Santa Fe - American Southwest - page 168

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kitchen with a modern kitchen. You can step into a Navajo hogan (log and mud hut) and
stroll through a trading post. The rest of the museum houses a lovely pottery collection
as well as changing exhibits. There's always a contemporary show.
710 Camino Lejo. & 505/476-1250. www.miaclab.org. Admission $8 adults, free for kids 16 and under.
4-day passes (good at all 4 branches of the Museum of New Mexico and the Museum of Spanish Colonial
Art) $18 for adults. Tues-Sun 10am-5pm. Closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Drive southeast on Old Santa Fe Trail ( Note: Old Santa Fe Trail takes a left turn; if you find yourself on Old
Pecos Trail, you missed the turn). Look for signs pointing right onto Camino Lejo.
Museum of International Folk Art Kids This branch of the Museum of
New Mexico may not seem quite as typically Southwestern as other Santa Fe museums,
but it's the largest of its kind in the world. With a collection of some 130,000 objects
from more than 100 countries, it's my favorite city museum, well worth an hour or two
of perusing. It was founded in 1953 by the Chicago collector Florence Dibell Bartlett,
who said, “If peoples of different countries could have the opportunity to study each
other's cultures, it would be one avenue for a closer understanding between men.” That's
the basis on which the museum operates today.
The special collections include Spanish colonial silver, traditional and contemporary
New Mexican religious art, Mexican tribal costumes and majolica ceramics, Brazilian folk
art, European glass, African sculptures, and East Indian textiles. Particularly delightful
are numerous dioramas of people around the world at work and play in typical town,
village, and home settings, which kids love.
The Hispanic Heritage Wing houses a fine collection of Spanish colonial and contem-
porary Hispanic folk art. Folk-art demonstrations, performances, and workshops are
often presented here. The 80,000-square-foot museum also has a lecture room, a research
library, and two gift shops, where a variety of folk art is available for purchase.
706 Camino Lejo. & 505/476-1200. www.moifa.org. Admission $8 adults, free for kids 16 and under.
4-day passes (good at all 4 branches of the Museum of New Mexico and at the Museum of Spanish Colo-
nial Art) $18 for adults. Memorial Day to Labor Day daily 10am-5pm; rest of the year Tues-Sun 10am-
5pm. Closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The museum is about 2 miles southeast
of the plaza. Drive southeast on Old Santa Fe Trail ( Note: Old Santa Fe Trail takes a left turn; if you find
yourself on Old Pecos Trail, you missed the turn). Look for signs pointing right onto Camino Lejo.

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Museum of Spanish Colonial Art Beauty often follows in the wake of imperial-
ism. A good example of this is Spanish colonial art, which has flourished from Europe
across the Americas and even in the Philippines. This museum, located in the same
compound as the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Indian Arts &
Culture, and the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, celebrates this art with
a collection of 3,000 devotional and decorative works and utilitarian artifacts. Housed in
a home built by noted architect John Gaw Meem, the museum displays retablos (religious
paintings on wood), bultos (free-standing religious sculptures), furniture, metalwork,
textiles, and, outside, an 18th-century wooden colonial house from Mexico.
750 Camino Lejo. & 505/982-2226. www.spanishcolonial.org. Admission $8 adults, free for kids 16 and
under. 4-day passes (good at all 4 branches of the Museum of New Mexico and at this one) $18 for adults.
Tues-Sun 10am-5pm. Closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The museum is
located about 2 miles southeast of the plaza. Drive southeast on Old Santa Fe Trail ( Note: Old Santa Fe
Trail takes a left turn; if you find yourself on Old Pecos Trail, you missed the turn). Look for signs pointing
right onto Camino Lejo.
Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian Kids Next to the Museum of
International Folk Art, this museum resembles a Navajo hogan, with its doorway facing