On Saturday, November 25, I will be in Virginia recovering from Thanksgiving feasting, but if I could reach Santa Fe that day, I would gladly help celebrate the centenary of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Exactly 100 years before, on November 25, 1917, this handsome Pueblo Revival building facing the city’s historic plaza officially opened to the public, welcoming a crowd of 1,200. It’s likely even more people will show up this time as the museum launches a series of 100 events with a free daylong celebration. It has recently been closed for restoration, and for the installing of three new exhibitions, including the promising-sounding Horizons: People & Place in 20th-Century New Mexican Art.
New Mexico had been a U.S. state for only five years when the museum opened,…
