From This Place — Harwood Members' Insider Edition
Deep Roots, Bold Horizons
| | October 21, 2026 | Issue No. 4 | | Harwood Celebrates Historic Endowment Campaign Success | Moments from the Harwood Endowment Campaign Celebration, honoring the collective generosity that is securing a thriving future for the Harwood Museum of Art. | |
On October 11, friends and supporters of the Harwood Museum of Art gathered to celebrate a remarkable achievement: more than $12.5 million in commitments to the Harwood Endowment Campaign, surpassing the campaign's $10 million goal. Much of this support came through legacy and planned gifts, reflecting a deep commitment to the museum's future.
Hosted by Dora and Carl Dillistone, the celebration recognized the many donors, volunteers, and advocates whose generosity made this accomplishment possible. Special thanks were extended to Gus Foster, the campaign chair, whose decades of leadership, service, and philanthropy have helped shape the Harwood's growth and future.
The afternoon served as both a celebration and a reminder that this milestone is not an ending, but a beginning. The strong foundation established through the campaign will help sustain the Harwood's people, collections, exhibitions, educational programs, and community partnerships while supporting future opportunities for growth and impact.
The Harwood extends its heartfelt gratitude to everyone whose generosity, vision, and belief in the museum helped make this achievement possible.
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Holiday Shopping at the Harwood Museum Store | Top: Visitors browse the Harwood Museum Store. Bottom: Ceramics by Taos-based artist PattyMara Gourley. Photos by Shayla Blatchford. | |
The Harwood Museum Store offers a unique shopping experience in the heart of Taos, featuring thoughtfully curated gifts, books, artwork, and museum-inspired treasures. Whether you are searching for the perfect holiday gift or something special for yourself, every purchase supports the Harwood Museum of Art and the artists represented in the store.
Our collection includes jewelry, ceramics, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, clothing, Milagros, handcrafted ornaments, cards, and distinctive gifts created by artists from Taos, northern New Mexico, and the broader Southwest. These works are complemented by a wonderful selection of children's books, toys, and gifts, along with cookbooks, art books, regional history titles, puzzles, journals, holiday décor, and merchandise inspired by exhibitions on view at the Harwood.
We also feature art prints, original prints, artist notecards, and holiday cards created by regional artists. Our extensive assortment of holiday boxed cards is a favorite among local shoppers, many of whom return each year to purchase cards for the season.
Celebrate the season with us during our Witches' Tea Party (October 29–31), featuring teas from tea.o.graphy, seasonal treats, festive fun, and a little seasonal magic. Join us for refreshments and treats during our Harwood Holiday Kickoff over Thanksgiving weekend and our Winter Wonderland Holiday Sale (December 17–20).
Harwood members receive 20% off during these special events, and all visitors can enjoy seasonal savings and featured promotions throughout the store.
The Harwood Museum Store is located at 238 Ledoux Street, just two blocks from Historic Taos Plaza, and is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We hope you will stop by, celebrate the season with us, and discover something unexpected among our collection of art, books, gifts, ornaments, and museum-inspired finds.
| Left: Ron Cooper: Light Works (April 3—September 26, 2027); Right: blue thunder by Diego Medina (July 24, 2027— January 30, 2028) | |
The Harwood Museum of Art invites supporters to help bring two compelling upcoming exhibitions to life — Ron Cooper: Light Works; and blue thunder, featuring paintings by Diego Medina.
Opening in April 2027, Ron Cooper: Light Works explores how light can be made material, alter space, and transform perception. A pivotal figure in Southern California’s Light and Space movement, Cooper works with resin, fiberglass, fluorescent light, pigment, and lacquer. The exhibition brings together distinct moments in his six-decade inquiry, revealing how changing materials and forms continually reorient our experience of light and color.
Opening in July 2027, blue thunder by Diego Medina transforms the New Mexican desert into a map of spiritual renewal. Through a progression of landscape paintings, mythology and memory become pathways toward an encounter between conscious and unconscious experience. Inspired by the recurring thunder in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, the exhibition uses the desert monsoon as a metaphor for union between land and sky, heaven and earth — a love letter to the desert.
Exhibitions of this caliber are made possible through the generosity of sponsors who help underwrite exhibition development, educational programming, publications, public events, and visitor engagement opportunities.
Sponsorship also provides meaningful visibility and recognition while demonstrating a commitment to supporting arts and culture in our community.
A range of sponsorship opportunities is available, making it possible for individuals, families, businesses, and foundations to participate at a level that is meaningful to them.
To learn more about sponsorship opportunities for either exhibition, please email Tricia Soule, Director of Development.
| | Harwood Museum of Art exterior. Photo by Bill Curry. | |
As a valued Harwood Museum of Art member, you connect with fellow art enthusiasts and enjoy the following benefits:
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Free museum admission for the year (valued at $15/ person/visit)
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Invitations to exhibition openings, special events, and activities
Join the Director’s Circle today to enjoy enhanced access and experiences while supporting the Harwood’s exhibitions, educational initiatives, and vision for the future.
| Inside Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros | Top to bottom: Santino Gonzales (installation view). Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros, June 27, 2026–February 28, 2027, Harwood Museum of Art. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Brad Trone; Joanna Keane Lopez, Energetic Materials, 2026, two-channel video, adobe, soil from the arroyo in the Northern Call-Up Area of White Sands Missile Range, UV-cured acrylic pigment print, maple frames. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Brad Trone. | |
Santino Gonzales is an artist from Los Lunas, NM, who associates adobe with sound: FM radios in his Nana's home, voices traveling through earthen walls. His video and installation works draw on motifs found in adobe, radio and ufology to explore feelings of connection across space and time. Gonzales' art practice reveals throughlines between technology, land, and the unknown.
In his Unearthing Futures installation, adobe bricks hold embedded receivers and transmissions, turning adobe into a transmitter of memory. Radio signals move across distance; adobe carries touch, warmth, and place. Together, they create a language of connection that exceeds physical proximity, tracing how memory moves through earth, through air, and through listening.
Joanna Keane Lopez is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of sculpture, video, photography, site-specific installation, and the vernacular earthen architectural traditions of the American Southwest. Her practice draws upon adobe architectural craft traditions, material inquiry, and archival research to investigate the intersections of land, military coloniality, territorial jurisdiction, and the built environment through adobe, wood, paper, and textiles.
Her installation at the Harwood considers the enduring effects of militarization and environmental contamination on the landscapes and communities associated with White Sands Missile Range, including the area’s ranching histories. Drawing from fieldwork, oral histories, and archival material, the installation traces a landscape shaped by overlapping civilian and military uses.
| New Commitments Advance the Future of Creative Learning | Momentum continues to build for the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Center for Creative Learning, with recent commitments supporting both capital improvements and arts education programming. | |
Support for the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Center for Creative Learning (CCL) continues to grow, with $600,000 in commitments dedicated to naming three spaces within the facility: the Art Library, Front Courtyard, and Pigment Garden.
In addition, two donors have made commitments totaling $100,000 to establish the Harwood Education Programs Endowment Fund, creating a permanent source of support for educational programming at the Harwood Museum of Art.
Together, these gifts represent important progress toward realizing the vision for the Center for Creative Learning and expanding access to arts education for learners of all ages.
While significant momentum has been achieved, approximately $2 million remains to be raised for the CCL's capital improvements and $1 million for education and public programs support. These opportunities will help ensure that the facility is not only built, but also equipped to deliver impactful learning experiences for generations to come.
The Harwood is deeply grateful to the supporters who have helped advance this vision and welcomes conversations with others who may be interested in helping shape the future of creative learning in our community. To learn more about getting involved, please contact us.
| Artist Watch: Larry Bell at SITE Santa Fe | Larry Bell, Pacific Red II, 2017. Photo by Matthew Millman. Courtesy of SITE Santa Fe. | |
Larry Bell: Improvisations at SITE Santa Fe presents four decades of work by one of the leading figures of the Light and Space movement, featuring luminous glass sculptures, collages, and works on paper that explore light, color, and perception through innovative materials and processes.
As the final stop of a national tour, the exhibition offers a compelling look at the work of an artist who has called New Mexico home since 1973. Visitors can also hear directly from Bell during SITE's Innovative Thinker Series on November 14, when he will discuss his influential career, creative practice, and artistic ideas.
| | | Honoring the Legacy of Stephanie Bennett Smith | | Stephanie Bennett Smith with former UNM President Garnett S. Stokes at the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Center for Creative Learning. | |
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Stephanie Bennett Smith, a beloved friend of the Harwood Museum of Art and a passionate champion of arts education in Taos.
Throughout her philanthropy, Stephanie often chose to honor her grandmother, Fern Houge Mitchell, whose influence helped shape her love of education and Taos.
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For that reason, many of the initiatives she established bear the name Stephanie Mitchell Smith, including the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Education Endowment and the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Center for Creative Learning.
Stephanie's generosity helped shape generations of creative learners. Through her longstanding support of the Harwood's education programs, the establishment of the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Education Endowment, and her transformative gift of the Stephanie Mitchell Smith Center for Creative Learning, she created opportunities that will benefit our community for years to come. Stephanie's legacy lives on in every child, family, and lifelong learner inspired through the arts.
| Please consider honoring Stephanie Bennett Smith's lifelong commitment to arts education by making a gift to support creative learning at the Harwood. |
| Help Arts Education Thrive Before October 31 | | |
There's still time to support the Harwood Museum of Art's Thrive Through Art Campaign, which funds education programs that serve youth, families, and educators across Taos County. Our goal is to raise $20,000, and thanks to two anonymous matching gifts, every donation made by October 31 will have three times the impact.
We have already raised $10,475, putting us just over halfway to our goal. Every gift helps provide school tours, art supplies, after-school programs, teacher workshops, and other opportunities that spark creativity and strengthen our community through art.
Please consider making a gift before October 31 and helping us unlock the full match so that arts education can continue to thrive in Taos County!
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