When we take the time to be tourists in our own hometown, we discover it with fresh eyes. Through the lens of the City Different’s four major summer festivals—International Folk Art, Santa Fe International Literary Festival, Traditional Spanish Market, and the Indian Market—Mara Harris points to ways of exploring the many centuries of history and culture that make Santa Fe, and the region around it, so unusually rich. With a focus on the folk lens, visitors can experience the music, art, and traditions that embody the spirit of community and creativity at the heart of Santa Fe.

“The art of the craftsman is a bond between the peoples of the world.” —Florence Dibell Bartlett

Folk Art in Santa Fe

Santa Fe is a nexus for the arts. In the early 20th century, Native American and traditional Hispanic Colonial arts experienced revivals. A burgeoning tourist market, the rise of artist and literary colonies, and illustrious visitors all came together in an artistic ferment. Alexander Girard, a prominent architect, designer, and collector, moved to Santa Fe with his wife, Susan, in 1953. The couple were ardent collectors of folk art. They traveled the world—sometimes accompanied by Georgia O’Keeffe—to expand Girard’s enormous collection. His passion for folk art heavily influenced his designs for textiles, interiors, and furniture.

International Folk Art Market

The world comes to Museum Hill every July for the International Folk Art Market, where artists from 60 different countries gather to display their artwork, and generate income to help sustain their communities. It’s a whirlwind of color and connection, and a celebration of the humanity of the handmade.

Museum of International Folk Art

The Museum of International Folk Art was founded by philanthropist Florence Dibell Bartlett, who saw folk arts as a way to bridge differences among people. She envisioned and funded the original building, designed by John Gaw Meem. Bartlett also donated the 2,500 objects that began the collection. The Alexander Girard Wing opened in 1983 with displays of more than 10,000 objects from around the world. This represented just 10% of Girard’s total donation.

The museum also houses the Hispanic Heritage Wing and the Contemporary Hispanic Gallery, the Neutrogena Wing, and the Gallery of Conscience, which examines issues that threaten the survival of traditional arts. Meanwhile, the Museum Shop is a favorite stop for books, clothing, décor, jewelry, and folk art.

The Inn of the Five Graces

Tucked into the middle of Santa Fe’s oldest neighborhood, the Barrio de Analco, The Inn of the Five Graces has gates that open onto lush courtyards, colorfully appointed rooms, and luxurious amenities. The boutique hotel is filled with furniture, textiles, and decorative elements from around the world.

The Compound Restaurant

In the heart of the Canyon Road Arts District, down an unassuming driveway, lies The Compound Restaurant. Part of an adobe compound dating from the 1850s, the restaurant was designed by Alexander Girard and opened in 1966. It still pays homage to the influential designer, with a sleek modern vibe, and walls adorned with Girard’s whimsical touches and distinctive typography. James Beard Award–winning chef and owner Mark Kiffin took over the restaurant in 2000, overseeing an evolving menu of Contemporary American cuisine.

La Reina Bar

The hippest spot in town is La Reina bar at El Rey Court, a re-envisioned 1930s motor court with a contemporary Southwestern vibe. Here you can experience mezcals and signature cocktails, live music on occasion, and even a pizza truck. All of it unfolds in a cool, Alexander Girard–inspired design. Queer Night every Monday night is a destination event!

Good Folk

Good Folk brings art from Oaxaca, Mexico, to downtown Santa Fe, along with the work of New Mexico folk artists.

Heritage by Hand

In a corner of the historic Sena Plaza, Heritage by Hand showcases textiles, ceramics, accessories, and clothing inspired by nature. All items are handmade using traditional techniques by artisans from Chile, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, and beyond.

Road Trip

For a perfect day trip, drive the High Road to Taos and stop at Eight Million Gods, a folk-art emporium in Truchas. Owner and inveterate collector Hayward Simoneaux will delight you with his charmingly curated selection of folk art. This art comes from India, Mexico, Central and South America, and more, as well as Native American artists.

Reading List

Alexander Girard, Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee

The Work of Art: Folk Artists in the 21^st Century, Carmela Padilla

Story by Mara Harris
Photography Courtesy of Gabriella Marks

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When we remember to be tourists in our own hometown, we see it with new eyes. Through the lens of the City Different’s four major summer festivals— Santa Fe International Literary Festival, International Folk Art Market, Traditional Spanish Market, and the Indian Market—Mara Harris suggests some ways to dig deep into the many centuries of history and culture that make the City Different, and the region around it, so unusually rich. Focusing on the literary lens, readers can explore the writers, stories, and landmarks that give Santa Fe its unique cultural character.

“The moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul. . . . ” —D.H. Lawrence

Literary Lovers Find Solace in Santa Fe’s Festivals and Shops

Santa Fe and northern New Mexico are famous as destinations for artists, but they have also drawn writers attracted to the landscape, climate, and culture. Poet Witter Bynner and his lifelong companion, Robert Hunt, hosted frequent gatherings at their East Side estate. Guests included Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Georgia O’Keeffe, Igor Stravinsky, Carl Van Vechten, and many others. Writers such as Rudolfo Anaya, Evan S. Connell, Tony Hillerman, George R.R. Martin, Cormac McCarthy, John Nichols, and Sam Shepard have all called northern New Mexico home.

Santa Fe Public Library

The downtown branch of the Santa Fe Public Library was originally a courthouse built in 1937. Later, it became City Hall, housing city administration, the city council, and fire and police departments. In 1987, more than 1,100 volunteers moved 20,000 books from the Fray Chávez Library across Washington Avenue. The building, designed by celebrated architect John Gaw Meem, features a Southwest Reading Room with carved vigas, parquet floors, and library tables—a sanctuary for reading and studying. Only city residents can get a library card, but the building is open to the public, and the reading room offers a quiet respite from busy schedules.

La Fonda on the Plaza

La Fonda on the Plaza is Santa Fe’s oldest hotel, with an inn reported at the site since the 1600s. Additionally, its the only one located on the Santa Fe Plaza, the historic center of the city. It had several incarnations before the current hotel was built, a century ago this year. La Fonda has hosted countless world and U.S. leaders, as well as luminaries of film, theater, art, music, and literature. Its iconic lobby has long been called “Santa Fe’s living room.”

Many of them must remember the charming hand-painted glass panes surrounding La Plazuela, the restaurant at the heart of La Fonda. Created in the 1920s by Ernest Martinez, they add an element of local storytelling to the place. Author Willa Cather wrote Death Comes for the Archbishop while staying at La Fonda for several weeks in 1926. She wrote to Mabel Dodge Luhan in June of that year, “I’m awful glad to be back in this country.”

Inn of the Turquoise Bear

The charming Inn of the Turquoise Bear was the home of poet Witter Bynner and his partner, Robert Hunt, for nearly 50 years. Together, they hosted celebrity guests and locals with infamous parties and stimulating conversation.

Books and Coffee

Santa Fe is blessed with several independent bookstores staffed by knowledgeable readers. Most have a coffee shop on or near their premises. Grab a book, a cup, and settle in for a moment’s rest.

For more than 43 years, Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse has provided Santa Feans with books on travel, history, art, and architecture, along with novels, poetry, and children’s books, many by New Mexico authors. The coffee shop on-site means you don’t have to go far to enjoy a books-and-coffee moment.

Tucked into the historic East Side at the corner of Garcia and Acequia Madre, Garcia Street Books offers “literary selections designed to surprise, inspire, and delight.” Next door is the popular Downtown Subscription coffee shop with its wonderful patio.

New releases, used books, and first editions crowd the literary maze of op. cit. books, where browsing is a high art and treasures abound. Nearby is a Starbucks and ample, well-lit mall seating.

Road Trip

Mabel Gansen Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan was a prominent New York arts patron who moved to Taos in 1917, and married a Taos Pueblo man, Tony Lujan. In her home, Los Gallos, she established an art colony and ongoing salon, to which she invited some of the greatest minds of the early 20th century. At her behest, Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, Marsden Hartley, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, and many others came to Taos, entranced. Now a boutique hotel and conference center, the Mabel Dodge Luhan House is open to visitors and remains much as it was when Luhan lived there.

Invited to visit Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos in 1922, D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, fell in love with New Mexico. On their second visit to Taos in 1924, Luhan gave Frieda what is now the 160-acre D.H. Lawrence Ranch 20 miles northwest of town, where the couple lived for a few months. Frieda returned there to live after her husband’s death in 1930, and bequeathed the ranch to the University of New Mexico upon her death in 1955 for educational, cultural, and recreational purposes.

Also visit Hotel La Fonda de Taos, on the Taos Plaza, to view their permanent exhibition, D.H. Lawrence: Forbidden Art. In addition to being one of the most notable writers of the 20th century, Lawrence dabbled in painting, including this collection of erotic paintings (tame by today’s standards, but shocking in 1927).

Reading List

Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather

Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya

The House at Otowi Bridge, Peggy Pond Church

The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols

Winter in Taos, Mabel Dodge Luhan

Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides

The Blessing Way, one of a series of mysteries by Tony Hillerman

Santa Fe Literary Festival

To go even deeper into the world of books, take part in the inaugural Santa Fe Literary Festival every May. Plan your visit today!

Story by Mara Harris
Photography courtesy of Lennart Schneider

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Sometimes the best way to appreciate our hometown is to experience it as a tourist would. The City Different’s four major summer festivals—Native, folk, Hispanic, and literary—offer unique opportunities to explore the centuries of history and culture that shape Santa Fe and the surrounding region. This piece highlights both the city’s rich Hispanic traditions and its deep cultural heritage, inviting readers to discover the stories and landmarks that give Santa Fe its distinctive character.

“Any land will flow with milk and honey if it is worked with honest hands.” —Rudolfo Anaya

Santa Fe’s Hispanic Side

Santa Fe was founded as a Spanish colony in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in the United States. It served as the capital of Nuevo México. The colonization was often violent, causing suffering and displacement of Native peoples. Over time, however, a tenuous coexistence developed, along with the blending of cultures and ways of life. Settlers introduced farming and domestic animals, and ranching, mining, and trade became key economic activities. The distinctive look of Hispanic New Mexican art reflects creative innovation in the face of scarce resources. In 1821, New Mexico came under Mexican rule after its independence from Spain. It became a U.S. territory in 1850 and achieved statehood in 1912.

Spanish Market

In 1926, the Spanish Colonial Arts Society organized the first Spanish Market to promote local traditional Hispanic arts. Since that time, the juried show has grown to be the largest show and sale of Hispanic art of its kind in the US, featuring more than 200 artists from New Mexico and southern Colorado, working in 19 art categories that represent the region’s established traditional arts and crafts. Taking place in the same weekend in July is Contemporary Hispanic Market, featuring Hispanic artists working in various media outside the more traditional boundaries of Spanish Market.

Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society opened the Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum (formerly the Spanish Colonial Museum) in 2002. The museum preserves and displays regional Hispanic traditional arts. It occupies the former residence of the director of the nearby Laboratory of Anthropology. In addition to traditional arts, the museum hosts exhibitions exploring new materials and perspectives on Colonial art. Its gift shop features Hispanic art by regional artists.

New Mexico History Museum

The New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors are part of the state’s Department of Cultural Affairs. The Palace of the Governors, built in 1610, served as the administrative building for the Spanish colony, then the Mexican province, and later the U.S. territorial capital. In 2009, the New Mexico History Museum opened nearby. Together, the buildings tell New Mexico’s story through permanent and special exhibitions.

El Rancho de las Golondrinas

El Rancho de las Golondrinas is a living-history museum on 200 acres in La Ciénega Valley, just south of Santa Fe. It preserves northern New Mexico’s Hispano heritage. Events run from June to October and showcase fiber arts, textiles, lavender, wine festivals, and historic lifestyles. In 2020, the museum celebrated 50 years with 50 events. Its gift shop offers books on New Mexico history, traditional Hispanic arts, and unique gifts.

Hotel Chimayó

Hotel Chimayó, near the Plaza, honors the Hispanic heritage of Chimayó village. The lobby displays traditional santero artwork, and most rooms have wood-burning fireplaces. Estevan Restaurante serves locally sourced New Mexican cuisine, while the Low ’n Slow bar celebrates local lowrider culture.

Road Trip—High Road to Taos

El Santuario de Chimayó

El Santuario de Chimayó, in the village of Chimayó, 30 miles northeast of Santa Fe, is a National Historic Landmark. An active house of worship as well as an important pilgrimage site, it is full of traditional Spanish Colonial art, from the reredos to the Stations of the Cross, from the crucifix to the santos. A long room to the side of the nave bears witness to many miracles, with ex votos (votive offerings), crutches, letters, and other memorabilia left as tokens of thanks for healing events. In another small room is a round pit, the source of “holy dirt” said to have healing powers. In the plaza outside the front of the church, several galleries and shops feature traditional Hispanic arts and crafts, along with religious items.

Rancho de Chimayó

Opened in 1965, Rancho de Chimayó serves recipes perfected over generations. Recognized as a Culinary Treasure by New Mexico and awarded the James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Award in 2016, the restaurant offers traditional northern New Mexican foods. The venue, a restored Jaramillo family home, features a cozy double fireplace and a terraced patio.

Travel the High Road to Taos (State Road 76) to see remnants of New Spain. Villages along the route reflect earlier centuries. Notable stops include Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Rosario in Truchas (built 1784), San Jose de Gracia in Trampas (1760–1776), and San Francisco de Asís Catholic Mission (1772–1816). Trampas and Ranchos de Taos churches are National Historic Landmarks. These active Catholic communities highlight adobe architecture, though entry may be limited.

Reading List for Learning More

Conexiones: Connections in Spanish Colonial Art, Carmela Padilla

Spanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection, 2 volumes, edited by Donna Pierce and Marta Weigle

A Land so Remote, Larry Frank

To the End of the Earth, Stanley M. Hordes

Story by Mara Harris
Photography Courtesy of Spanish Colonial Arts Society

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Sometimes the best way to experience your hometown is to explore it like a visitor. Santa Fe’s four major summer festivals—Indian Market, International Folk Art Market, Traditional Spanish Market, and the Santa Fe International Literary Festival—offer varying insights into the centuries of history and culture that shape the city and its surrounding region. This article focuses on the city’s deep and ancient Native American heritage, guiding readers to some of the stories, landmarks, and traditions that make Santa Fe truly unique.

“Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems.” —Joy Harjo

Exploring the Native American Lens of Santa Fe

Indian Market

Santa Fe’s Indian Market celebrates over 100 years of showcasing Native American artwork, with more than 1,000 artists from around the United States and Canada selected to show and sell their work directly to collectors and visitors on and around the Santa Fe Plaza. Look for Art Indigenous, featuring contemporary art from galleries exhibiting indigenous artists from the United States and Canada, held at El Museo Cultural in the Railyard.

Native American Santa Fe

Santa Fe sits on Oghá P’o’oge Owingeh (White Shell Water Place), the traditional lands of the Tewa-speaking peoples. Surrounding the city are the communities of the Pueblo, Apache, and Diné (Navajo) peoples, who maintain strong ties to the area. Descendants of the ancient Tewa still live in Santa Fe and the nearby Pueblos of Nambé, Ohkay Owingeh, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, and Tesuque. Other northern New Mexico Pueblos, speaking different languages, include Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Picuris, Sandia, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, Taos, Zia, and Zuni. People have lived in this region for at least 1,500 years.

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) and the Laboratory of Anthropology tell the stories of Southwest peoples, from prehistory to contemporary art. Here, Now and Always is a permanent exhibition and a model for Indigenous communities sharing their own stories. In July, in conjunction with the School for Advanced Research and the Vilcek Foundation of New York, MIAC will present Grounded in Clay: Voices from Pueblo Country, a Native American community-curated show highlighting Pueblo pottery. indianartsandculture.org

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MOCNA)

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MOCNA) features work by contemporary Native artists across multiple media. Its colorful columns, across from St. Francis Cathedral, have become a downtown landmark. MOCNA is part of the Institute of American Indian Arts, founded in 1962, which educates artists, writers, filmmakers, and leaders.

Wheelwright Museum of the America Indian

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, founded in 1937, focuses on living and traditional Native artists. Its permanent exhibition showcases Navajo (Diné) and Pueblo jewelry. The Case Trading Post replicates a Navajo trading post, complete with a squeaky wooden floor, and sells contemporary and vintage jewelry, ceramics, and textiles.

Hotel Santa Fe

Hotel Santa Fe, owned by Picuris Pueblo, is the only Native American–owned hotel in downtown Santa Fe. The property highlights Pueblo art, architecture, music, and culture. Its spa and restaurant, Amaya, feature Native-inspired cuisine.

Portal of the Palace of the Governors

Handmade Native American arts are displayed daily 9:30 to 5:00 under the portal of the Palace of the Governors. Participants must demonstrate technical mastery, reviewed by a committee of peers and the New Mexico History Museum. Visitors can purchase jewelry, pottery, carvings, and other works directly from the artists.

Shiprock Santa Fe Gallery

Shiprock Santa Fe Gallery, located above the Plaza, showcases Native American art. Fifth-generation art dealer Jed Foutz, raised in a Diné family of art traders, exhibits vintage and contemporary Navajo rugs, jewelry, Pueblo pottery, folk art, and fine art.

Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery

Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery displays traditional and contemporary Southwestern Native American pottery. Works are organized by Pueblo or tribe, highlighting differences and similarities. Knowledgeable staff provide museum-level expertise and feature pottery by Maria Martinez.

Road Trip

Bandelier National Monument and Northern Pueblos

Hike through canyons and mesas to see petroglyphs, cliff dwellings, and ancient walls. The Pueblo Loop Trail winds through archaeological sites, and adventurous visitors can climb ladders into alcoves. The park protects ancestral lands of at least 23 tribal nations, many of which still thrive nearby.

Tours of the Puye Cliff Dwellings, guided by Santa Clara Pueblo members, offer a more intimate experience than Bandelier. Since it is Pueblo-owned, Puye may close periodically, so reservations are recommended.

Northern New Mexico Pueblo communities welcome visitors to feast days, dances, craft fairs, and other cultural events. These celebrations highlight the living traditions of their communities.

Reading List Materials

Before Santa Fe: Archaeology of the City Different, Jason S. Shapiro

Santa Fe: History of an Ancient City, edited by David Grant Noble

Pueblos of New Mexico, Ana Pacheco

Story by Mara Harris
Photography courtesy of Gabriella Marks

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