The exhibition venue
One of the many treasures
at Couse-Sharp Historic Site
The Lunder Research Center
La Luz de Taos 2024
The exhibition hangs in the Dean Porter Gallery of The Lunder Research Center, the newest feature of Couse-Sharp Historic Site. Our 2+ acre campus encompasses the homes and studios of E. I. Couse and J. H. Sharp, two of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists (TSA). Formed in 1915 with the mission to promote American art and the native art of the region, the TSA focused on the vibrant Native American and Hispano cultures set in the dramatic landscape of the Taos valley.
The Couse Foundation
The Couse Foundation was established in 2001 to preserve the treasure the Site represents. Our purpose has since expanded:
Through its archives, collections, and programming, the Couse-Sharp Historic Site preserves and interprets Taos’ crossroads of cultures, promoting and facilitating research, education, and new perspectives on the Taos Society of Artists, early artists of Taos, and regional and Indigenous communities in relation to the greater story of the multicultural American West.
The Lunder Research Center, a 5,000-square-foot museum facility on campus, is dedicated to the TSA and other early Taos artists. Incorporating the remnants of Sharp’s home, it includes archival and collections storage, a research library, and curatorial and administrative space. We are actively engaged in cataloguing, preserving, digitizing, and making publicly available a wide array of archival materials related to Couse, Sharp, and their colleagues.
Our initiatives include interpretive tours and open houses, exhibitions, internships, lectures and demonstrations, Taos Pueblo Day School education program, and the Art Estate Program. CSHS has become an international destination because of its authenticity and importance to American art and the history and cultures of the American West.
In the future
In the future we envision residencies for scholars and artists, expanded K-12 education programs, additional educational publications and videos, significant physical plant preservation projects, and dynamic collaborations with scholars, artists, museums, gallerists, collectors, community members, and other stakeholders and associated organizations.
We’re in the midst of an $8 million capital campaign to help us pay off research center construction debt, establish an endowment, and fulfill our vision for the future. Come pay us a visit in Taos and see for yourself what makes the Couse-Sharp Historic Site so special, and why the shared vision of the Taos Society of Artists remains relevant today.
Donate to Couse-Sharp Historic Site
For information on non-cash ways to give, please visit couse-sharp.org/ways-to-give.
Exterior photos courtesy Tony Donaldson and Henry Architects
Interior photos courtesy Patrick Coulie