The George Duncan and Sheryl Kelsey Shop

Opening Soon at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Vladem Contemporary

When USA Today readers voted Santa Fe the country’s “Best Destination for Shopaholics” in 2015, the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Museum Shops surely factored in to the vote.

Were the newspaper to revisit this survey today, the new George Duncan and Sheryl Kelsey Shop at the New Mexico Museum of Art’s Vladem Contemporary would likely be a rising star in the local shopping scene.

The newest of the Foundation’s five museum shops has a “spare, contemporary feel in a palette of exposed steel, rough concrete, glass and light birch accents,” says Teresa Curl, the Foundation’s vice president of retail. The approximately 800-square-foot space was designed by the building’s principal architect, Devendra Contractor, and his firm, DNCA.

Foundation members will enjoy a year-round 10 percent discount and a free gift at the shop’s grand opening during the Vladem Contemporary’s Member Preview on September 22 and the September 23-24 public opening.

The new shop occupies a premier retail location on the south end of the museum campus, off the museum’s ground floor public arcade. A separate entrance permits its operation even when the museum is closed. Large display windows provide views of Guadalupe Street, the nearby Santa Fe Depot and the entire arcade—the site of a permanent, computer-generated LED light installation by Albuquerque-born artist Leo Villareal.

Product development for all of the Foundation’s shops is a collaborative process between Curl, the museum directors and curators. This, says Curl, “helps build the museum’s brand and ensures that our merchandise connects thematically to the collection and to upcoming exhibitions. Often, we include information about the artists or artworks that inspired them in shop displays or in product packaging.” Curl envisions the new shop at the Vladem Contemporary to be a premium shopping destination known for sophisticated, high-design and contemporary gifts and mementos at a variety of price points. Upwards of 50 percent of the merchandise will be made by New Mexico artists, among them internationally acclaimed contemporary glass makers Elodie Holmes and Steffen Plistermann; assemblage jeweler Susan Skinner; and innovative accessories maker Erika Eckerstrand.

Curl hopes the bespoke items of local artists will attract new audiences and forge valuable ties to the community. "A visit to an art museum can last a few hours,” she says, “but the memories that come with a museum shop purchase last a lifetime.”

Visit Our Other Museum Shops

Rosalie D. and Steven J. Harris Shop at the New Mexico Museum of Art

Speilberg Shop at the New Mexico History Museum

Lynn Godfrey Brown Shop at the Museum of International Folk Art

Colleen Cloney Duncan Shop at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

 

This article and image are from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Member News Summer 2023.