A Year to Remember

Many More Reasons to be a Member in 2022

After sixty years has passed, the Foundation has raised more than $90 million in private giving from 25,000 donors and nearly 14,000 members dedicated to the wellbeing of the Museum of New Mexico system.

Catron’s far-ranging vision established the Foundation as integral to the expansion of the museum system to include four Santa Fe museums, eight historic sites statewide and the Office of Archaeological Studies. While the State of New Mexico funds building operations and staff salaries.

The Foundation support sustains exhibitions and public programs that distinguish these world-class cultural resources.

As Catron said when launching the membership program: “The Foundation provides a way for private funds to be directed to three vital areas of cultural support: education, collections and exhibitions.” Now more than ever, there’s reason to join one of the largest membership programs per capita in the United States.

New Beginnings

Foundation President/CEO Jamie Clements says the Foundation’s 60th anniversary year in 2022 will be “a year to remember.” It is filled with exhibition debuts and grand openings that will have seismic effects far into the future. They include:

• In May, over Memorial Day weekend, Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site hosts the grand opening ceremony and other public events for the long-awaited permanent exhibition Bosque Redondo: A Place of Suffering, A Place of Survival.

• In June, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture celebrates the much-anticipated reopening of the groundbreaking permanent exhibition Here, Now and Always.

• August heralds the spectacular unveiling of the Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts District, kicking off an inaugural year of exhibitions and programs.

“Those are the big ones,” Clements says, “all of which will enhance the usual experience of membership.” This anniversary year is filled with opportunities for members to participate in exhibitions, educational programs, and other in-person and virtual experiences throughout.

Meaningful Memberships

For longtime members, such singular experiences add up to a lifetime of enrichment.

Since joining the Foundation with a $45 membership in 1986, Las Cruces residents Sally Ritter and Kent Jacobs have enhanced their membership experiences in several ways: as voting and advisory Foundation trustees, as members of the Founders Society and Legacy Society, and as major donors. But their most valuable memories are of the people they’ve met through members.

“Sallie and I have developed many friends over the entire state,” says Jacobs. 

“It means so much to us.” Ritter adds, “If only all the citizens of New Mexico knew of the valuable opportunities that the state museum system and the Foundation make available.”

Their enthusiasm is echoed by decades-long member and Founders Society partner Rosalind “Roz” Doherty. She secured Foundation membership even before she and her late husband Lowell relocated to Santa Fe in 1992. She, too, says membership has been integral to her social life, and her involvement provides a lesson in building commitment. 

“I wanted to support the museums and the Foundation. That’s why we went from family membership on up,” Doherty says. “When we could afford it, we increased our membership.”

Like the nearly 14,000 student, individual, family, sponsor, patron, benefactor and ambassador members, Annabella and John St. Peter reap the benefits of Foundation membership at its most basic level. 

As family-level members since 2006, the St. Peters say access to museums and historic sites has been an integral part of raising their twin daughters, Emma and Hannah, now age 16. Annabella describes the Museum of International Folk Art as a ”second home” to the family.

“I’ve brought my daughters since they were babies in their stroller,” Annabella says. “They would look at art and wiggle their legs and arms, they were so excited. It was just a delight to be there with them. To be able to include them in these experiences was super fun and educational.”

For us, it’s important to be surrounded by beauty and history, all that the arts bring,” she continues. “Membership is a great deal, to be able to go to so many museums and historic sites. I’m pretty impressed. I’ve had memberships from other places where I felt like I didn’t get enough, but there’s always something to do—a lecture, an event, a new exhibit—with Foundation membership.”

Click here to learn more about the Foundation’s membership benefits and levels.

 

 

This article is from Member News Spring 2022.

Image of Museum of New Mexico Foundation member and trustee Rosalind ”Roz” Doherty with her late husband Lowell at the Foundation’s 2015 holiday party. Photo by Caitlin Elizabeth Photography.