Santa Fe New Mexico Living– Focus on Museum Hill 

View from the Wheelwright Museum front terrace

Santa Fe has four world class museums located on Camino Lejo on the southeast side of town in an area called Museum Hill.  If you limit your museum touring in Santa Fe to the cultural riches around the Plaza, you’ll be depriving yourself of a chance to view some wonderful art as well as magnificent views of the mountains.  Travel between Museum Hill and the Plaza is simple and convenient. Take the “M” line operated by Santa Fe Trails, which runs 7 seven days a week and costs adults $1 each way.  Departures start from the Downtown Transit Center on Sheridan Street (one block off the Plaza) for a short 18-minute ride.  Click here to see a map of the route.  Call 505 955-2001 for the most current information about schedules and fares.  You can spend endless hours exploring the wide variety of art in these collections.

Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer by Craig Dan Goseyun in front of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (710 Camino Lejo) covers 12,000 years of southwestern Native American culture and history in the long-term exhibit “Here, Now and Always”.  This groundbreaking exhibit, which opened in August, 1997, was developed over an eight year period by a curatorial team composed of Native American consultants and museum professionals.  It incorporates the voices of more than 50 Native Americans speakers and has over 1,000 artifacts and objects on display to help illustrate the rich, complex and diverse Native American stories of creation and survival in the Southwest.  Also on long-term display is the Buchsbaum Southwest Pottery Gallery which features 500 ceramic pieces from ancient times to today from each of the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona.  Call 505 476-1269 or click here for more information.

The Museum of International Folk Art (708 Camino Lejo) houses the largest collection of traditional folk art in the world.   With over 135,000 objects, the collection is displayed in four distinct wings and covers such diverse topics as folk art from Latin American mountain villages, metalwork from West Africa, intricate textiles from Southwest China and shadow-puppet traditions of Java.  Call 505 476-1200 or click here for more information.

Entrance to the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art Sculpture Garden

The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art (750 Camino Lejo), whose purpose is to preserve and perpetuate the Hispano art forms that have been produced in New Mexico and Southern Colorado since the region was colonized by Spain in 1598, has 3,000 objects, making their collection the most comprehensive compilation of Spanish Colonial art of its kind.  Call 505 982-2226 or click here for more information.

Finally, there is the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (704 Camino Lejo) which opened in 1937 and came into being as a result of the special friendship between Mary Cabot Wheelwright, an East Coast heiress, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo medicine man. To read more about the fascinating story of the Wheelwright Museum and what happened to its original collection, click here.

The Wheelwright Museum offers ever changing exhibits with an emphasis on the Southwest.  One of the current exhibits is  Nizhoni Shima’
Master Weavers of the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills Region, a presentation of iconic textiles made by master weavers of the community surrounding the Toadlena and Two Grey Hills trading post, a region located in New Mexico, about one hour’s drive south of the Four Corners area. 

The Wheelwright Museum website states: “Weavers in this area can still recount stories of ancestors who experienced the Long Walk, a journey of more than 400 miles that began the Navajo internment at Bosque Redondo, from 1864-1868. Some families who returned home from the ordeal managed to regenerate and maintain flocks of local sheep, whose long-staple wool, ideal for hand spinning, characterizes what is known today as Toadlena/Two Grey Hills weaving.

During this first decade of the twentieth century, weavers and traders from this region collaborated to develop a distinctive style of textile that has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring in the history of Navajo weaving. In addition to the exclusive use of hand-processed wool from locally raised sheep, tapestries, and rugs from the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills region are distinguished by their coloration. Black wool may be over-dyed to strengthen its intensity, and white may be enhanced by bathing it in a solution of calcium sulfate from locally occurring minerals. All other shades are the natural colors of wool.”

The exhibit is based on more than twenty years of research by trader Mark Winter, and features rugs and tapestries dating from circa 1910 to the present.  Included are masterworks by Daisy Taugelchee, Bessie Manygoats, Clara Sherman, and many others. In addition the exhibition celebrates contemporary weavers, such as Rose Curley, Salina Dale, and Mary Ann Foster. 

The exhibit runs through April 17, 2011.

If you go to the Wheelwright Museum, do not forget to stop by The Case Trading Post, Santa Fe’s oldest Indian art gallery, which was built to resemble a turn-of-the-century Navajo Reservation trading post.  It is a wonderful shop where you can buy genuine works of art from contemporary Indian artists in the form of pottery, jewelry, textiles, storytellers, katsina dolls, and more. You’ll find pieces by recognized masters as well as new and emerging talent.

Homes for Sale in the Museum Hill Neighborhood

If you would like to explore the homes for sale in the Museum Hill neighborhood, contact me, Karen Meredith, Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036.  For a free market analysis of how much your Museum Hill neighborhood home is worth, click here.

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Santa Fe New Mexico Living – Winter Recipes 

Winter Salad

It is apple season at the Farmers Market!  Here is an easy and delicious winter salad recipe using apples, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds:

Apple, Cranberry, and Goat Cheese Salad (adapted from the New York Times)

½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon olive oil
1/3 cup dried cranberries
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Finely grated zest of half an orange
1 large apple or 2 small apples
Mesclun salad mix
1 6 ounce log of goat cheese (preferably on the drier side to facilitate crumbling – the house brand at Whole Foods works well)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss pumpkin seeds with the ½ teaspoon olive oil and salt in a bowl.  Spread on baking sheet and toast in oven until golden brown and popped, 8 to 10 minutes (set a timer so you don’t forget about them!).  Set aside to cool.  Once cool, place the pumpkin seeds and cranberries together in a large salad bowl.

1. In a second bowl, combine the ¼ cup extra virgin oil olive, vinegar and zest.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Whisk until emulsified.

1. Just before serving, cut apples in half, scoop out core using a melon baller if you have one, slice apples thinly and add to large salad bowl.  Add the lettuce and dressing and toss to mix.  Plate the salad and then crumble the goat cheese onto the plates.

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