Throughout history, every culture has gathered fiber together and swept. Brooms, brushes, and sweeping are an intimate part of our collective domestic history, and Julia Tait Dickenson proudly creates her pieces as an extension of that time-honored tradition.

Her work showcases pieces that are both recognizable in their original form and strikingly transformed into something entirely new. Julia delights in finding discarded objects and discovering innovative ways to create brooms and brushes, seamlessly incorporating traditional processes with found objects that have been used and feel good in the hand.

Historic Santa Fe Foundation warmly invites our members to attend the Annual Garden Party and Members’ Meeting. This yearly gathering takes place in the beautiful El Zaguán garden, located at 545 Canyon Road, and offers refreshments, engaging conversations about the organization’s future, and social opportunities for those passionate about preservation and the history of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. Check-in begins at 5 PM, followed by refreshments and social time, with the official program starting at 5:30 PM.

Learn how El Zaguán’s 19th century ornamental garden was created and explore spring color as flowers burst into bloom. Presentation and garden tour followed by light refreshments and Q&A.

Historic Santa Fe Foundation announces the Preserving Place Symposium at the New Mexico History Museum. The upcoming ‘Preserving Place: The Santa Fe Continuum’ explores the aspects of Santa Fe that have made it an attractive tourist and re-location destination for decades while looking at the many dualities that may create the disconnect in communication and social cohesiveness resulting from preserving the aesthetics primarily of the architecture of downtown Santa Fe. The goal is to foster discussion about social, planning, development, and architecture-related issues around housing, development, adaptive reuse, and designing for the New Mexico climate using our preservation of the historical character of Santa Fe as a basis for these discussions. This event will take place at the New Mexico History Museum in a day-long event of 3-4 panels and an open forum. Sponsored by Clearstead Avalon Trust and the New Mexico History Museum.

More information on panels available in late March. To stay informed and join the notification list when tickets are available, email info@historicsantafe.org.
STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE. Inquire at info@historicsantafe.org.

Please join HSFF for a day in the historic Village of Agua Fria on May 27. On this tour, we will explore the historic San Isidro church, led by village historian Willaim Mee. Juliana Ciano will then lead us on a tour Reunity Resources, a nonprofit farm and soil yard with an interesting and storied history based in this agricultural community. The day will end with a delicious lunch at Reunity, using farm-fresh ingredients.

Photo by Eric Cousineau

2026 Santa Fe Heritage Awards, May 21, 2026, 5:30pm
San Miguel Chapel, 401 Old Santa Fe Trail
Reception following ceremony, Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s El Zaguán, 545 Canyon Road

Sponsored by the City of Santa Fe, Old Santa Fe Association, and Historic Santa Fe Foundation. In collaboration with San Miguel Chapel.

View the Awardees and photographs from the 2025 award ceremony. More info on the 2026 Awards Ceremony: https://www.historicsantafe.org/2026-preservation-month

Elaine Ritchel is a Santa Fe-based painter, educator, and writer. She is currently an artist in residence at El Zaguan. She holds an MA in Art History and has worked as a gallery teacher and guest educator with arts institutions in the US and abroad, including the UNM Art Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb. Her arts writing has been published in Southwest Contemporary and New Mexico Magazine. In 2015, Elaine founded Santa Fe Art Tours to provide interactive, guided explorations of the local art scene. Her tours usher participants into landmark galleries and unexpected art spaces, introduce them to artists and gallerists, and encourage them to personally connect with the work on view. Her highly rated Canyon Road Art & History tour has been featured on CNN Travel.

Desert Drift explores ephemerality, the subtle thresholds between states of being, and the experience of being held in liminality. The work centers on three elemental subjects—clouds, the moon, and the horizon—that embody both continuity and flux.

The Santa Fe Digital History Project (SantaFe.live) is a free, open platform managed as a commons by the community. It offers a different approach. Given any photograph, old or new, we can figure out exactly where the camera was standing, which direction it was pointing, and what it was looking at on the landscape. Once we know that, every pixel in the image gets a real-world address: a latitude, longitude, and altitude on the hills, walls, and streets of Santa Fe.

Darrah Blackwater is an artist and attorney, originally from Farmington, New Mexico. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation, and focuses much of her work on advocating for the rights of Indigenous people, with an emphasis on Indigenous spectrum sovereignty, or the right for Indigenous people to own and control radio waves on tribal lands. Darrah graduated from Fort Lewis College in 2013 and earned her J.D. from the University of Arizona in 2020. After graduating from Fort Lewis, Darrah worked as a tennis professional in New Braunfels, Texas and Zhongshan, China. While in China she walked over 1,400 miles to raise money and advocate for children with disabilities. After graduating from law school she hiked the Colorado Trail on Ute homelands, 487 miles from Denver to Durango, Colorado. She recently served as legal counsel for the Office of the President and Vice President of the Navajo Nation. She currently lives and makes art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Allocations: Self-Determination From Inside the Earth, Outward focuses on multiple facets of how United States laws and policies have impacted and affected the ability of Indigenous nations and Indigenous people to determine their lives and their futures, this show focuses on the concept of spectrum sovereignty, or the use and control of radio waves on tribal lands. This issue epitomizes the importance of self-determination for Indigenous nations in the modern era, as wireless communications affect the everyday lives of Americans including Indigenous people living on reservations. Similarly, the Dawes Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act and the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives are examples of how, over centuries, the United States has attempted or failed to acknowledge or protect the rights of Indigenous peoples through “allocations” of land, children, and respect.  Allocations: From Inside the Earth Outward challenges the reality of scarcity that colonization has imposed on Indigenous communities by examining the concept of different allocations of rights and resources the United States has made to Tribes and Indigenous people, and questioning who has the right to make these determinations and allocations in the first place.

The gallery will host a special Artist Talk on Saturday, March 14th, at 2:00 PM with Dr. Dominic Cappello, followed by an audience Q&A session. This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited, so advance registration is required to guarantee seating.

Please join us for a walking tour of St. John’s College, led by head librarian Jennifer Sprague. This tour will explore the interesting architecture of the campus, as well as the history of the school’s time in Santa Fe.

Join HSFF on February 19th for a book signing as we celebrate the release of Willie Lambert’s Route 66 Unpolished guides.

Before Los Alamos became famous as the birthplace of the atomic bomb, it was the site of a bucolic, prestigious boys prep school that focused on rigorous academics and the outdoor life. The school's founder, director, and staff connected to Santa Fe and surrounding pueblo communities through a wide web of relationships and activities. Learn about the school's history and impact at this talk by Heather McClenahan, retired executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society.

"Words of Becoming," part of artist Jerry Wellman's "Navigator" installations, explores the meaning and intent behind language and conversation.

This tour, as part of our new “Get to Know Your Town” series, will explore the history and the architecture of the Scottish Rite Temple.

The Scottish Rite Masonic Center, built in 1911–12, is a significant example of the Spanish Moorish Revival Style in Santa Fe. The largest fraternal society in the United States was the Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons. The Scottish Rite, a division of the organization, came to New Mexico with members of the US Army in the 1850s. The membership totaled 256 by 1909 and needed a center to support the ritual activities necessary to advance within the order and foster the spiritual and moral lessons of Masonry. The membership selected the Los Angeles–based firm of Sumner Hunt and Silas Reese Burns, who offered a California Mission Style Revival design with Moorish influence, inspired by the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Today, the Scottish Rite Masonic Center continues as a Masonic facility, with membership drawn from across the state of New Mexico.

 From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.

Please join us for a walking tour around one of Santa Fe’s most iconic buildings, La Fonda on the Plaza

Horn has spent years cultivating a unique style characterized by intricate illustrations, rich geometric patterns, and the sculptural folding of full-grain, vegetable-tanned cowhide. His work exhibits a playful self-awareness, reimagining traditional forms, engaging with the material itself, and reflecting on culture as a whole.

All of his products are 100% handmade, using naturally tanned leather and eco-friendly oils and finishes.

Join HSFF for our annual cookie competition and Farolito stuffing!

The Gallery at El Zaguán is pleased to announce the opening of a solo exhibition featuring acrylic paintings by acclaimed Muskogee-Creek artist George Alexander, also known as Ofuskie. The exhibition will open with a public reception on Friday, December 12th, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, at the gallery located at 545 Canyon Road in Santa Fe.