Many Museums

Everybody is probably ready to leave Santa Fe at this point, but there’s maybe a couple of days yet…including the food wrap up containing several luncheon spots and Big Deal Meal Number 3.

But today we’ll visit some of the museums and attractions (one of which includes lunch). Being sort of a Southwest cultural center (as well as the State Capitol), Santa Fe boasts a number of museums. Among others there is the Georgia O’Keeffe museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and a nice little out of town complex called “Museum Hill” which contains the museums of Indian Arts and Culture, International Folk Art, and the Wheelwright Museum. Downtown along with the O’Keeffe and Museum of Art, there is also the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum. So there is no lack of things to look at if you’re so inclined.

We did fairly well. We started out with the O’Keeffe, and I would have to say that while we weren’t disappointed, it was not what we expected. Most everybody is familiar with her work, those big lush flowers, bones and flowers, some abstracts, and so forth. Well, most of those “famous” pictures are displayed someplace other than in the museum in Santa Fe. To be sure, there were a few, but mostly there were “other” works less familiar and no less beautiful, but not what we had hoped for. There was a little docent speech while we were there, and we learned something of the artist. She was quite a gal….

The New Mexico Museum of art had a few more of her works, along with a lot of historical presentations of Pueblo life, Indian rituals and dances, that sort of thing. They also had some more contemporary things. Palace of the Governors is pretty much devoted to archeology of the place and has lots of potsherds, windows in floors to see original foundations and lots of antiquities.

There is something like “museum fatigue” that sets in at some point where it’s “just” another painting, pot, sculpture, etc., and you have to learn it’s time to quit. While that happened at the above museums we didn’t experience it at the

The whole “Museum Hill” complex is a beautiful, quiet spot overlooking the valley.

with very peaceful grounds

The Cultural museum is relatively new, and therefore has more interesting exhibits than cases and cases of arrowheads and dusty blankets. It is separated into little areas of focus, like Ancestors, which tells the story of the earliest inhabitants of the region, then goes on to Cycles where you learn about rites of passage and so on. One area called “survival” has little video clips of people relating how they were put in “Indian” schools after they were more or less evicted by the white man and how they were trained to be “white”. Very interesting. You don’t feel very proud about how the native peoples were treated as “we” moved in. What a rich and diverse culture they had. And, in some respects they still do. There are still clans and tribes that maintain their culture and language.

Museum fatigue didn’t set in, but hunger did, so we took a break and had lunch at the little café on site. They had an outdoor seating area and the weather was cooperative and we took advantage of that while MFO contemplates the menu.

We lubricated the selection process with a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a local beer.  She finally settled on the breakfast burrito (eggs, sausage, chiles), and I chose some beef tacos (always mindful of the heat)

They turned out to be very nice. Sometimes museum food is pretty good.. greens were fresh, food was at the appropriate temperature..

Notice the little dish of sauce next to the Tacos? A tiny forkful warned the feeder to avoid the rest of the contents… it’s just me..

Anyway fortified by the food and the view we returned and did the rest of the museum, killing the rest of the day. The grounds have several pieces of statuary

 

Including this impressive Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer

Scares me

Plus other interesting pieces were scattered about the area.. 

There was a little plaque explaining the symbolism of this (see how the middle flows into the circular part...) following some Indian legend on the creation of the world.  To me, it's just nice...

The theme of the museum is "Here, Now, and Always".   After visiting the museum you can appreciate it.  Very soul satisfying day. Between the altitude and the stumping around the museums, in the evening we stayed home and had lovely cocktails.. so we didn’t have to be

DFD