Contributors

For over a century, El Palacio has been a forum for voices exploring New Mexico’s art, archaeology, history, and landscape. Explore the writers, photographers, historians, and scientists whose perspectives have defined the magazine’s pages—past and present.

Arthur Sze

Arthur Sze is the current U.S. Poet Laureate. Sze is a poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of twelve books, including Into the Hush, Sight Lines, and others. Sze’s poems have been translated into fifteen languages, and he is the recipient of the National Book Award among many other honors. He lives in Santa Fe.

Deborah Jackson Taffa

Deborah Jackson Taffa is a citizen of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo. Her memoir Whiskey Tender was a 2024 National Book Award Finalist and was longlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Taffa serves as the director of the MFA in creative writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Cara Romero

Cara Romero is an award-winning contemporary fine art photographer. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero’s expansive oeuvre has been informed by formal training in film, digital, fine art, and commercial photography. She maintains a studio in Santa Fe, regularly participates in Native American art fairs, and was featured in PBS’ Craft in America (2019).

Merry Scully

Merry Scully is the executive director at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art at California State University San Bernardino. Merry was previously the head of curatorial affairs and curator of contemporary art at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Her exhibitions include shows in the Alcoves and Poetic Justice which opened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A group of purple and pink squares. [gen-ai]

Roamings, Run-Ins, and Rendez-Vous

BY MERRY SCULLY Planning for our centennial exhibitions required reflection on the past, but also the kind of bold thinking under which the Museum of Art was founded. Rather than a chronology of the institution, our centennial celebrates the museum as an active place where art and history are archived, catalogued, and created. Contact: Local to Global reflects the New Mexico Museum of Art as a point of contact for the visual arts in New Mexico over the past five decades.