Introduces Santa Fe Series

ROCKWELL MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART INTRODUCES SANTA FE SERIES WITH WHERE CULTURES MEET: THE HISTORY AND ART OF SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

January 20, 2004

What American city is 13 years older than the Plymouth Colony? Is the first foreign capital ever seized by the United States? Is today an international center for the arts and culture? The answer to all three questions is Santa Fe, New Mexico. The fascinating history of the capital of the Land of Enchantment will be discussed in the first of a series of three programs on Santa Fe at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. Where Cultures Meet:The History and Art of Santa Fe, New Mexico will be presented by Nancy Halliwell on Wednesday, February 11, 2004 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Remington and Russell Lodge.

Where Cultures Meet:The History and Art of Santa Fe and the entire Santa Fe program series are open to the public. Admission is free to museum members. The cost for not-yet-members is $6.50 for adults and $5.50 for seniors. A cash bar and refreshments will be available. For reservations and more information, call (607) 974-2333.

Where Cultures Meet will be an armchair tour of Santa Fe history, full of fascinating slides that bring unique places and characters to life. The city's culture is an especially important subject for the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, as many of its newest acquisitions hail from Santa Fe artists.

The Santa Fe program series will culminate this summer in an excursion to Santa Fe, from July 29 through August 1. The event-filled tour, called Destination: Santa Fe, New Mexico, will include private gallery talks with artists and art collectors, and behind the scenes visits to the city's artistic and historical treasures. Halliwell will lead the tour, which is open to museum members at the Copper ($250) level for $1,150 per person. For a detailed itinerary and more information about Destination: Santa Fe, New Mexico, call 974-2333.

"Diverse cultures have shaped Santa Fe's past, and are shaping its future," says Halliwell. "These influences give the city a vitality that draws you in. I am absolutely infected by it. If you've never experienced Santa Fe, Where Cultures Meet is a good place to start."

Nancy Halliwell has been a dealer and broker of Southwestern and Western art for 17 years. She currently owns and operates an art brokerage business specializing in purchasing art for corporations. She is also president of Forum del Sol Publishing. Nancy lived and worked in the Santa Fe art world for many years, where she served as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Nedra Matteucci's Fenn Galleries, and as a publicist and fundraiser. She has also lived and worked in Fort Collins, Colorado. She currently resides in Boise, Idaho.

Halliwell's presentation will be a chronological journey, pausing at various points in time to meet some of the city's more interesting characters. The first will be the Anasazi, the earliest known Native American community in present day Santa Fe, who gave up nomadic life for an agricultural one. The Anasazi are best known for their stunning cliff dwellings, palatial apartment cities constructed in high caves during the first millennium, and their distinctive pottery and fine basketry.

Next came the Spanish conquistadores, who claimed the Kingdom of New Mexico in 1540 and erected the Palace of the Governors which still stands in Santa Fe's Plaza.

The first Ango-American influences came much later, during the 1800s, when traders flocked to the city along the Santa Fe Trail, and later via the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The railroads opened Santa Fe to tourists, attracting entrepreneurs like Fred Harvey, the "Civilizer of the West," who lined the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe routes with comfortable hotels and restaurants.

Railroad companies also cemented the relationship between tourism and the arts by hiring artists to paint promotions for the region. The artists themselves settled in New Mexico, and invited their friends and colleagues to join them there. The Taos Society of Artists formed this way. Likewise, Mabel Dodge Lujan enticed Georgia O'Keefe to Santa Fe.

Today, Santa Fe remains an amalgam of all of these influences. The city's architecture reflects the original Spanish-Pueblo style. Fred Harvey's first property, La Fonda Hotel, still operates at the terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. And the arts of the Native American, Hispanic, and Ango-American cultures that formed the city continue to flourish.

The Rockwell Museum of Western Art owns one of the largest and finest collections of Western American art in the Eastern United States and provides the public with a chance to see the Best of the West in the East. All of the Rockwell Museum's exhibits and services - galleries, events, art packs, Trading Post gift shop, Kids' West play area, and the adjacent Cantina - reflect the people, places, and ideas of the West, immersing visitors in an authentic Western experience.

The Rockwell Museum of Western Art is located at the corner of Cedar Street and Denison Parkway in Corning, just one block from historic Market Street. It is open seven days a week. Now through April 30, hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. seven days a week. Directions and further information about can be found by calling 607-937-5386.