New Mexico
Santa Fe Landscapes: Art, Culture and History
Program No. 11009RJ
Get an insider’s perspective on Santa Fe alongside local artists, exploring several world-class museums, enjoying traditional music and learning about Indigenous cultures.
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7 days
6 nights
14 meals
6B 4L 4D
4
Georgia O'Keeffe, NM Museum of Art, Free time
Santa Fe, NM
6
Pecos National Historic Park
Santa Fe, NM
7
Program Concludes
Santa Fe, NM
At a Glance
Santa Fe, New Mexico sits amidst the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Explore the elegant Spanish colonial plazas that served as meeting places for four centuries. Santa Fe is home to beautiful museums which display the work of native artists and pilgrims who gathered here to find inspiration in the land. Experience the enchantment of Northern New Mexico through its unique history, cuisine and music. Learn about the past and 400 years of cultural fusion that makes Santa Fe “The City Different”.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Walking up to four miles daily over varied terrain. Standing for up to two hours at a time. Getting on/off motorcoach multiple times a day. Elevations up to 7,500 feet.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Learn about artist Georgia O'Keeffe and visit the New Mexico Museum of Art.
- Be moved by the ancient Indigenous traditions and cultures preserved in a local pueblo and gain insight into the enduring nature of the Pueblo people.
- Enjoy a cooking demonstration by a local James Beard Award-winning author and chef and visit the historic village of Chimayó.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Jerry Rightman
Who would have ever thought that a retired veterinarian would become a dedicated art lecturer? Jerry Rightman is just that person and is an active member in the art community of Santa Fe, applying his talents as a docent at the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. He has received rave reviews for the many years that he has been teaching for Road Scholar.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Jerry Rightman
View biography
Who would have ever thought that a retired veterinarian would become a dedicated art lecturer? Jerry Rightman is just that person and is an active member in the art community of Santa Fe, applying his talents as a docent at the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. He has received rave reviews for the many years that he has been teaching for Road Scholar.
Lois Ellen Frank
View biography
Lois Ellen Frank, PhD, is a Santa Fe-based chef focused on Native American foods. She is also a Native American food historian, culinary anthropologist, photographer and James Beard Award-winning author. She is a featured instructor of the Southwest Indian Nations at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, and is chef and owner — along with Native Chef Walter Whitewater of the Diné Nation — of Red Mesa Cuisine.
Omar Villanueva
View biography
Omar Villanueva holds a master's degree in classical guitar performance from the University of New Mexico. He is a multifaceted guitarist who performs classical, Spanish and popular music. His repertoire includes renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic and Latin music arrangements for solo guitar. He is also an accomplished and awarded singer of music from Latin America and New Mexico. He has been performing in New Mexico and surrounding states since 2004.
Terri Ross
View biography
Terri Ross is a longtime transplant to New Mexico. First arriving in 1994, she began exploring the rich history and varied landscape of the state. She has led more than 80 group programs around the corner and around the world. She is also a local speaker in her adopted hometown of Albuquerque, making presentations on a variety of topics including travel journaling and scrapbooking, New Mexico history, traveling the Navajo lands, and driving on New Mexico Highway 4.
Jolene Catron
View biography
Jolene Catron, who leads groups in the Mountain West and National Parks, weaves a rich tapestry of indigenous heritage into the fabric of the area's history. She strives to foster understanding and appreciation for the profound cultural and environmental significance of the places she leads in. During the offseason you can find her driving her taxi, listening to music, and crocheting. She is a military veteran and a citizen of the Navajo Nation with family ties to the Pueblos of Zuni and Laguna.
Katherine Burleigh
View biography
Kate Burleigh and her family moved to Socorro, New Mexico in 2001 and immediately became enthralled with the Land of Enchantment. She earned her master’s degree in art integrated curriculum from Lesley College in Cambridge, MA. Kate loves mountain biking and trail running with her family and volunteers with local trail building crews. Traveling has given Kate compassion for people living far from home, which has led her to support foreign students at New Mexico Technical Institute and sponsor refugee families with Socorro Sponsor Circle.
Suggested Reading List
(16 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Santa Fe Landscapes: Art, Culture and History
Program Number: 11009
New Mexico's Stolen Lands: A History of Racism, Fraud and Deceit
This book begins with the end of the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteeing land to Spanish, Mexican and Native people. It details how organized crime rings lead to decades of poverty for these people. Then the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid in 1967 brought this struggle over land to the national spotlight.
Indian Arts of the Southwest
Featuring color photographs of the basketry, pottery, weaving, jewelry, and carvings of 200 noted artists, this book is both a collector's guide and cultural history of the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Pueblo peoples and other native peoples.
Roots of Resistance: A Land of Tenure in New Mexico
Details the history of land ownership from 1680 to present and how Indigenous and Mexican communities preserved their way of life despite losing their land to Capitalism.
A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the the Twentieth Century
Discusses how Indigenous, Hispanic and non-white people have established their place in the land that is rightfully theirs.
The Art of New Mexico: How the West Is One
An illustrated compendium of New Mexico art from the 1880s to the present that considers historical and cultural significance with a wealth of information about the artists and their pieces. Written for a broad audience.
Santa Fe, History of an Ancient City
A revised edition of of this classic history of Santa Fe to the mid-nineteenth century, featuring essays by ten scholars and hundreds of archival photographs, drawings and maps.
An Indigenous People's History of the United States
From the perspective of Indigenous People, this book demonstrates how policy against Native people was designed to displace and eliminate them and how they fought back, resisting the expansion of the West.
The Great Taos Bank Robbery
Nine indelible tales of life in New Mexico by the great newspaperman and author of the terrific series of mysteries set on the Navajo Nation.
The Spell of New Mexico
A selection of 12 thoughtful essays on the New Mexico state of mind by great writers, including C.G. Jung, Mary Austin, D.H. Lawrence and Lawrence Clark Powell. Hillerman succeeds in communicating the lure of the desert Southwest in this wonderful, literate introduction to the state.
Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest
This illustrated introduction provides an in-depth look at the ancient cultures that first inhabited the pueblos and cliff dwellings of the American Southwest. Organized chronologically, it features hundreds of maps, mostly black-and-white photographs and site diagrams.
A History of Spirituality in Santa Fe: The City of Holy Faith
Santa Fe city historian Ana Pacheco documents the rich religious and spiritual history of this high-mountain metaphysical community.
New Mexico, A History
This cooperative effort between three native New Mexicans is the first complete history of New Mexico. It charts the state’s development from 16th-century Spanish colony to frontier province, from its 1912 American statehood to a hub of (often classified) scientific research. A vital source for anyone seeking to understand the complex history of the West.
Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations: Traditional and Contemporary Native American Recipes
In this gloriously photographed book, renowned photographer and Native American–food expert Dr. Lois Ellen Frank, herself part Kiowa, presents more than 80 recipes that are rich in natural flavors and perfectly in tune with today's healthy eating habits. Frank spent four years visiting reservations in the Southwest, documenting time-honored techniques and recipes. With the help of culinary adviser and Navajo Nation tribesman Walter Whitewater, a chef in Santa Fe, Frank has adapted the traditional recipes to modern palates and kitchens. Inside you'll find such dishes as Stuffed Tempura Chiles with Fiery Bean Sauce, Zuni Sunflower Cakes, and Prickly Pear Ice. With its wealth of information, this book makes it easy to prepare and celebrate authentic Native American cooking.
Edge of Taos Desert, An Escape to Reality
First published in 1937, this story reveals the spiritual awakening the New York socialite experienced through Taos, the Pueblo Indians and Indian Tony Luhan, whom she later married.
American Indian Myths and Legends
An illustrated collection of 180 traditoonal stories from all over North America.
Talking With the Clay, The Art of Pueblo Pottery
With color photographs throughout, this 20th anniversary edition of Trmible's portrait of the Pueblo people as revealed through pottery traditions includes interviews with a new generation of artists.