Museums & Galleries in North Valley

In the 18th and 19th centuries, visitors would stop to rest at the historic El Rancho de las Golondrinas as they began or ended their long journeys along the royal road that stretched between Santa Fe and Mexico City. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Matt Damon, Salma Hayek, Val Kilmer, and the cast and crew of some 30 films used the ranch's 200 scenic acres and 34 historic structures as backdrops to their movies and personalized birthday cards. With preserved and restored villages dating back to the early 1700s sloping through a rural farming valley, the grounds collapse time, bringing the past to the present and the present to the past. Today, guests wander this living history museum to explore how colonial and frontier life was lived the Southwest. During a self-guided tour, visitors pick up or download a map of the ranch before weaving through a snapshot of history brought to life by villagers clothed in the styles of the time. Feet patter past a molasses mill, a blacksmith shop, and defensive towers where guards kept watch on the horizon and coordinated messages for passing UFOs. With a reservation, docents will lead you through the trails that cut through a landscape dotted with goats, sheep, burros, and horses, fostering an understanding of the culture and arts of historic New Mexico.

The National Hispanic Cultural Center, which has earned the attention of Frommer’s and Fodor's, guides visitors on a journey through Hispanic culture with an art museum, library, and store. The center’s art museum tantalizes eyes with a permanent collection full of work from traditional craftspeople and contemporary visionaries. Rotating current exhibitions showcase various collections including installations by Sandra Cisneros, acclaimed author of The House on Mango Street or collections of 200 beautiful clay figurines. Meanwhile, the center’s research library assembles 12,500 titles on Hispanic culture and history, and archives preserve documents in a haven more temperature-controlled than a refrigerator built out of air-conditioners. Exhibits offer glimpses into Hispanic life, such as Visas to Freedom, which recounts the valiant efforts of Spanish diplomats to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

With four museums and six monuments, the nonprofit Museum of New Mexico Foundation keeps the state's artistic and cultural heritage alive with enthralling permanent collections, exhibits, and events. Art aficionados can marvel at more than 20,000 works by artists with strong ties to the state in the New Mexico Museum of Art, check out more than 1,300 artifacts in the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, and attempt to tape their “lost cat” flyers to more than 100,000 items culled from 100 countries at the Museum of International Folk Art. Meanwhile, the New Mexico History Museum’s 30,000-square-foot exhibition space covers topics ranging from the Santa Fe Trail to World War II through art, maps, and photographs.

After each museum visit, guests can stop by the Coronado State Monument, which marks the spot where Coronado and his crew entered the Rio Grande Valley in search of the Seven Cities of Gold and their lost car keys. The foundation's sextet of monuments also includes the stone ruins of a 500-year-old Indian village at Jemez and exhibits on frontier and military life at Fort Selden.

Lauded for its inimitable art scene set against a stunning desert-dotted backdrop, Santa Fe can be seen as the ideal place to hold an art fair. Peppered with works from its 240 city galleries and pieces from international exhibitors, Art Santa Fe also buzzes with an opening night gala and Saturday's keynote speaker, Barbara Rose. An art critic and historian, Rose shares the expertise she has built over six decades writing about modern art in Spain, lecturing at Yale, and coining the term "minimalism".

Kim Martindale helped coordinate the Santa Fe Antique American Indian Art Show when he was only 16 years old. Local photographer Blake Hines’ work has appeared in publications, album covers, and hotels. John Morris was a production manager at the original Woodstock music festival. Despite their disparate backgrounds, these organizers and artists pooled their talents to host the annual Santa Fe Show Objects of Art, which gathers more than 70 exhibitors of historical and contemporary art.

The six-day event fills the bright orange and yellow rooms of El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, nestled in the city’s Railyard District. Visitors navigate paintings, sculpture, furnishings, books, jewelry, and textiles from around the world, including tribal and folk art from American Indian, African, and Asian cultures. Local experts punctuate the two-weekend festival with curated exhibitions such as an exploration of 19th-century children's toys and art; shield design from Africa, Indonesia, and New Guinea; and pages from Pablo Picasso's middle-school diary.