100th Anniversary of Largest State-Run Museum System in U.S.

Santa Fe, NM-The Museum of New Mexico celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. On February 19, 1909, the New Mexico Territorial Legislature passed a law establishing the Museum of New Mexico, designating the historic Palace of the Governors on the north side of the Santa Fe Plaza as its home.

Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Nearly a century later, those pre-statehood ambitions of the New Mexico Territory's leaders have grown into what is widely considered to be the nation's largest system of state-run museums, historic monuments and other arts and cultural programs, all of which are under the Department of Cultural Affairs.

These diverse institutions preserve a rich multi-cultural history going back thousands of years. New Mexico was a major center of many highly sophisticated Pueblo civilizations. Later they were joined by more nomadic peoples. The Spanish arrived in 1680 and with the coming of the railroads in the 1880s, European Americans arrived and all three have since made Santa Fe their home.

These diverse institutions preserve a rich multi-cultural history going back thousands of years. New Mexico was a major center of many highly sophisticated Pueblo civilizations, some of which evolved into today's 19 New Mexico Pueblos. These farming societies were supplemented by more nomadic cultures who became today's Navajo and Apache peoples. The Spanish first visited in 1540 with the Coronado expedition and came to stay with Juan de Oñate and his settlers in 1598. With the beginnings of the Mexican government period and the opening of the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri in 1821, Anglo-Americans made their first significant appearance as traders. The takeover of New Mexico by U.S. General Stephen Kearney and his Army of the West in 1846 during the Mexican-American War and the arrival of the railroad in 1880 accelerated the American presence, such that Santa Fe and New Mexico are now the home of a unique mix of strong and historic cultures.

The Museum of New Mexico preserves artifacts as singular as the Palace of the Governors itself, the oldest (1609) continuously occupied public building in the United States, to a collection at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology that numbers more than 5 to 10 million pieces, of which more than 75,000 are in the catalogued permanent collection. Painting, photography, and sculpture from the 19th century to the present may be seen at the New Mexico Museum of Art and at the Museum of International Folk Art your imagination can run loose in the world's largest collection of folk art.

The eight monuments provide rich insight into the state's development. Visit one of three forts that are monuments, such as Fort Selden, one of the many forts that was manned by the famed "Buffalo Soldiers," units that gained honor and glory for their everlasting commitment to their "adopted" country; or on a more somber note, Fort Sumner State Monument-Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner, the site of one of our countries most tragic periods of history - the incarceration of Navajos and Mescalero Apaches during the 1860s.

The following is a brief description of the museums that comprise the Museum of New Mexico:

Palace of the Governors (New Mexico History Museum)
The Palace of the Governors, on the Plaza, built from 1609 to 1610, has served as New Mexico's history museum since 1885, first as the home of the museum of the Historical Society of New Mexico and later under the Museum of New Mexico since its founding by the Territorial Legislature in 1909. The building is considered the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States and is the museum's signature artifact - a symbol of 400 years of Hispanic presence in the southwest and site of numerous encounters between Spanish, Mexican, Europeans of many countries, and the native peoples of the area. The museum's collection of more than 20,000 historical objects documents the Spanish Colonial, Mexican, American Territorial, and recent eras in New Mexico history. Items date from the time of the earliest Spanish explorations in the 16th century and chronicle 223 years of Spanish administrative control, 25 years as part of Mexico, 66 years as a territory of the United States, and from statehood in 1912 to the present.

The Palace also administers the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library which is the repository of rare books and maps tracing the history of New Mexico from the 17th century to the present and the Photo Archives which contains more than 750,000 images in various formats including glass plate negatives, film negative, photographic prints, stereographs, and lantern and color slides. Images in the Photo Archives span the 19th and 20th centuries and largely depict the American West, New Mexico, and the U.S. There is a press at the Palace which contains a working exhibit of 19th and 20th century letterpress printing techniques and equipment. The recently acquired Frank Collection is comprised of 260 pieces illustrating the tradition of santo making in New Mexico between 1700 and 1900 and will open on July 20, 2008. The Palace is also home to the International Institute of Iberian Colonial Arts collection primarily containing seventy 17th and 18th century Spanish colonial paintings by renowned artists from Mexico and South America. In addition the collection specializes in artifacts related to early Spanish colonization and the Santa Fe Trail; from swords, pistols, and rifles dating from the 16th century to the present to transportation related artifacts such as wagons and horse gear, Victorian-era costumes and accessories, U.S.S. New Mexico battleship silver service, ship furnishings and uniforms, and period rooms.

Director - Dr. Fran Levine.

New Mexico Museum of Art (formerly Museum of Fine Arts)
The New Mexico Museum of Art, on the Plaza, was founded in 1917 as the Fine Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico. The museum is housed in a spectacular Pueblo Revival building designed by I. H. and William M. Rapp. The building was based on their New Mexico building at the Panama-California Exposition (1915). The museum's architecture inaugurated what has come to be known as "Santa Fe Style." For more than 90 years, the Museum has collected and exhibited works by leading artists from New Mexico and elsewhere; this tradition continues today. The New Mexico Museum of Art strives to bring the art of New Mexico to the world and the art of the world to New Mexico.

The New Mexico Museum of Art houses the premier collections of the Cinco Pintores and the the Taos Society of Artists; works by Robert Henri and John Sloan; the largest collection of Gustave Baumann woodcuts and marionettes; the Lucy Lippard Collection; works by major American photographers, including the Jane Reese Williams Collection of women photographers; and an important collection of Georgia O'Keeffe paintings. The collection continues into the twenty-first century with contemporary new media, including video installations and contemporary art by Native American, Hispanic, and European American artists.

Director - Dr. Marsha Bol.

Museum of International Folk Art
The Museum of International Folk Art, opened to the public in 1953, houses the world's largest collection of international folk art. Located two miles southeast of the historic downtown plaza on Museum HillT, the museum features works from over 100 countries ranging from ceramics to furniture, textiles to devotional art, with long-term exhibitions Multiple Visions: A Common Bond in the Girard Wing, and Familia y Fe in the Hispanic Heritage Wing. Changing and traveling exhibitions are offered in the Bartlett Wing and exhibitions highlighting textiles are featured in the Neutrogena Wing. Lloyd's Treasure Chest offers visitors interactive displays about collections and how museums care for collections. Known for its outstanding educational programs serving school children and their teachers, the Museum of International Folk Art is dedicated to building cultural understanding through folk art.

Since its opening in 1982, millions of visitors have been amazed by the museum's extraordinary exhibition, drawn from a collection of toys, textiles and traditional and popular arts from over 100 countries in the acclaimed Alexander and Susan Girard Collection. The textiles, ceramics, carvings and other treasures in the Neutrogena Collection provide another valuable perspective on international folk culture. The museum's diverse collections of Spanish colonial and contemporary Latino and Hispanic artworks represent Europe, Latin American and the United States, including the museum's home state of New Mexico. Works by Heritage Fellows (National Endowment for the Arts), such as Ramon Jose Lopez, Eliseo and Paula Rodriguez, and Charles Carrillo, are represented in the collection Textiles are a particular strength of the collection, including Palestinian costumes, samplers, and recent acquisitions from Chinese minority groups, such as the Yi and Li peoples.

Director - Dr. Joyce Ice.

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology
The Laboratory of Anthropology opened in 1931 and was involved in several projects centered around archaeological and anthropological research in New Mexico. As the Lab outgrew its collections storage and exhibition space, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture was founded in 1987 and is located next to the Lab on Museum HillT. Here, Now and Always, a major long-term exhibition, combines the voices of living Native Americans with ancient and contemporary artifacts and interactive multimedia to tell the complex stories of the diverse Native cultures of the Southwest. The Buchsbaum Gallery displays ceramics from the region's pueblos. Five changing galleries pre
[Back to Press Releases Main]