Spanish Market 2008

The rich Hispanic culture of Northern New Mexico will be celebrated at the 57th Annual Traditional Spanish Market, the oldest and largest exhibition and sale of traditional Spanish colonial art forms in the United States. The 2008 Market will be held on the downtown Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Saturday, July 26 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, July 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Featuring traditional art, music, dance, demonstrations, pageantry and food, this colorful regional festival is a rare opportunity for visitors to enjoy a taste of New Mexico’s vibrant Spanish culture, both past and present. Admission is free to the public.

Over 200 native New Mexican artists–many of them nationally recognized–exhibit and sell their handmade artwork at Spanish Market, an event that attracts the local community, tourists and serious collectors from around the world. In addition to the adult artists, a special youth exhibition area features the artwork of 80 children, ages 6 to 17, who are developing skills passed down through the generations.

Traditional Spanish Market also includes continuous music and dance performances, Artists’ Studio Tours in Santa Fe, a class in traditional Spanish cooking techniques, paella-making demonstrations and special menus at popular local restaurants.

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society, a not-for-profit organization, also sponsors Winter Spanish Market, which will be held December 6 & 7, 2008 in Santa Fe. More than 100 native New Mexican artists also exhibit and sell their traditional handcrafted art at Winter Spanish Market. The Spanish colonial arts and crafts featured at both Spanish Markets include the following:

• Santos – depictions of religious figures in the forms of bultos (carvings in the round), retablos (paintings on wooden panels), and gesso and wood relief-carved panels.
• Hide Paintings – religious images painted on animal hide
• Straw Appliqué– crosses, chests and boxes decorated with applied straw
• Textiles – hand-woven on looms using handspun yarns
• Furniture – usually made from pine using mortise and tenon joints
• Colcha – unique regional embroideries employing the colcha stitch
• Tinwork – decorative utilitarian objects of cut, stamped and punched tin
• Ironwork – tools, fastenings, and household objects forged from iron
• Precious Metals – silver and gold jewelry, and utilitarian and devotional objects
• Pottery – hand-sculpted bowls, pots, and other ware made from micaceous clay
• Bone work – figures, anillos (rings) and tool handles carved from bone and antler
• Ramilletes – decorative paper garlands
• Basketry – hand-woven from red and green river willow
• Woodcarving – both devotional and utilitarian objects carved in cedar or pine

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society’s Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, which opened in July 2002 at 750 Camino Lejo in Santa Fe (on Museum Hill), features permanent and changing exhibitions of Spanish colonial art and material culture spanning four centuries and four continents. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10am-5pm. Docent tours are offered at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.