It was a transition that no one really saw coming, according to Mel Stone’s sister, Janet Cleveland. How did the scientist with a Ph.D. in economics end up in small art gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico?
Fifteen years ago, Stone closed out a career in television and made the move from Fargo, North Dakota to Las Cruces in search of warmer weather and scenic vistas. He found both, and so much more.
The Solway, Minnesota native dedicated the first phase of his adult life to learning and then sharing the things he learned. He taught economics at the university level, including his time at the University of North Dakota, but he also let his creative side come out for peek every now and then, working for a while at the NASA Denver Research Institute where he showed a love for discovery while doing research on space exploration’s link to the development of commercial products.
TV career
But there was something about his longing to tell good stories that the numbers in the field of economics couldn’t fill. Stone ended up in television, as the face of The Stone Report on KVLY in Fargo. He described journalism as using “words and pictures and sounds to tell someone a story.”
As it turns out, it was the pictures, the visual images of storytelling to which he was most connected. When he relocated to New Mexico, he purchased and restored a historic adobe house on Mesquite Street in Las Cruces and built his greatest legacy as a lover of art.
During his broadcasting days, Stone was known for being a “one-man band,” running the camera while telling the story. In Las Cruces, Stone showed a keen ability to tell the story through the visual images without the words. Photography became his passion and the Mesquite Art Gallery his outlet. He not only ran the gallery, but he also made it his home, living in the back room. Cleveland says she was startled that he took this path in his later years. She never recalls his expressing an interest in art when he was young, but there were signs.
“The journalism probably did not lead him into the gallery and still photography, but the interest in getting the visual effect did,” Cleveland said. “You could see by his photography work as a television journalist that he had a good eye. The people who knew him here said his eye just grew as he was here (in Las Cruces).”
Legacy
Stone passed away Oct. 2, 2025, but his photography and the great work he did for the art community in New Mexico the past 15 years is certainly a big part of his legacy.
Photography was one of the ways Stone gave others a glimpse into his true personality, and his desire to nurture and promote other artists was part of that character.
“They called him a curmudgeon,” Cleveland said, “but another person said you that when they got to know him, they saw the big heart that he had. One of his neighbors at the farmer's market said that while he hid behind the camera, his heart came out in his photography.”
Stone was drawn to the history of Mesquite Street, and he loved to celebrate not only his photography but art of all varieties. He often displayed the work of other artists that he'd promote for a month, and then he’d have a special event for their friends to come in, drink champagne, and celebrate the art.
“The gallery was dedicated to that,” Cleveland said. “When there wasn't an artist showing, he invested in a lot of art and tried to really support the local artists in Las Cruces, in New Mexico.”
The photography was his domain. He featured painters and sculptors in the gallery, but never other photographers.
As a journalist, Stone made a living finding and sharing interesting stories. In his later years, he found joy finding and promoting talented creators. It was something he loved to do.
“When he was diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer and knew that he was going to die, he did contact some of the artists and offered to give them the work back that they could resell,” Cleveland said. “It seemed he even more interested in recognizing the artist as he was in honoring the art.”
The gallery was Stone’s dream, and as he prepared for the inevitable result of his cancer, his sisters, Janet and Kay, wanted to give him the gift of seeing it live on. Now, they have joined forces with the 10 O’clock Club, a talented group of female artists, to do just that.
Rebecca Courtney and Diana Ayres are leading the effort to honor Stone’s legacy. The club, working with Stone’s family in a cooperative arrangement, will sell Stone’s work and also the work of other artists, just the way Stone wanted it. The members of the club share Stone’s passion for creation. Margaret Bernstein, the founder of the 10 O’clock Club, was good friends with Stone. The club meets at 10 a.m. on the 10th of each month.
“There were four women in the beginning,” Courtney said in describing the origins of the club. “The whole idea was to show your work around to each other first, like a salon. It was unstructured with no doctrines, no dues, just a love of art.”
The gallery has reopened under the direction of this coop and will hold its official grand opening Nov. 7 as a celebration of Mel Stone’s legacy. The day is in recognition of the first Friday tradition along Mesquite Street, and the horse-drawn trolley that has traditionally delivered patrons to the galleries up and down the street on the first Friday of the month will be there to join in the celebration.
The Mesquite Art Gallery is located at 340 N. Mesquite St. in Las Cruces.
