Experience Santa Fe's Arts & Culture in Year-round Events

Below is a sampling of events taking place in Santa Fe through September 2012:

3rd Annual Santa Fe Restaurant Week
March 4-11, 2012
Back for its third year, Santa Fe Restaurant Week will showcase the culinary talents of top chefs and introduce diners and travelers to the vast array of restaurants Santa Fe has to offer. Guests can enjoy three-course dinner menus at great prices; $25 for two, at casual restaurants and $20, $30 or $40 per person at fine-dining restaurants. Guests will also have the opportunity to participate in daytime events, including chef demos, wine tastings, and new for 2012, prix-fixe lunch menus. Tickets or passes are not required, but reservations are strongly recommended. For more information, please visit santafe.newmexicorestaurantweek.com/

Museum of Spanish Colonial Art: “New Deal Art: CCC Furniture and Tinwork”
March 23rd, 2012 – September 30th, 2012
This exhibit will feature a collection of New Deal art and trace the CCC's role in preserving and reviving the traditional arts in New Mexico. For more information, visit https://www.spanishcolonialblog.org/?page_id=1248
New Mexico Museum of Modern Art: It's About Time: 14,000 Years of Art in New Mexico
May 11, 2012 – January 2014
It's About Time traces art in the American Southwest from the earliest Clovis culture to the present. The exhibition and related publication include Native American, Hispanic and European American art. It's About Time emphasizes the prime objects of artistic change as part of the centennial celebration of New Mexico statehood. Artists represented in the exhibition include T.C. Cannon, Judy Chicago, E. Irving Couse, Robert Henri, Marsden Hartley, Luis Jimenez, Raymond Jonson, Agnes Martin, Maria and Julian Martinez, Bruce Nauman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Patrick Oliphant, Agnes Pelton, Florence Miller Pierce, Diego Romero, and Luis Tapia. For more information, visit https://www.nmartmuseum.org/site/explore/upcoming/its-about-time-14000-years-of-art-in-new-mexico.html

Passport to the Arts
May 12
Canyon Road hosts an open house along one of America's most important art streets. Artists “Quick Draw” contests go on live, a silent auction with works from 25 galleries, a live auction for the Quick Draw pieces, food, music, and a free concert in adjacent Joseph Smith Park will make this first annual event a must for art lovers. https://twitter.com/canyonroadmerch

Fiber Arts Festival: From Sheep to Blanket
June 2012
An interactive arts festival, the Fiber Arts Festival provides insight into how New Mexico's iconic embroidered blankets and other textiles are made. Visitors to the event will also be able to purchase fiber arts supplies and meet weaving experts. For more information, visit www.golondrinas.org/index.html

Santa Fe Opera Festival
June 29-August 25
Five new productions hit the opera's beautiful outdoor stage: Tosca featuring soprano Amanda Echalaz, The Pearl Fishers, Bizet's career establishing score, Maometto II, Santa Fe's world premier of the new critical performing edition of this Rossini love story, King Roger, a masterwork from Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, and Arabella, marking the return of Strauss to the opera after a five-year absence. For more information visit, www.santafeopera.org

12th Annual ART Santa Fe
July 12-15, 2012
The 12th Annual Art Santa Fe art fair brings together International and U.S galleries to create a powerful collection of art from around the world, featuring the work of hundreds of artists. The salon-booth format, artist-styled VIP lounge, ART Santa Fe lecture series, and numerous cultural and educational events make the annual fair a highlight of the summer arts calendar. The fair will be hosted in the Santa Fe Convention Center. For more information, please visit www.artsantafe.com

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market
July 13-15, 2012
The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is the largest international folk art market in the world with more than 120 select folk-artists from over 45 countries traveling to sell their weavings, woodcarvings, pottery, paintings, beadwork, jewelry and more in an outdoor bazaar on Museum Hill. Visitors attending the Market can enjoy ethnic foods, artists' demonstrations, international performances, and educational activities all weekend long. The success of this event led to Santa Fe becoming the only city in the U.S. designated by U.N.E.S.C.O. as a Creative City of Design & Folk Art. For more information, please visit www.folkartmarket.org/

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
July 15-August 20
The 40th Annual festival brings the finest musicians from the world's stages to Santa Fe for six weeks of inspired music making. In addition to evening concerts, piano recitals, and a special World Music concert, the festival's popular Open Rehearsals schedule offers a free and informal, behind the scenes look at the artists as they prepare. For more information please visit www.sfcmf.org

Traditional Spanish Market
July 28-29
More than 200 local and regional artists fill the Santa Fe Plaza with Spanish Colonial art, celebrating the area's rich Hispanic culture. Music, food, artist's demonstrations, and traditional dance add to this festive weekend during the most significant show and sale of its kind. Tinwork, furniture, straw appliqué, wood-carving, retablos, leather work, weaving, are just some of the art forms featured. For more information please visit, www.spanishcolonial.org

SOFA West
August 2-5, 2012
The nation's premier fair for arts and design will showcase prominent international galleries' masterworks bridging the worlds of design and fine arts, including contemporary works of Native American artists. The works presented bridge historical periods, art movements and cultures, and feature an acclaimed lecture Series and educational special exhibits. This annual event will be held in the Santa Fe Convention Center. For more information, please visit www.sofaexpo.com.

Santa Fe Indian Market
August 18-19, 2012
Over 1,000 Native American artists from across North America will travel to Santa Fe to showcase their work in this year's 91st annual market. Time-honored forms, innovative contemporary art, fashion, music, dance and food are all part of the world's largest Native American art show. For more information, please visit www.swaia.org

Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
September 26-30
The 22nd annual event continues its tradition of fine food, fine wine, and exciting mix of chef presentations, wine auctions, seminars, wine maker dinners, and cooking demonstrations. The highlight of the event is the Grand Tasting on Saturday when the nearly 100 vintners come together with as many Santa Fe restaurants for an exceptional wine and food tasting. www.santafewineandchile.org.

For further information about visiting Santa Fe and for a complimentary Santa Fe Visitors Guide, call the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800-777-2489 or visit www.santafe.org.

WHERE TO STAY: Santa Fe Luxury Hotels & Resorts

Pictured: Encantado, an Auberge Resort