ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

He has carried that thought with him through life, choosing what some might consider a not so conventional path. After years of being a business owner, he started the nonprofit organization We Are This City in an effort to help the work of local artists reach a larger audience and to help beautify the exterior of vacant buildings in Albuquerque.

The first building the group is tackling with the permission of the city is the Rosenwald Building on Fourth and Central. They are placing white origami dove decals on the exterior windows of the first two floors.

His upbringing, he said, may be different from some but it put him on a path to see the world in a unique way. Baptiste, 34, said his family moved to Albuquerque when he was 15 and he graduated from Freedom High, an alternative high school that allows students to work at their own pace in a smaller class setting. After graduation, he went to school for audio engineering.

“I audited (took for no grade) all my classes,” he said. “I went more for the knowledge instead of the degree.”

He eventually moved to Seattle and started his own company developing video games, even though he admits he was never much of a gamer. Growing up without a television can do that. The business lasted for 12 years, during which time he also lived in Los Angeles before returning to New Mexico in 2012.

He said he attended dozens of conferences during his years as a video game developer and honed his networking skills. He’s now trying to apply those skills to his latest endeavor.

Baptiste said he learned the success of bringing people together with a common interest while working in the gaming industry.

“Video games have helped build the largest community in the world,” he said. “How do we use that concept to help economic development in our community?”

He’s gotten local city and county community leaders on board with his organization. Mayor Richard Berry serves on his advisory board. Berry said the group attracted him because of its passion for the arts and the pride its artists and Baptiste have in Albuquerque.

“You cannot make up or force civic pride,” he said. “Just because you don’t have what some would consider a standard business does not mean you are not an entrepreneur.”

Berry said the city needs to support not only traditional industries but its creative economy. He said We Are This City is a way to connect business people with local artists.

One of those businesses is Southwest Capital Bank. County Commissioner Lonnie Talbert is the bank’s chief operating officer. He said the bank offered the group a small cash infusion.

Talbert also serves on the group’s advisory board. He said it’s important to give local artists as much exposure as possible. He also likes the group’s mission to transform vacant buildings.

“There isn’t anything beautiful about a boarded up structure,” he said. “By doing this, the buildings will no longer be a magnet for vandalism.”

The current project of We Are This City is an exhibit of paintings done by 70 local artists. Baptiste filled a bunch of balloons with paint and had local children throw the balloons at the blank canvasses. The artists were then given a canvas and told to finish painting it anyway they would like.

The paintings hang in the We Are This City offices on Gold Avenue in Downtown Albuquerque. They will be on display for one night only for a reception at the Albuquerque Museum on Sept. 8. There’s also something in the works to take the show to San Francisco.

“I want to give the artists a broader audience,” he said. “We have a lot of art here and we need to find a way to support the local creative economy.”