Horse Tail Trails

The concept for Meow Wolf started in February of 2008.   A collection of young Santa Fe residents sought to create a space for alternative music and arts.  Over the years, they have hosted hundreds of music events and created amazing art installations all over the state and beyond.  To date, the artist collective of Meow Wolf has created more than 10 gigantic art installations, all of which are multi-media and meant to be a full-on experience.  They’ve also put on a number of shows, performance pieces, award-winning short movies, and continue to hold a yearly public performance event.

“Meow Wolf has evolved into a central hub of cultural growth for a community that was previously without an outlet,” says their website, “using art installations and music shows as opportunities to form relationships, welcome newcomers to Santa Fe, and provide individuals with an open space to be expressive.”

Anyone and everyone is invited to join in with Meow Wolf’s creative endeavors.  Members come from all walks of life, with varying ranges of age, experience, style, and backgrounds.  If someone has a plan and a vision, they pitch it at the team.  Overall there is no single leader of the collective; things are done on a basis of who has the time and ideas to devote to projects.  There are weekly meetings and “little structure” beyond that.

 

Off of the Taos Plaza, there’s a section of shops known as the John Dunn House Shops.  This plaza in its own right is home to 19 shops.  A major cornerstone to this shopping center is Moby Dickens, a locally-owned bookshop that’s been in business for over 25 years.

Founders Art and Susan Bachrach started Moby Dickens Bookshop in December of 1984.   The 1,700 square foot, two-story shop holds over 12,000 titles, covering a wide range of genres and interests.  “We feature sections devoted to Native American studies and special selections of Southwest titles in a variety of genres throughout the store: art, mystery, architecture, gardening, and history, to name just a few,” their website states.  This doesn’t even mention the kid and young adult sections, as well as a graphic novel section.

Everyday things are made so much more special by traditional techniques and a touch of love that can only come from an artist’s desire to create something truly wonderful.  The best part about fiber arts is that it’s functional art, serving a purpose in everyday life, even in our modern world.  People still need clothing, rugs, blankets, and many other things that are made from cloth, so why not take another step and get these things from a local artist?

The Española Valley Fiber Arts Center is a sort walk from the Plaza de Española.  A central building on Paseo de Oñate, the Fiber Arts Center serves as gallery, classroom, and information center.  This nonprofit membership organization has five employees and nearly 400 members.   “Our mission is to preserve and promote the rich textile heritage of Northern New Mexico by providing learning and teaching experiences for all ages and backgrounds, and by providing encouragement and training towards economic sustainability in the fiber arts,” says their mission statement.

Greetings, faithful readers!  Welcome to a special edition article outlining the future of our website.  We hope that you’ll consider helping us with this community project in the months to come, either by reading, helping us get info, or contributing.


A Bit of Horse Tail Trails History
Horse Tail Trails was first conceived of in 2008.  The mission has always been to provide a community-oriented website for Northern New Mexico businesses, artists, musicians and more.  Three years and over 100 articles later, we’re still running strong with that mission.  Of course ideas evolve, alter, and change with time.  Here we’ll outline some of the plans for the website in the coming year.

Something our readers may not be aware of is that the entire site you see before you is essentially a two-woman show.  The site was built and is constantly maintained by Sonya Gonzales; web designer, photographer, and tech crew.  It is filled with content and articles each week by Gina Trujillo; graphic artist and writer.

We do our best to keep Horse Tail Trails up to date and full of interesting things for our readers, but the fact remains that there’s only two of us.  We can only keep up with so much.  With this in mind, we have decided to make some changed to the site.