New This Month at Our Museum!

In recent weeks we were glad to welcome groups of students from around Santa Fe, including Santa Fe Prep students who are learning about curation, the Girls School students who are working on their annual furniture project and came to the collections storage for inspiration, and the HSFF High School Fellowship students who discussed the ethics of collecting with our curator.
Student groups are always welcome! Teachers and student group leaders please email museum@spanishcolonial.org for inquiries about special tours and talks about our museum, collection, library, and archive. We are always glad to host student groups and feel we learn as much from their insightful questions and observations as they do from us.

A huge thanks to the over 200 people that showed up for the opening of Lowrider Bike Club! We were thrilled to have all the artists (age 11 – 18) and their families in attendance, as well as mentors, artists, and organizations who made this program possible. The community really showed up for these kids and we are honored to be a part of it.
Thanks again to Ben Sandoval and the Espanola YMCA, the Espanola Lowrider Museum Coalition, Diego Lopez and Hands Across Culture, Cruz Lopez, Scott Garland from the DEA , and the Olathe Leadership Lowrider Bike Club representatives from Kansas who flew in for the night!

The exhibit runs through April, and related programming is on the horizon! Stay tuned!

Save the date for this intimate tour and conversation with Dr. Audra Bellmore, Associate Professor in the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, Curator of the John Gaw Meem Archives of Southwestern Architecture, and Adjunct Professor in the Museum Studies Program at the University of New Mexico and Allison Colborne, Librarian, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Laboratory of Anthropology Library. This event will include lunch and a sneak peek of our new exhibit on our museum building – the Laboratory of Anthropology Director’s Residence – including historic photographs, architectural drawings, and more. Space is limited. This is a ticketed event. Details and RSVP information will be sent separately.

E. Boyd Sala
More details announced soon!

Stories of New Mexico features rotating work from the permanent collection. Two galleries are dedicated to exhibiting both historical and contemporary work, which aids in the visual narrative of New Mexico’s rich cultural history. A bulto of Saint Roch is currently on display in this exhibition. Saint Roch is an important figure not only in New Mexico but has a wide cult following.

Saint Roch (also known as Saint Rocco or Saint Roque) was the son of a noble governor from Montpellier, France. At the age of twenty, his parents died; he gave his inheritance to the poor and began a pilgrimage to help the sick. During these journeys, he discovered that he could cure people of their illness by prayer, his touch, and blessing them with the sign of the cross. Throughout his pilgrimage, Saint Roche did not contract the plague. Eventually, he fell ill with the same sickness he was curing.

To avoid passing on his illness and becoming a burden, he retreated to the forest, where he prayed for help. His prayers resulted in divine intervention. First, a spring of water appeared by his shelter; second, a dog brought him bread for sustenance; and third, an angel appeared and informed him that his illness would be cured.

Saint Roch is often depicted in pilgrims’ clothes, a wide-brimmed hat, carrying a staff, and may show his status as a pilgrim by a scallop shell pinned to his hat or cloak.  Other attributes depicted are a dog with a loaf of bread and an open wound on the thigh, indicating the plague.

The feast day of Saint Roche is celebrated on August 16^th. He is known as the patron saint of dogs, dog owners, contagious diseases, pestilence, epidemics, and diseased cattle. After his death, the Church of San Rocco was built in Venice, Italy, which holds many of his relics.

Lowrider Bike Club
Closing April 27th

Featuring the work of the Lowrider Bike Club of Espanola, kids ages 11-18 teamed up to make these unique and stunning bikes with the help of artists and mentors from the community.

A kind and talented artist, good friend to all who knew him, and important part of SCAS’s history. He will be deeply missed.

Museum Hours:

Public hours. No appointments necessary to visit.
Wednesday – Friday 1-4pm

And we are excited to announce our New Warm Weather Season Hours, May through September!

Wednesday – Friday 12-4pm
and
Saturdays 10am-4pm

Why are our public open hours limited?

Although the hours established for our Museum to be open to the public without reservation are limited, we are on site and open throughout the week with staff and volunteers hosting tours, classes, and other educational programs that take place in our Museum sala and galleries; working in our research library and archive to further enhance accessibility to the public; and caring for items in our Permanent Collection. We strive to strike a balance between Museum exhibit hours open to the public without reservation and reservation-only educational programs in our building. Most of the time when our Museum is “closed,” we are actually open to various educational programs with our community in this shared intimate historic house Museum space.

As always, if our listed Museum hours do not work with your schedule, we are happy to set up an appointment for you to visit at a different time.

Membership is our foundation! 

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society is a privately funded public museum, and membership and admissions provide the core of the Society’s operating budget so that fundraising efforts can be focused on expanding our programming.

Please become a member or give membership as a unique gift to friends and family, and enjoy access to our newsletters, advance notice of special events, special discounts, and free admission to the museum, lectures, and other educational events.

As a member, you will be supporting the only museum in the nation devoted to showcasing the Hispanic arts of New Mexico and providing a platform for working artists to continue to educate the public about these living traditions.

Make a gift to the Spanish Colonial Arts Society and help support the cultural heritage of Hispanic New Mexico and its living traditions for years to come.