NewsRelease

Santa Fe Spanish Market Takes Visitors Back in Time
52nd Annual Spanish Arts Festival July26 & 27 at Historic Santa Fe Plaza

For Immediate Release
Date: 7/14/2003
Contact: Gerges Scott
Rick Johnson & Company Public Relations
(505) 988-1402

New Mexico's vivid and historic Spanish culture will be on display at the 52nd Annual Traditional Spanish Market in Santa Fe. The 2003 market is scheduled for Saturday July 26 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. & Sunday July 27 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the historic Santa Fe Plaza.

The Spanish Market is the oldest and largest exhibition and sale of traditional Spanish Colonial art in the United States. It highlights traditional Spanish art, music, dance, demonstrations, and food from Northern New Mexico. This colorful cultural festival provides attendees a rare opportunity to witness the state's vibrant past and present Spanish culture. Admission is free.

Over 200 native New Mexican artists, many known throughout the country, will exhibit and sell their award-winning artwork at the Spanish Market; some of the colonial arts and crafts featured include the following:

• Santos - depictions of religious figures carved from wood


• Retablos-paintings on wooden panels.


• Hide Paintings - religious images painted on animal hides


• Straw Appliqué- crosses, chests and boxes decorated with applied straw


• Textiles - hand-woven on looms using handspun yarns


• Furniture - usually made from pine using mortise and tenon joints


• Colcha - unique regional embroideries employing the colcha stitch


• Tinwork - decorative utilitarian objects of cut, stamped and punched tin


• Ironwork - tools, fastenings, and household objects forged from iron


• Precious Metals - silver and gold jewelry, and utilitarian and devotional objects


• Pottery - hand-sculpted bowls, pots, and other ware made from micaceous clay


• Bone work - figures, anillos (rings) and tool handles carved from bone and antler


• Ramilletes - decorative paper garlands


• Basketry - hand-woven from red and green river willow


• Woodcarving - both devotional and utilitarian objects carved in cedar or pine

Unique features at the 2003 market include the expanded Artists Studio Tours that begin July 22 in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. A paella-making demonstration and tasting will be held both days at the Spanish Table (109 North Guadalupe Street). The Santa Fe School of Cooking will hold a Cooking Class ($70 per person, limited to 44 students), the menu for the cooking class is pinchos morunos (grilled pork skewers), harissa (Mediterranean chile sauce), grilled honey-caper shrimp, and many other traditional plates.

"The organizing staff of the 2003 Spanish Market worked hard to plan unique events that we believe will attract many visitors to Santa Fe," said Bud Redding, Director of the 52nd Annual Traditional Spanish Market. "We're especially proud of the special youth exhibition area, which features the artwork of over 100 children, they are developing skills that have been passed down through the generations, it ensures that we will have a Spanish Market in Santa Fe for many years."

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society, the not-for-profit organization, that sponsors the traditional market, also sponsors Winter Spanish Market, which is held December 6 and 7, 2003 at the Sweeney Convention Center. For more information on the 52nd Annual Traditional Spanish Market, visit http://www.spanishmarket.org/ .

A visit to Spanish Market would not be complete without experiencing greater Santa Fe County. Offering travelers the unique opportunity to explore the rich diversity of New Mexico, Santa Fe County is a place for culture, arts, outdoors, healing, and history. The world-renowned Santa Fe Opera features stunning vistas of the mesas of Santa Fe County. The Indian Pueblos of Tesuque, San Ildefonso, Pojoaque and Nambé each offer their own unique art and culture. Relive a piece of history by visiting the town of Glorieta, where westward expansion of the Civil War halted. Or, visit El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, which was a stopping place on the long journey from Mexico to Santa Fe on El Camino Real.

Just beyond Santa Fe's city limits lies an undiscovered world filled with Native American pueblos, Spanish villages, breath-taking mountains and dramatic mesas. It's a world where traditions live on, where artistic expression is a way of life and where beauty unfolds at each and every turn. It's Santa Fe County and it's waiting for you. For a complete list of Santa Fe County's unique spas, resorts, lodges and B&Bs, visit www.SeeSantaFe.org or call 1-800-548-8272.