Spend a day in Santa Fe

Explore Museum Hill

Museum of Spanish Colonial Art The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art features objects from throughout the Spanish Colonial world, housed in a historical building designed by John Gaw Meem. Converging Streams: Art of the Hispanic and Native American Southwest   www.spanishcolonial.org

Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
At the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, encounter Native cultures and artifacts of the Southwest from ancestral to contemporary, in exhibits drawing from more than 70,000 works of art and material culture. New exhibitions include Huichol Art and Culture: Balancing the World Known today for colorful, decorative yarn paintings, the origins of modern Huichol art are found in the earlier Huichol religious arts of the Robert M. Zingg ethnographic collection at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology. From 1934-1935, Dr. Robert Mowry Zingg (1900–1957) was the first American anthropologist to conduct extended ethnographic fieldwork among the Huichol in the community of Tuxpan de Bolaños. Highlights include outstanding examples of ancient, symbolic textile designs that were intricately woven on backstrap looms by Huichol women, prayer arrows, richly decorated votive gourd bowls, and other offerings for the gods. Oversized shamans’ chairs and diminutive gods’ chairs are unique to Huichol ceremonies. Colorful macaw feathers, beaded jewelry, deerskin quivers, embroidered clothing, and hats adorned with feathers, squirrel tails, and ribbons all attest to a time and a culture where art objects were made for everyday and ceremonial use, not tourist consumption. The exhibition is on display at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture through March 6, 2011. For a complete listing of current exhibitions and special events please visit http://www.indianartsandculture.org

Museum of International Folk Art
To experience the color and excitement of the world's cultures, go to the Museum of International Folk Art and see an unparalleled collection that includes toys, textiles, household goods and religious art. The Girard Wing will partially open July 1, and the entire gallery August 1, 2010.  New exhibitions include Silver Seduction: The Art of Mexican Modernist Antonio Pineda,  A Century of Masters: NEA National Heritage Fellows of New Mexico and Material World: Textiles and Dress from the Collection.  Find out more on line  www.internationalfolkart.org

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
New Mexico's oldest private non-profit museum, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, emphasizes important Native American art in an eight-sided building inspired by a traditional Navajo hooghan.  For 2010's new exhibition is Nizhoni Shima': Master Weavers of the Toadlena/Two Grey Hill Region exploring iconic textiles made by master weavers of the community surrounding the Toadlena and Two Grey Hills trading posts. Based on more than twenty years of research by trader Mark Winter, and featuring rugs and tapestries dating from circa 1910 to the present, the exhibition explores the historic lifeways, painstaking technique, and family connections that have fostered one of the world’s great craft traditions.  Regular events include Looking at Indian Art Saturdays at 10:15AM.  Free admission!  For details visit www.wheelwright.org