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Perspectives from The Artist's Road

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The New Mexico Museum of Art -photograph ca. 1921

While recently spending time in Santa Fe, we had the opportunity to visit an exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art titled “An American in Paris: Donald Beauregard”. Beauregard was one of the first artists affiliated with the Museum, but tragically died at the age of 29.

The story of the founding of the Museum is also an interesting one. It came about as an orchestrated attempt to bring back the steep economic decline of Santa Fe. The railroad (named after the town) had bypassed its namesake, going instead to Albuquerque, delivering a boom to Albuquerque and a blow to Santa Fe.

There was skepticism about the possibility of art playing a major role in bringing Santa Fe back. “The people in this part of the country have about as much use for an artist as their burros have for a fiddler’s midsummer night’s dream,” wrote artist Carlos Vierra in 1904. But mover and shaker Edgar Lee Hewett persevered wi…