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BY MICHAEL MILLER The New Mexico historic property known today as Los Luceros has supported consistent human occupation for about 800 years, according to the archaeological record. Today, that occupation metric is miniscule: the ranger’s lodgings and occasional travelers who bunk in the guest house overlooking a rambunctious stretch of the Rio Grande. (more…)
Categories: New Mexican cultures, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Staff favorites
BY CHRIS CREWS AND C.L. KIEFFER Saturday, October 21 is International Archaeology Day. For the past few years the Department of Cultural Affairs has celebrated this day with an open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Center for New Mexico Archaeology (CNMA). Last year, the focus was on maize, and this year, projectile points are in the spotlight.
Categories: New Mexican cultures
BY LYNN CLINE It’s been thirty years since the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture opened its doors on Museum Hill. This year also marks the twentieth anniversary of the opening of MIAC’s permanent exhibition Here, Now and Always, and the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Laboratory of Archaeology. (more…)
Categories: New Mexican cultures, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art
BY CAMILLE FLORES WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY MINESH BACRANIA Renowned historian Thomas E. Chávez is a grateful, if reluctant, cultural champion. When he learned last year that he’d been nominated to receive the highest civil award that Spain bestows on a foreigner, and that he was to be inducted into the Orden de Isabel la Católica at the rank of commander for his exceptional contributions to US–Spanish cultural relations, he demurred, and decided to withdraw his name from consideration.
Categories: Indigenous arts and cultures, New Mexican cultures
BY LAURA ADDISON When Napa-based artist Freeland Tanner speaks about his work, he often uses the word beyond—beyond boundaries, beyond the box, beyond the original forms that inspired him to begin with. Indeed, upon seeing his elaborately notched and layered boxes and frames done in the spirit of tramp art, visitors to the exhibition No Idle Hands: The Myths & Meanings of Tramp Art are awestruck and say that they’ve never seen anything quite like Tanner’s work before.
Categories: Featured, Visual art
BY LAURA ADDISON Lloyd Cotsen, the charismatic, longtime executive of Neutrogena Corporation from 1967 to 1994, passed away on May 8, 2017. One of his many legacies is the gift of the Neutrogena Collection to the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA). “Cotsen’s gift of more than 3,000 objects to the museum in 1995 has had a profound effect on the lives of New Mexicans and visitors alike,” wrote Khristaan Villela, MOIFA’s director, in an obituary for the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Categories: Featured, Visual art
BY MARIE MARKESTEYN WITH CANDACE WALSH I truly believe that nobody ever really owns Los Luceros, but they might get their name on a piece of paper for a while. My own relationship with Los Luceros is a long and storied one, although I was never an owner. I am, however, a storyteller, and the stories are unending over there. I’m originally from Savannah, Georgia.
Categories: New Mexican history, Southwestern history
MODERATED BY PETER BG SHOEMAKER & CONDENSED BY CANDACE WALSH Peter: The Be Here Now collaborations are using the counterculture movement in the United States as their centerpiece, their lodestone. Herb, your exhibition of photographs focuses on your experiences and your fellow soldiers in Vietnam. Michael, one of the many remarkable things about your art is your perspective as someone who lost his sight while a soldier in Vietnam.
Categories: Featured, Interviews, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art
BY CODY HARTLEY What is now Santa Fe is one of the old places in a region inhabited for at least 12,000 years. Traces of those who have gone before can be found across this ancient and sacred landscape. (more…)
Categories: Visual art
BY MAXINE MCBRINN Years ago, I fell in love with ancient sandals. These simple sandals were worn 2,000 to 3,000 years ago by Ancestral Pueblo people and were preserved in the dry enclosures of rock shelters, where they had been left behind when people moved on. Some showed wear and age, others looked and felt almost as fresh as the day they were set down by the people who made them.
Categories: New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Visual art
![Intricately beaded chair with ornate designs, including figures, patterns, and elaborate backrest details, displayed against a plain gray background. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Tanner-Sabrina-1-front-400x225.jpg)
![Two women sit on a fallen tree beside a pond, facing away from the camera in an outdoor, rural setting. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/EP_Arm-14-edited_Sepia-scaled-1-400x225.jpg)
![Two older men; the first wears a gray shirt and holds a camera outdoors, the second wears a black shirt and holds a small bird sculpture against a gray background. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IMG_3158.cx_-scaled-1-400x225.jpg)
![Sepia-toned photo of a museum room with shelves displaying pottery and artifacts, and landscape murals decorating the upper walls. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/139154-scaled-1-400x225.jpg)
![A pair of childrens high-top sneakers with green fabric, white laces, multicolored animal designs, and decorative beads, displayed on a black background. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/LastImp_04-400x225.jpg)