Press and Media
Art that Engages
Our collection of over 2,500 objects from around the world will engage you through hands-on experiences. This enables deeper appreciation of the value of cultures all over the world…because the more we know about one other, the more we can work together for the common good.
Our Programs
Our Mission
The Coe Center explores and connects through experiencing the world’s Indigenous Arts. The Coe Center creates awareness, education, and appreciation of Indigenous Arts. We connect people and art through inclusive hands-on experiential learning, collaboration, and partnering. In this, we responsibly steward a diverse and eclectic collection of world Indigenous Art that supports community narratives.
His passion for art and culture was global, spanning from ancient to contemporary.
The Coe Center is the legacy of Ralph T. Coe, known as Ted to his family and friends. Ted Coe was an exceptional curator and collector, as well as a museum director. His passion for art and culture was global, spanning from ancient to contemporary. This search for knowledge and his quest to understand the human condition is evident in the varied collections he left behind and in his creation of the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, a private operating 501(c)3 located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Today, we continue to build on his legacy, committed to inspiring people of all ages and from all walks of life to be inquisitive and search beyond their own known experience.
For more about Ted and to enjoy his legacy, visit the Coe for a free tour and more about Ted and all of the Coe programs. We also still have a few copies of the book Connoisseurship & Good Pie: Ted Coe and Collecting Native Art. (Need we mention that Ted loved a good piece of pie?)
In Santa Fe, Artists and Retirees Join Hands
to Combat Loneliness
Chelsea Weathers, September 26, 2022
“The Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recently opened its Project Space, a vast warehouse-like annex near its headquarters south of downtown. In alignment with their organizational mission to create awareness, education, and appreciation of Indigenous arts, Bess Murphy, the Coe’s creative director, enlisted two local artists, Eliza Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo) and Jamison Chas Banks (Seneca-Cayuga), for its inaugural project. The two artists envisioned a community center, and they invited members of Ventana de Vida, a retirement community a few minute walk from the Coe, to gather at the Project Space regularly to create and talk. Many residents had converted parts of their living quarters into art studios, so they had plenty to contribute and discuss.”
Nani Chacon stands by her 2021 mural You can’t take it with you … so give it all away at the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts’ Project Space
Iris McLister, June 1, 2022
“Nani Chacon’s extraordinary visual storytelling, which electrifies outdoor spaces throughout New Mexico, earns a spotlight at SITE Santa Fe.”
7 Places to See Native American Art in Santa Fe
Vivian Chung, June 2022
“In honor of Ralph T. Coe, who was a passionate curator and collector of Native American art, the Coe Center displays his personal collections that encompass ancient and contemporary works. Now home to over 2,300 pieces from around the world, the Coe Center is dedicated to educating its visitors and instilling in them a deep appreciation of Native American art through hands-on experiences.”
A premier collection of Indigenous art to see – and touch! – at the Coe Center
Chadd Scott, May 2022
“Most of what visitors to the Coe Center in Santa Fe see on display there they will have seen before. Indigenous baskets, pottery, sculpture. Totems, beadwork, carvings. Mind you, the items collected by the Center’s namesake, Ted Coe, are among the finest examples anywhere, still, they will be familiar to those who regularly frequent museums and galleries across the West. The relationship the Coe Center allows guests to have with those objects, however, is what makes this a unique experience to be treasured. The Coe Center invites visitors to touch these magnificent pieces.
Not only allows, encourages!”
Artist Leah Mata Fragua to be Featured in Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts’ “Collections Spotlight”
Nanette Kelley, July 16, 2020
“Place-based artist Leah Mata Fragua (Northern Chumash) is the next guest artist in the new virtual educational art series “Collections Spotlight.”
Collections Spotlight is a partnership program between the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe and First American Art Magazine (FAAM). The interactive online discussions bring together Native American artists and scholars to discuss art works in the Coe Center collection. The virtual Zoom format events are free and open to the general public.”
“Imprint” at Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts
Michael Abatemarco, August 10, 2018
“Over the past year, six artists have worked collaboratively to create Imprint, an exhibition of works in the mediums of silkscreen, letterpress, handmade paper, and more. An extension of the show called ImprintMobile, is currently on view at Axle Contemporary’s mobile gallery through Aug. 26. Programs include collaborations with Meow Wolf, Form and Concept, the Institute of American Indian Arts, and other venues. Since March, the artists — Jamison Chās Banks, Eliza Naranjo Morse, Jason Garcia, Dakota Mace, Terran Last Gun, and Jacob Meders — have shared free, original pieces with the community at venues across town in an exchange that continues through the run of the show. The Imprint exhibit at the Coe Center opens with a 5 p.m. reception on Tuesday, Aug. 14.”
Imprint at the Coe Center, Tuesday, August 14
FAAZINE, August 10, 2018
“Imprint, the Cambridge dictionary tells us, means “to fix an event or experience so firmly in the memory that it cannot be forgotten. …” The Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts’ exhibition and public art interventions, Imprint strives to leave this level of impact on its viewers. Focused on Native American print-making, the show and actions demonstrate the maturity and diversity of the art form.”
IMPRINT – The Ralph T Coe Center for the Arts layers on on Indigenous print collaboration
Alicia Inez Guzmán, August 8, 2018
“Before I leave his studio, artist Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo Tewa) hands me a CD he burned, Song for My Muse: Vol. 1. One of the tracks is “You’re Mine,” a slow, two-steppin’ cover of the Ritchie Valens’ hit recorded by Los Lobos for the movie La Bamba. I’ve known the song since I was a kid—back when I thought Lou Diamond Phillips was actually Valens himself—and I sang along, humming to the twangy guitar chords, awash in a nameless nostalgia.”
Beadwork in the Arts of Africa and Beyond
James Green, July 26, 2018
Girl’s cape, 1890–1905. Canada, Alberta. Stoney. Glass, cotton, metal, Native-tanned skin ties, H. 13 1/2 x W. 15 in. (34.3 x 38.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Ralph T. Coe Collection, Gift of Ralph T. Coe Foundation for the Arts, 2011 (2011.154.115
The Coe Center for the Arts: A Hidden Gem in Santa Fe
Nancy Walkup, April 18, 2018
“Today the Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association was given an enlightening tour of their collection by Director Rachel Wixom. The Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts is a hidden gem in Santa Fe that more people need to experience.”
A hidden outpost
Megan Bennett, November 17, 2017
To Rachel Wixom’s uncle, each piece in his expansive art collection was a part of his family. For Ted Coe, the art was alive.
“I see it alive, as well. I come in the morning and say, ‘Good morning everyone’ and when I leave I say, ‘Good evening,’ ” Wixom said with a laugh while sitting in her office at the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, where her late uncle’s entire collection of nearly 2,100 works is housed. “I see them as living entities and show them that kind of respect.”
SAR School for Advanced Research
March 23, 2015
SAR School for Advanced Research
April 25, 2015
This panel discussion was part of the 2015 IARC Speaker Series co-sponsored by the School for Advanced Research and the Coe Foundation in Santa Fe, and featured speakers Janine Ledford, Director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center, Manuelito “Manny” Wheeler, Director, of the Navajo Nation Museum, and Travis Zimmerman, Site Manager of the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. The discussion looks at how cultural centers and indigenous museums choose to explore and include or exclude the numerous narratives that surround them.
SAR School for Advanced Research
April 25, 2015
This panel discussion was part of the 2015 IARC Speaker Series co-sponsored by the School for Advanced Research and the Coe Foundation in Santa Fe, and featured speakers Janine Ledford, Director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center, Manuelito “Manny” Wheeler, Director, of the Navajo Nation Museum, and Travis Zimmerman, Site Manager of the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. The discussion looks at how cultural centers and indigenous museums choose to explore and include or exclude the numerous narratives that surround them.
SAR School for Advanced Research
April 25, 2015
The Makah Cultural and Research Center: A History of Makkah-Designed Objectives was part of the 2015 IARC Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the School for Advanced Research and the Coe Foundation in Santa Fe. Chartered by the Makah Indian Tribe, the MCRC has continued to collaborate with outside experts for thirty-four years, working to further its mission. Meaningful collaboration and partnering has allowed the MCRC to conduct important research and carry out numerous successful projects.
SAR School for Advanced Research
May 13, 2015
Westward Stories: New Models of Interpretation and Museum Building, was the keynote lecture in the 2015 speaker series sponsored by the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research, and the Ralph T. Coe Foundation, in Santa Fe. The guest speaker was W. Richard West, Jr., President and CEO of the Autry National Center of the American West.
With both colonial and anti-colonial approaches to narrative as backdrop, the Autry National Center of the American West affirms the presence of distinct interpretive voices from inside and outside the museum. The Autry sweeps across the stories of the American West to interconnect cultural experience and history to create a more integrated narrative that makes all stories of the American West, past and present, more whole. In the end, the “multi-cultural” becomes the “inter-cultural.”
SAR School for Advanced Research
May 13, 2015
These Q&A excerpts are from the presentation Westward Stories, given by Richard West of the Autry National Center of the American West.
Looking Beyond Ethnography to Art
“Connoisseurship and Good Pie: Ted Coe and Collecting Native Art”
Judith H. Dobrzynski, September 10, 2015
“Native American art has always a difficult time in museums. Historically, it was collected by natural history museums that mainly appreciated its ethnographic significance, rather than its aesthetic value. Most art museums paid it little mind until fairly recently and even today it is, with few exceptions, a low priority for them.”
Objects of Affection
Adele Oliveira, August 9, 2013
“Ralph T. Coe was a curator, a museum director, and an art historian, but perhaps more than anything else, he was a collector.”
Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY as Plain & Fancy: Native American Splint Baskets
Editorial Staff, August 2, 2013
“The Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, presents Plain and Fancy: Native American Splint Baskets, an exhibition of baskets spanning two centuries. The art of ash splint basketry is a beautiful synthesis of form and function. The exhibition opens Saturday, August 10, and runs through December 29, 2013.”