With the Route 66 Centennial being celebrated in Albuquerque this year, much attention is focused on local art and history. One enduring historical landmark is the KiMo Theatre. It reflects the artistic, cultural, and architectural legacy of the city. It is a uniquely Southwest structure and one of the few Pueblo Deco designs still in existence.
Opening with its first show in 1927, Italian immigrant Oreste Bachechi hired architect Carl Boller, who traveled in the Navajo Nation, and the Pueblos of Acoma & Isleta to explore Indigenous motifs for the theatre. In the program for that opening night, it stated that “The Bachechis proposed to give the people of Albuquerque a playhouse that should not only combine capacity and comfort but should house the most modern of theatrical facilities in a setting of antiquity, one in harmony with the spirit of the Southwest and of Albuquerque.”
Tanya Lenti, marketing manager for the KiMo at Albuquerque Arts and Culture, told us, “Oreste Bachechi envisioned a beautiful picture palace, and he wanted it to be something talked about and ornate, so he came up with the KiMo Theatre. In the 1960s, after the theater fell into some disrepair and after a fire that damaged part of the stage in the front of the house, there was a very vocal contingency of community members who wanted to save the KiMo Theater, and the city of Albuquerque put it up to the voters during a general election, and the voters said yes. That’s how it became a city project.”
Tanya says, “Right now, it is basically a rental house where show promoters contact us and rent the facility for their events. We do everything from live concerts to readings by authors and book signings. We also try to do as many community-oriented programs as possible through our own programs with the Department of Arts and Culture, so we'll host some events there as well. The Route 66 Centennial celebration in 2026 is something that my department is very focused on, and we will be utilizing the theater in ways to showcase its own history on Route 66. We're trying to balance the number of rental shows we have coming in with a number of Route 66-themed pop-ups to activate the space during First Fridays Art Walks downtown. So, we do have a lot of plans for the upcoming year, keeping it with our rental partners, but also trying to sprinkle in some Route 66-themed pop-up events.”
Neal Copperman, Director/Founder of AMP Concerts, is a local promoter who has booked shows at the KiMo. He says, “If you come to a show at the KiMo, you’re having a uniquely Albuquerque experience. You are transported back in time to another era. Our shows are elevated by the dramatic architecture and energy of the space. We’ve done over 100 concerts in the KiMo since our first show in 2005 and look forward to a great run of shows this year.”
Bands of Enchantment is an Emmy-Award winning series that films every September in Albuquerque and, for the last couple of years, has been shot at the KiMo. The series streams internationally on PBS, TUBI, Prime Video, and The Roku Channel. It features bands from around the world, as well as giving local bands international exposure, capturing the musical soul of the high desert culture.
The KiMo Theatre is at 423 Central Avenue, NW. Their ticket office phone is 505.768.2000. The calendar for AMP Concerts is at: https://www.ampconcerts.org