work tirelessly to activate downtown at every opportunity. We look forward to many more opportunities to collaborate in the future!
— Tourism Partner