En tur til Georgia O'Keeffe Museet

A Visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

(February, 2000)

Upon entering the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, you feel a quiet strength, an aura wafting within the building. This wonderful, new adobe structure with massive double entrance doors is positioned in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, a city mostly known for its vibrant art community. With high ceilings and white walls, the structure--both inside and out--emits the same character and "presence" as that of Georgia O'Keeffe herself--quiet, simple, and elegant. And all of this combines to create an atmosphere that is less a building and more an "environment."

Along with the exquisite architecture, the Museum offers a frequently changing selection of artwork by O'Keeffe, but it is far more than that. The museum director, George King, has worked with the Museum's Board of Directors, the staff, and community members to create a plan that will guide this young and influential institution to its rightful place within the cultural organizations in not only New Mexico, but also nationally and internationally. Advancement of the Museum's collection of artworks and its scholarship plan seem well on their way to phenomenal success. Even the occasional visitor feels the strength and vitality of the "package" presented.The gallery exhibits works that are loaned from a wide number of sources, both corporate and private, works it might otherwise be impossible to see. Currently on exhibit through February 27 is Four Painters of the Stieglitz Circle, the second such exhibit pertaining to artists that Alfred Stieglitz promoted during his 40 years of exhibit organization in New York. The artists include Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O'Keeffe. These are the American artists that Stieglitz felt represented the idea of the emergence of a specifically American Art. He held to this commitment strongly and continued to promote these American Modernists until his death in 1946. This exhibit brings 51 of their works back together for public enjoyment.

Other exhibitions of such power and beauty are planned for the future, including Arthur Wesley Down and American Arts & Crafts from March 10 through June 18; O'Keeffe on Paper from July 29 through October 29; and Views of the City: 1910-1940 from November 14 through Spring 2001.

A continuing commitment to diverse community activities is helping to create an uncommon bond between the Museum and the public. The Museum's education department co-sponsors programs with cultural centers and arts councils throughout the state. Free lectures on O'Keeffe, special development programs for educators, and copious hands-on art workshops for students offer outreach services to the entire state of New Mexico. There is also a special program for young women, the O'Keeffe Art and Leadership Program for Girls. Truly, this Museum is integrating itself into the very fiber of the community as well as that of the entire state. It is helping to make art a part of everyday life and is setting the pace of commitment for future organizations to follow.

The Museum's community involvement and enrichment--with its outreach programs, support programs and education-is trend setting. But the real function of the Museum is to offer for public view the work of the artist herself. It is, for many, an awesome experience to stand in the center of an exhibition, studying walls covered with O'Keeffe paintings, in the silence and serenity of such an alive and vibrant place. The warm and inviting atmosphere is most comfortable.

The Museum, like most others, has also created a gift shop and has brought together various contemporary crafts reflecting the aesthetic philosophy Georgia O'Keeffe reveled in. Here again, not only the items, but the style in which they are presented, makes one feel as though O'Keeffe would have designed the area much like it looks today. Good lighting, polished hardwood floors, good variety, and extreme quality are the hallmarks of the shop.

It is understandable that Santa Fe, New Mexico, may not be on your way to another location, but any Georgia O'Keeffe fan would not miss a visit to this Museum. It is worth the trip if that were all you wanted to do in Santa Fe. But, of course, there are many other wonderful galleries and they simply add to the enjoyment. Except for short periods of exhibition installation, the full museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm, 10am to 8pm on Fridays. (Closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.) Even during exhibition changes, some works are always viewable. See them at 217 Johnson Street, just a couple blocks west of the square. While planning your visit, be sure to visit the website (www.okeeffemuseum.org) for updates on exhibitions, programs and an expanded gift shop.