Santa Fe New Mexican: Celebrating 175 Years

The Santa Fe New Mexican has been a corporate partner of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation for so long that its owner, Robin Martin, can’t recall when the partnership began.

“I’m sure it’s since the beginning,” she says. “My father [former New Mexican editor and publisher Robert McKinney] and mother were great
supporters of the Museum of Art, and my mother-in-law, Barbara Martin, was on the Women’s Board for ages. And of course, the paper has been very supportive in its coverage of the museums, especially in Pasatiempo.”

The New Mexican’s publisher, Patrick Dorsey, says that the independent daily newspaper, which celebrates its 175th anniversary
this year, has been involved since the Foundation’s founding in 1962.

“We consider our support of the Foundation to be part of our responsibility in serving Santa Fe and all of New Mexico,” he says. “The
newspaper was founded in 1849, and our history is intertwined with New Mexican statehood and the establishment of the entire
museum system.”

The newspaper’s Premier-level partnership, with more than $25,000 in in-kind contributions, features many benefits, including
free museum admission, invitations to members-only Foundation events and prominent forms of recognition.

Martin first visited the Palace of the Governors when she was four or five years old, to see an exhibition about the 1907 Puye Cliff Dwellings excavation. As she grew up, she developed an appreciation for the state historic sites, especially the unparalleled view of the Sandia Mountains from the porch of the John Gaw Meem building at Coronado Historic Site. But her lifelong connection to New Mexico and the museums is best conveyed by the inclusion of her own childhood flamenco dress in Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico, which was on view at the Museum of International Folk Art from 2015 to 2017.

As owner of Santa Fe’s paper of record, Martin attends many special events through the Foundation, and “I always take out-of-town visitors to the museums,” she says. “The [now-closed] exhibition I saw lately that I got most excited for was Ghhúunayúkata/To Keep Them Warm, about Alaska Native parkas, at the Museum of International Folk Art. That was the most amazing thing I’ve seen—the way they were sewn with the tiny pieces of skin that people put together, the beauty of the design and the technique. I told everybody I could think of to go see it.

This article and images are from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Member News Magazine.