Display inside The Albuquerque Museum The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History

Visiting the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History

Featuring the works of prominent regional sculptors, the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History has something for everyone. Dining and shopping is offered in the Street Slate Café and Museum Store.

The Art Collection

The Albuquerque Museum’s Art Collection numbers nearly 7,000 works of art. The collection focuses on the American Southwest and its influences. Within the collection are works by all of the region’s cultural groups and media from the Territorial period to the present.  Significant works within the collection include Native American jewelry and ceramics; Hispanic religious and domestic folk arts; documentary sketches and paintings from Territorial-era exploration; masterworks from the late 19th and early 20th century Taos and Santa Fe artists like Ernest Blumenschein, John Sloan, and Georgia O’Keeffe; and contemporary works of art that reflect landscape and regional cultures by artists such as Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Fritz Scholder and Luis Tapia.

The History Collection

The Museum’s History Collection is comprised of around 26,000 objects and images that interpret the history of the central Rio Grande Valley and the Greater Albuquerque area. At the core of the History Collection are 1,000 objects acquired by the Albuquerque Historical Society throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, including Native American, Hispanic and Anglo-American artifacts connected to families significant to the history of Albuquerque. Other significant items within the collection include archaeological materials from Tonque Pueblo and other sites in the middle Rio Grande Valley; major purchases made during an initiative to acquire artifacts for the Museum’s long-term history exhibit, including early European maps of New Spain and significant examples of Rio Grande metalwork, weaving and pottery; and over 1,000 examples of architectural elements, furniture, religious art, household tools and hardware, jewelry, Hispanic and Pueblo weavings and pottery, a transportation collection and historic photographs from the Alan and Shirley Jolly Minge Collection. The Museum’s Photoarchives include around 123,000 images and ephemera that document the central Rio Grande Valley and City of Albuquerque from 1860 to the present.

Sculpture Garden

Be sure to explore the Albuquerque Museum’s outdoor Sculpture Garden, featuring more than 60 works of art.  Among the artists represented in the Sculpture Garden are Glenna Goodacre, Allan Houser, Luis Jiménez, and Nora Naranjo Morse.

Dining at Slate Street Café

Stop by Slate Street Café during your visit to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History.  The Slate Street Café’s menu features freshly-made soups, salads and sandwiches as well as hot entrées.  A whole host of homemade pastries, including the famous Slate Street Café gourmet cupcakes, will satisfy your sweet tooth.  

Shop the Museum Store

You can shop for unique gifts and keepsakes in the Museum Store. Art and history books, fine arts and crafts, wearable art and jewelry, and glass and clay items are available to purchase.

With impressive art and history collections, special exhibitions and a sculpture garden 

Travel Tips

-          The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History is ADA compliant.

 

-          The Museum regularly hosts special exhibitions that support its Art and History Collections. Examples of past special exhibitions include Changing Perceptions of the Western Landscape, Art of the Ancient Americas: The J. Bourne Collection and Four Centuries: A History of Albuquerque.