2007 - The Year of O'Keeffe

(Santa Fe, New Mexico) - On March 29, 2006, the City Council of Santa Fe passed Resolution No. 40, declaring 2007 the Year of Georgia O’Keeffe. The resolution was sponsored by Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger. Edwina Milner, Chair of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s 10th Anniversary Committee, led the initiative, and Museum Director George King made the presentation. The City Council passed the resolution unanimously.

“The Museum is currently the most visited art attraction in Santa Fe,” said Councilor Wurzburger. “The resolution was passed to recognize and support the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum for its increasing prominence in the art world, its contributions to Santa Fe’s economy, its standard of excellence and fostering of local pride, and its stewardship of an invaluable portion of America’s artistic heritage.”

Photo provided by Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Throughout 2007, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum will celebrate the achievements of the Museum in its first decade. The Museum was founded in 1995 by philanthropists Anne W. and John L. Marion, and opened to the public on July 17, 1997.

Since then, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has presented numerous exhibitions that offer new insights into O’Keeffe’s works. In addition, it has sponsored more than 27 exhibitions that showcase O’Keeffe’s work and that of her contemporaries, such as: “Artists of the Stieglitz Circle: Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, and Paul Strand”; “Arthur Wesley Dow and American Arts & Crafts”; “Edward Weston: Photography and Modernism”; “Debating American Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp, and the New York Avant_Garde”; and “The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American Modernist.” These events have realized the Museum’s goals of staging exhibitions that provide new information on O’Keeffe’s art and define her achievement within the context of specific developments in American Modernism.

Since 1998, 70,000 people have been served through the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s education and public programs. By 1999, the Museum had welcomed more than 600,000 visitors, and by now has hosted more than 1.8 million people.

In 2002, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM), the youngest institution to ever receive that status. Out of 16,000 museums in the United States, only 770 have achieved AAM status. George G. King became the first museum director in New Mexico history to be invited to join the Association of Art Museum Directors, an organization founded in 1916. King served on the board from 2001 to 2003.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center opened in 2001. Located one block from the Museum, the Research Center supports and promotes scholarship on American Modernism in the fields of architectural history and design, art history, literature, music, and photography. The Research Center sponsors a competitive scholarship program, conferences and publication programs, and it collects and houses archival materials that relate to the art and life of Georgia O’Keeffe and her contemporaries. Shortly after its opening, the Research Center was invited to become a member of the Association of Institutes for Research in Art History.

In 2006, the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation’s collection of approximately 830 O’Keeffe artworks, extensive collections of photographs as well as archival materials, and O’Keeffe’s house and studio in Abiquiu, were transferred to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, thus firmly establishing the Museum as the single most important and comprehensive repository of O’Keeffe’s work and materials relating to it. This allows the Museum to fulfill its mission of perpetuating, conserving, and interpreting her artistic legacy.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum 10th Anniversary Committee is planning numerous community events, which included a kickoff event on November 15, 2006, in celebration of O’Keeffe’s Birthday, and, in 2007: educational lectures throughout the year; a Style Show in June; a community celebration with food, entertainment, and hands_on art_making activities in July; and readings of O’Keeffe’s letters by celebrity actors on August 23. For Friday, August 24, 2007, the 10th Anniversary Committee has scheduled an Abiquiu artist studio tour and chuck wagon dinner. The 10th Anniversary Gala will take place on Saturday, August 25, 2007, with a brunch on Sunday, August 26. That evening there will be a major concert. For ticket information, call 505-946-1019.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum 10th Anniversary Committee is: Edwina Milner (Chair), First Lady Barbara Richardson (Honorary Chair), Linda and John Comstock (Chairs, Event Design), Sara Jo Fischer (Chair, Special Activities), Lucy Peterson (Chair, Marketing & PR), Karen Loud (Chair, Entertainment/Speakers), Janey Potts (Program Coordinator), Sam Adelo, Susan Berk, Karen Boullosa, Julee Brooke, Barbara Buhler Lynes, Saul Cohen, Michelle Coons, Jill Cooper Udall, Anita De Domenico, Sande Deitch, Pat French, Jill Gray_Momaday, Amy Green, Joseph Guglietti, Linda Johnson, George G. King, Anthony Macias, Tom Maguire, Sharon Maloof, Anne Marion, Jennifer Marshall, Marilyn Mason, Sandy McGovern Durrie, Joshua Moon, Max Myers, Richard Nulman, Michael Odza, Diana Pace, Penelope Penland, Sarah Robarts, and Carol Robertson_Lopez.

Information and photo provided by:

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
217 Johnson Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-946-1000

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, which opened July 17, 1997, is dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe and to the study and interpretation of American Modernism (1890–present). The 13,000_square_foot Museum houses a permanent collection of more than 130 works by O’Keeffe. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors over 60, and free for children 17 and under and students with ID. Fridays, free 5–8 PM. $4 for New Mexico residents with ID. For visitor information, call 505-946-1017.