The Southern Ute Indian tribe scrapped a plan to erect a $50,000 sculpture at its Three Springs development. The tribe planned to contribute $20,000, matched by the same sum from the city of Durango and $10,000 from Mercy Regional Medical Center, whose new building will be in Three Springs.

A call went out to artists and a committee of seven representing the city, the tribe, the hospital and the neighborhood was appointed. They met in private to pick among 28 applicants.

The committee chose Denver sculptor Michael Clapper who proposed two 15-foot-high stone jigsaw puzzle pieces decorated with children's handprints.

Herald readers controlled their enthusiasm. In an online poll, 67 percent of the 900 voters said they didn't like the choice; 15 percent liked it.

The tribe gave no reason for the decision to withdraw. Instead it will develop a plan to identify locations for public art to be placed in Three Springs in the next 20 years.

2. Pumas invade Four Corners

Twenty-nine painted, prinked and gussied-up pumas invaded the Four Corners this summer to help raise funds for the San Juan Mountains Association. Local artists decorated the larger-than-life size forton casts made from an original bronze sculpted by Rosetta, a sculptor in Loveland.

Although a few pumas appeared in the San Juan National Forest's Centennial Parade along Main Avenue in June, they held their coming out ball en masse in Buckley Park on the Fourth of July. They then dispersed to homes around the Four Corners to be admired before being auctioned to raise funds.

3. Durango Film Festival returns as Durango International Film Festival

In March the Durango Film Festival had a triumphant week, screening 105 films to satisfaction among directors, most sponsors, volunteers and moviegoers. But the festival had run up debts it couldn't pay. It owed local creditors such as the Rochester Hotel and the DoubleTree Hotel.

Sofia van Surksum, the former executive director and a financial contributor, wanted to take a year out to put the festival's finances in order.

Around 20 festival veterans disagreed. They wanted to go ahead this year. So the Durango Independent Film Festival will rise again at the beginning of March with a smaller number of films. Van Surksum, who was given the news by the Herald , was angry at the new festival's choice of dates and names but has not returned calls more recently.

4. Penumbra debuts, stages two plays

Three enterprising Fort Lewis College alumni - LeAnn Brubaker, Alix Oliszewski and Stacey Sotosky - formed a theater company which they called Penumbra. A penumbra can be the light surrounding the shadow the moon casts during an eclipse, the less dark region surrounding the dark center of a sunspot or an indefinite, border area.

The producers devised two original, multicultural, fairy tales, highlighted by Brubaker's imaginative lighting and Oliszewski's complex, layered sound tracks. They presented both successfully at the Abbey Theatre. The first was named after their company and the second was "Oblivion."

5. 'Skins' plays New York

The augmented Fort Lewis College production of "Skins" had its third showing in March. After two runs at home in Durango, this time it went to New York, to the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club with Durango cast and crew members and FLC alumni performing. The theatre piece, created at FLC, directed by Kathryn Moller, played with a cast of professional and amateur performers March 3 through 13.

6. Katrina relief benefits

The Durango arts community, like the rest of the generous people in the Four Corners, contributed mightily to helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Space precludes listing the dozens of events and thousands of people who helped.

7. Youth Symphony

The Four Corners has a youth symphony. The 33-member orchestra is conducted by Mikylah Myers McTeer, an assistant professor of violin and viola at FLC. It performed its first concert on Dec. 3 in Fort Lewis College's Roshong Recital Hall to great acclaim, then went on to audition more players.

The musicians range from sixth graders to Fort Lewis students. The Four Corners joins some 200 communities across the country that have youth symphonies, though most are based in larger cities.

The startup was funded by a $2,000 grant from the Ballantine Family Fund, which includes Herald Publisher Richard G. Ballantine. Fort Lewis is providing the facilities.

8. New art businesses open

Durango continues to attract arts entrepreneurs who provide us with new ways to enjoy ourselves. This year they include:

• Victor Galarza opened the music venue The Lost Dog on the Main Avenue, site of the old Storyville, in April.

• Kara Walecki opened Yarn, a knitting supply business and tea shop on 1051 East Second Ave.

• Monica Ellis moved her Ellis Crane Gallery to 934 Main Ave. from East Eighth Street in January.

• Deborah Demme and Michael Thunder opened a gallery, No Place Like Home, on 131 East Eighth St. in March.

• Potter Mark Jaramillo opened The World According to Mark, a pottery gallery, on East Eighth Street in May.

9. Women blacksmiths show in Aztec

The year's most arresting group show was tucked away in the tiny A. Teasyatwho Gallery in Aztec; it was the gallery's first national show. A year and a half in the organizing, the exhibit showcased the handsome sculpture of 14 women blacksmiths. It was accompanied by a companion show of the work of local metal artists across the street at the Feat of Clay Gallery.

10. Durango filmmakers win documentary prize

Durango filmmakers won the prize for Best Documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival on Sept. 18. They won for their first film, "El Inmigrante."

Durango filmmaker David Eckenrode collaborated with his brother John Eckenrode, who also grew up in Durango, and John Sheedy from Tucson. They were financed in part by Rick Carlson who has lived in Durango until recently.

The filmmakers worked on their 90-minute documentary for almost two years on a budget of under $45,000 and will submit it to the Durango Independent Film Festival.