Mature Life Features

. . . with monthly

Food Service and Town Hall meetings

beginning at 3 p.m. in the 2nd floor theater.

= = = = =

Living in Santa Fe

is an Art Form

By Fyllis Hockman, Mature Life Features

SANTA FE, NM – This state capital with some 70,000 inhabitants that leans against the Sangre de Cristo mountains is a state of mind more than a city; a way of life more than a place to live.

With more than 250 galleries housing Santa Fe art ranging from Southwestern to Native American to contemporary, no one is surprised to learn this is the first city in the country to be designated a UNESCO Creative City for Craft and Folk Art.

Visitors can start with museums, picking from a list that includes the SITE Santa Fe Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of International Folk Art, New Mexico History Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and Georgia O’Keefe Museum.

Each one is an immersion into whatever and whoever it is celebrating. The same as the hundreds of galleries proffering paintings and pottery, artworks and art wear and artifacts, jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, photography – have I forgotten any form of artistic expression? And if by any stretch of the imagination you have not seen enough art, there are galleries on steroids and shopping opportunities galore at the Railyard Arts District, Canyon Road and, of course, all around the central plaza that forms the heart of the city.

But Santa Fe also offers some more leisurely sightseeing stereotypes.

Among these are three very old structures, each sporting its own history and appeal.

The Loretto Chapel was built in 1873 as the first Gothic (as opposed to adobe) structure west of the Mississippi. It is home to probably the most inspirational staircase anywhere.

The architect building the church died before access to the choir loft could be constructed. The chapel was too small to allow for a traditional staircase. So the nuns did what nuns do: they prayed to St. Joseph, the Patron Saint of Carpenters for nine days, at which time a carpenter appeared without any of the tools needed to build a staircase. And yet a spiral staircase, taking up little floor space, was built – at which point he disappeared without thanks or payment.

Mystery still shrouds the Miraculous Staircase, as it is known. Wooden pegs have been used instead of nails and the wood is not native to the American Southwest. It has two complete 360 degree turns with no center pole for structural support.  The entire weight of the staircase rests on the bottom stair. And the identity of the builder is still unknown.

Then there’s the Oldest House. Its adobe foundation dates back to an ancient Indian Pueblo circa 1200. The museum itself is relatively new, as recent as 1646. Two rooms with even newer household artifacts from the 1800s to 1900s rest on part of the original foundation conveying a sense of the family life that thrived back then. Not surprisingly, a sheaf of dried red peppers so prevalent in modern-day Santa Fe also make their appearance here.

Nearby is San Miguel Mission, which stakes its claim as the nation’s oldest church that’s still operating today. Santa Fe and the church were pretty much born in the same year – 1610 – and once again, the original foundation is still evident. There are a number of very old paintings flanking the walls but the most intriguing feature is a large church bell perched behind the mission pews that dates back to 1356.

The chapel, the church and the house are all on the Santa Fe Trail, an historic landmark on its own, that connected Missouri and New Mexico in 1821, heralding a decades-long period of trade, adventure and western mobility unheard of before in the new nation. The historic trail ends in the Santa Fe Plaza, where many Native Americans, whose culture permeates every facet of the city, gather daily to sell their wares. As a Washington, DC, resident, I was amused to see a Redskins cap on the head of one of the vendors. When I mentioned the controversy surrounding the name (many claim it is culturally derogatory) he said, “I am a Redskin,” alluding to a lot more than the football team. As for those who object?  “That’s only East Coast lawyers wanting to make money,” he asserted. We left with a hearty, “Go Redskins,” having brought all the history of Santa Fe into the modern era.

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