New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It was given its current name in 2007, having previously been referred to as The Museum of Fine Arts.[2] The museum’s art collection includes over 20,000 paintings, photographs, sculptures, prints, drawings and mixed-media works. Notable artists in the collection include Ansel Adams, Gustave Baumann, Brian O'Connor, Georgia O'Keeffe, Fritz Scholder, T. C. Cannon, Bruce Nauman, Luis Jimenez, Maria Martinez, members of the Ashcan School, Los Cinco Pintores, Transcendental Painting Group, and the Taos Society of Artists.[6]

The New Mexico Museum of Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The Museum of Art is one of four state museums in Santa Fe, eight historic sites statewide, and the Office of Archaeological Studies that comprises the Museum of New Mexico System. The Museum of New Mexico Foundation raises funds for Museum of Art exhibitions and educational programs. When the New Mexico Museum of Art opened in 1917 it was the first building in the state dedicated to art. Its galleries, reception areas and St. Francis auditorium were made by the people of New Mexico for the promotion of the state’s rich culture to visitors and locals alike The architects Isaac Hamilton and William Morris Rapp designed the building as an enlarged and modified version of the building they made for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. The style of the building, called Pueblo Revival, uses modern contruction materials made to look like the historic adobe churches found throughout the state’s Pueblos. Throughout its century long history, the museum has grown and redefined itself to adapt to changes in art and museum practices.

The current name, The New Mexico Museum of Art, was adopted in 2007 to reflect the breadth of New Mexico art. Its previous name, “The Museum of Fine Arts” had been adopted in 1962.