The Vladem Contemporary, New Mexico Museum of Art

When New Mexico Museum of Art was founded in 1917, it aspired to be a destination for contemporary art in the American Southwest. In 2014, as the museum approached its centennial, it reexamined its founding vision with an expansion to the Santa Fe Railyard District: Vladem Contemporary.

Adaptive reuse of what was originally a warehouse building has allowed the New Mexico Museum of Art to increase its commitment to contemporary art and education programming through the addition of 9,969 square feet of exhibition space, 2,307 square feet of programmatic space, and 4,100 square feet to collections storage.

Moving beyond the restrictions of the intimately scaled galleries of the historic NMMA building into a large and flexible exhibition space opens up the possibility for large-scale installations, multi-media projects, and even performance-based works that are central to 21st century artistic practice. Promoting state-of-the-art ideas and bringing living artists back to the heart of our exhibitions and public programs is entirely in keeping with our institution’s history and necessary for our future. Artists-in-residence and visiting artists will be a key part of this project, engaging with the community at large by actively connecting with the region, creating new works and site specific installations, presenting lectures, and collaborating with schools and other institutions. 

Museum programming will include regional, national and international artists, as well as artist to artist engagement and community-based dialogue.