Timeless Waters: Summer 2025 at the Thaw Education and Research Center

Timeless Waters: Summer 2025 at the Thaw Education and Research Center

Historic Santa Fe Foundation Presents Sharon Stewart’s Exhibition on Acequia Culture in New Mexico

The Historic Santa Fe Foundation proudly announces the Summer 2025 programming at the Eugene and Clare Thaw Education and Research Center, located at the Edwin Brooks House, 553 Canyon Road. As part of the 2025–2026 season, the center continues its mission of exploring history, preservation, and the culture of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico through the use of art, illustrated media, and historical documents. Programming continues in June 2025 with a new exhibition by acclaimed photographer Sharon Stewart.

Timeless Waters: Acequia Culture in New Mexico

Artist: Sharon Stewart

Location: Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s Thaw Education and Research Center, 553 Canyon Road

• Opening: June 27, 5–7pm, with a public artist talk at 6pm
• Private Reception and Artist Talk: July 10, 5–7:30pm
• Exhibition on view through September 26, 2025
• Tickets required. More information coming soon.

The exhibition, Timeless Waters: Acequia Culture in New Mexico, features two of Stewart’s major photographic projects: El Cerrito: A Village Life Portrait and FIRESCAPE. Together, these works examine the enduring water traditions in New Mexico, highlighting the cultural, historical, and environmental challenges related to acequia systems—especially in the face of population shifts and climate change.

To deepen public understanding of these themes, the Historic Santa Fe Foundation will offer supplemental programming throughout the summer. Among these events:

• Jesse Roach, Director of the City of Santa Fe Water Division, will present on July 24 about the structure and planning behind the city’s water supply.
• Jake Barrow, Program Director for Cornerstones Community Partnerships, will offer a presentation (date TBD) on the Rael Ranch Acequia in La Cienega, NM, focusing on community involvement in its annual cleaning and stone masonry repairs.

Additional programming details will be announced throughout the summer at historicsantafe.org/timeless-waters.

Sharon Stewart’s Projects:

El Cerrito: A Village Life Portrait

This black-and-white photographic project, begun in 1992, documents the life of the village of El Cerrito, a remote settlement near Las Vegas, New Mexico. The village, nestled on a triple oxbow of the Pecos River, is sustained by the Acequia Madre—a community-built irrigation ditch that flows through the village by gravity for one-and-a-half miles.

In acequia culture, water is not a commodity but a shared resource. Based on the Islamic Law of Thirst, this system holds that all beings have the right to access water freely. Local users, known as parciantes, elect a mayordomo each year to oversee the maintenance of the acequia, particularly during the annual limpia or spring cleaning.

The limpia is a rare communal gathering in El Cerrito, where generations come together to preserve the land and its resources. Stewart’s photographs capture this intergenerational effort and highlight the ongoing commitment to a sustainable way of life.

El Cerrito’s modern-day revival is partially credited to a group of friends who discovered the village in the 1970s when only five residents remained. They formed a tenants-in-common arrangement, purchased land, and settled in. Over time, former residents returned to restore family homes and retire. One family, in particular, has remained a constant, ensuring that the acequia continues to flow and the land continues to thrive.

FIRESCAPE

This project was born in the aftermath of the Hermit’s Peak + Calf Canyon Fire. After being evacuated for a month, Stewart returned to find her home and studio in Chacón untouched, though her village had suffered significant damage.

The community’s spring-fed water system had burned, forcing potable water to be trucked in for 10 months. Vegetation along the acequias was destroyed. When summer floods followed, silt and ash clogged the ditches, rendering them unusable.

Because acequias are central to Mora Valley’s cultural identity, efforts to restore them have continued for three years, despite recurring floods. Stewart documents this resilience and determination through her photography, preserving the story of a community bound by tradition and water.

About Sharon Stewart

Sharon Stewart is the founding vice-president of the Houston Center for Photography and was actively involved in the early years of the FotoFest biennial festival. Her career includes apprenticeships in corporate and fashion studios and collaboration on the Toxic Tour of Texas with writer Steven Fenberg—a photographic project that captured grassroots activism against environmental hazards.

Motivated by a desire to live closer to nature, Stewart left urban life for Chacón, a small village in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. There, she spent over three decades building a studio and gardens while focusing her lens on the deep connections between land, water, and cultural identity.

Her work is held in the collections of the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, and the Art Museum at Princeton University, among others. Recent exhibitions include:

• El Cerrito: A Village Life Portrait, Ray Drew Gallery, NM Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM
• What Creeps From the Earth, Tavros Art Space, Athens, Greece
• Off/Center: New Mexico Art, 1970–2000, Vladem Contemporary, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
• Going With The Flow: Art, Actions, And Western Waters, SITE SANTA FE

More of Stewart’s work can be found at www.sharonstewartphotography.net.

For full details on Timeless Waters and upcoming summer programming, visit historicsantafe.org/timeless-waters.