Outpost Performance Space

The original Outpost Performance Space was in the Nob Hill area on Morningside. An old print shop with an apartment above, the building was converted into a small storefront theater, seating 100, with guest quarters and offices above. For ten years, it housed close to 1,000 performances.

Outpost Productions, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, was founded in 1988 by Tom Guralnick, who remains Outpost’s Executive Director today. Drawing upon his own background as both a touring musician and arts administrator, Guralnick and several associates, dreamed of an organization with its own performance space, which would offer an “intimate, informally-respectful, alcohol and smoke free” home for a uniquely eclectic mix of performances ranging from jazz to experimental to international to folk & roots and more. For several years, under the leadership of a dedicated Board of Directors and a core of enthusiastic volunteers, Outpost Productions presented world music and experimental jazz performances in various venues around town, until in 1990, a building located east of Albuquerque’s historic Nob Hill district, became available. An old print shop, with an apartment above, the building was converted into a small storefront theater, seating 100, with guest quarters and offices above, and the Outpost Performance Space was born! In the fall of 1990, Outpost presented the avant-garde jazz group, Curlew, as its first event at “The Space.” Since then, Outpost Productions’ programs have grown steadily, as has its reputation as a major arts organization in the Southwest.