3 Best Sights in Taos, New Mexico

Just two blocks from Taos Plaza, the Harwood Museum of Art is an essential destination for all art lovers. The beautifully renovated Pueblo Revival-style adobe compound has served as a center for the arts and culture in New Mexico for more than 100 years and once housed the town’s library. With nine galleries and a collection of more than 6,500 objects, the Harwood exhibits works that range from colonial Hispanic artists and the Taos Society of Artists to post-World War II modernists and cutting-edge contemporary artists. The Harwood is also home to the world-famous Agnes Martin Gallery and an impressive collection by renowned santero (religious icon artist) Patrociño Barela, not to mention robust educational programming with outstanding films, lectures, and concerts in its state-of-the-art auditorium.

More than 7,000 pieces of spectacular Native American and Hispanic art, many of them from the private collection of the late Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers, are on display here. Among the pieces are baskets, blankets, rugs, kachina dolls, carvings, tinwork, paintings, rare religious artifacts, and, most significantly, jewelry (Rogers, a fashion icon in her day, had a deep appreciation for the turquoise-and-silver artistry of Native American jewelers). Other important works include the pottery and ceramics of Maria Martinez and other potters from San Ildefonso Pueblo (north of Santa Fe). Docents conduct guided tours by appointment, and the museum hosts lectures, films, workshops, and demonstrations. The two-room gift shop has exceptional jewelry, rugs, books, and pottery.

The interiors of this extraordinary adobe house and studio, built between 1927 and 1933 by Russian émigré and artist Nicolai Fechin, are a marvel of carved Russian-style woodwork and furniture as well as Southwest architecture. Fechin constructed them to showcase his daringly colorful paintings, intricate wood carvings and cabinetry, and coppersmith work on fixtures. The house now contains the Taos Art Museum, which exhibits a rotating collection of some 600 paintings by more than 50 Taos artists, including founders of the original Taos Society of Artists, among them Joseph Sharp, Ernest Blumenschein, Bert Phillips, E. I. Couse, and Oscar Berninghaus. Be sure to take a stroll through the lovely gardens, and a peek in the gift shop which houses exquisite pieces by contemporary jewelers among many attractive items.