Jenny's View
Friends,
I’m always on the look-out for authentic, original art to add to La Fonda’s collection, which has garnered us a reputation as one of the best Santa Fe hotels for almost a century now. The book, In Every Room: A Story of the Art, shares the artistic history of the hotel and a few of the artists and their stories. It is available for purchase in Detours, our gift shop. You can also download a PDF.
Recently, we acquired a beautiful piece from Ira Lujan (Taos/Ohkay Owingeh) called Feather and Antler Chandelier, a gorgeous blown glass light fixture that displays in the stairwell to the mezzanine. Isn’t it spectacular?
Ira received the 2007 Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Fellowship Award and designed and built a mobile glass blowing unit to promote both the art of glass sculpture and his own art. Today, his work is highly influenced by everyday scenes of Native America. (In case you didn’t know, SWAIA is the organization that puts on Indian Market.)
We also recently purchased four gorgeous paintings from Jordan Ann Craig (Northern Cheyenne), a past fellow at the School for Advanced Research. One hangs around the corner from our reception desk, one in the stairwell leading to the executive offices, the third on the mezzanine level, and the fourth adorns the wall just outside the New Mexico Room. All four are based on the intricate patterns, abstract landscapes and geometric designs of indigenous textiles, pottery and beadwork. These new paintings are wonderful additions to our collection of her work. Explore more paintings on display throughout the hotel, including in front of the Santa Fe Room and inside the Lumpkins Ballroom.
I try to find pieces that are going to add value to the hotel and are created by an artist whose work we don’t have or an artist who has a connection to New Mexico that we should have. I spend time scouting the annual Indian Market each year to see if can find up-and-coming artists, too. Like Del Curfman (Crow Nation), whose image of a black crow was featured on the 2015 Market’s merchandise. I knew his wonderful paintings would look great in the guest rooms, so at the end of the event I bought everything that he had left. His works are now really collectible! Check out the beautiful Indian dancer painting of his on display in La Fiesta Lounge.
The bulk of La Fonda’s collection deliberately includes mostly Native American and local artists. The previous owners and my good friends Sam and Ethel Ballen, were big supporters of both SWAIA and Native artists. They passed that baton to me and I’m very proud to carry on this tradition. Indian Market is our busiest time of year, and it’s right outside our door. We host the annual SWAIA Winter Indian Market in our Lumpkins Ballroom, too. (Reserve your rooms for that busy December weekend now with our special Winter Market Package.)
And we’re hosting collectors and enthusiasts from around the world for this year’s Indian Market, who (and you, too!) have a unique opportunity to experience a first: Sovereign SANTA FE. This is a 48-hour curated Contemporary Native American art exhibition, alive with experiential and intuitive talent (Aug. 16-17). La Fonda is honored to host the event in our La Terraza ballroom, organized by FaraHNHeight Fine Art and Tony Abeyta. Sovereign’s mission is to platform and highlight New School Native American Arts and its elusive relationship between traditional and contemporary. Friday and Saturday evening, Sovereign morphs into an interactive experience with music, fashion and performance art. Enjoy live music Saturday night with performances by Derek Miller and Scotti Clifford & Spirits Cry. Definitely mark your calendars for this.
What better way to honor the tradition of Native American art than displaying and supporting those artists in our public, meeting and office areas, and our 180 guest rooms? Because it’s all on display and we’ve still got walls to fill! One of the great pleasures of my job is curating and talking about our art collection, and meeting the so many amazing and talented artists, all on behalf of the hotel.
See you at the Market!
Jenny
