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Museums

Santa Fe has a museum for just about everybody, toddlers and teens included. With more than a dozen state and private museums to choose from, you can experience the rich blend of history, arts and cultural heritages that make our city so distinctly different.

Begin by exploring New Mexico's compelling history at the Palace of the Governors, the country's oldest continuously occupied building. This 400-year-old structure on the Santa Fe Plaza has played a part in Spanish Colonial, Mexican, Territorial and Statehood eras of New Mexico's history and its collections and exhibitions vividly bring the past to life. The New Mexico Museum of History-opened in 2009-physically and thematically links to the Palace of the Governors. The museum's new permanent exhibitions and galleries for rotating exhibitions highlight the state's remarkable evolution and provide space to display more of the permanent collections that have gone unseen until now.

Museum of ArtJust a few steps from the Palace you'll find the New Mexico Museum of Art (formerly the Museum of Fine Arts), with impressive collections of work by early Santa Fe and Taos artists as well as changing exhibits of work by contemporary artists.

A visit to Museum Hill on Santa Fe's southeast side takes you to two outstanding museums devoted to Native American art, culture and traditions as well as a museum housing the world's largest collection of international folk art. Also on Museum Hill, explore an excellent collection of Spanish Colonial folk art. Learn more about Spanish Colonial life at a living history museum occupying a sprawling ranch just outside of town, where kids can have as much fun as parents watching docents demonstrate weaving, leatherworking and blacksmithing.

Santa Fe has the only museum in the country devoted solely to a woman artist and one of the most inventive children's museums you'll ever find. View work by contemporary native artists from around the country at the museum connected to the Institute for American Indian Arts.

Attend some of the diverse educational programs, art classes, workshops, lectures and annual community events offered by many Santa Fe museums. Visit the marvelous museum gift shops and pick up a print of your favorite painting or other artful items to take home. Admission to many museums is free for everybody on Fridays and for New Mexico residents on Sundays.