InSight Foto Inc., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Gallery Visitors, 2016. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
InSight Foto Inc., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Gallery Visitors, 2016. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Photo: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe provides visitors with an opportunity to view iconic paintings of New Mexico, plus a few surprises.

“The museum’s collection includes over 3,500 items, including 140 O’Keeffe oil paintings, nearly 700 drawings, and hundreds of additional works, as well as personal materials,” said Micaela Hester, public relations programs manager. “Throughout the year, visitors can see a changing selection of these works.”

Within the galleries, the rotation of O’Keeffe’s work, including a few on loan from private collections, provides an opportunity to be introduced to earlier and rarely seen works and personal items.       

“Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is the only museum devoted to a single female artist,” Hester said. “A few fantastic museums devoted to single male artists are out in world — Norman Rockwell, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol — but as far as female artists are concerned, we’re it.”

Since the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum opened nearly 21 years ago, it has welcomed almost 3.5 million visitors. An introductory video provides an overview for the remarkable O’Keeffe and her art. The museum welcomes groups of 15–20 visitors at a time so all guests can comfortably enjoy the galleries.

InSight Foto Inc., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Exterior, 2016. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
InSight Foto Inc., Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Exterior Photo: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

“A 30-day notice for a large group is fine, and we will reserve space on our visitation calendar,” Hester said.

For optimal flexibility, the museum provides tour operators with the option to process payment in advance, and to receive personalized and dated passes for a visit at their leisure while wandering the nearby plaza to shop and dine.

A recently added exclusive tour designed for small groups (with a maximum of eight visitors) highlights the research collections on select weekday afternoons.

“Visitors can join research center associate and library technician Tori Duggan on a tour through selections of Georgia O’Keeffe’s artist materials, personal libraries and papers for a closer look into O’Keeffe’s life and artistic practice,” Hester said.

For more information, call 505-946-1000 and okeeffemuseum.org.

Article by Becky Lindhardt