Why don’t they call the Placitas Studio Tour (PST) “Made in Placitas?” The local focus is what distinguishes this annual Mother’s Day weekend event from other New Mexico studio tours. No interlopers! Fortunately, within the confines of tiny Placitas, there is no lack of artistic talent and no need (or desire) to jury artists who wish to participate. Rather, the PST is an inclusive opportunity for all artists who live in or maintain a studio in Placitas to share their work with friends, neighbors and, amazingly, visitors from all over the US who find their way annually to this creative community. In past years three to four thousand people have been welcomed during the free, two-day exhibit and sale now in its 27th year. The 2024 tour will occur on Saturday and Sunday, May 11 and 12 from 10:00 am to 5:00 p.m. and promises myriad opportunities to see and purchase great art.
All that is required of participating artists is an entry fee to help defray costs and a willingness to help this amazing all-volunteer-run organization promote, present, and dismantle the tour each year. Whether this means placing those familiar yellow and blue signs throughout the community and returning them to the storage facility, selling advertising for the brochures and distributing them, promoting the tour on individual websites, or, most recently, assisting with the PST preview exhibition at the Placitas Community Library, opportunities are available so that all artists have a sense of ownership of the event. They benefit from exposure to, interaction with, and feedback from potential collectors. “Each year the Studio Tour has become a way of seeing the art world of Placitas grow, bloom and flourish,” says artist Lisa Chernoff.
“For us,” says Mary Hofmann speaking for herself and husband Karl, both ceramicists, “the best part of the tour is being part of the community. We enjoy getting to see and visit with people who come every year.” The Hofmanns as well as Chernoff and Bunny Bowen have opened their studios every year since the tour began. Bowen, who just stepped down from the PST board and remains a participating artist, was honored for her service by having her work featured on the cover of the 2024 brochure. She says, “It has been inspiring to see how the tour has brought us all together, as we connect with each other as volunteers.”
“The PST is a community cornerstone,” says Nancy Holley, current president of the 7-member PST board. She stresses that, with the help of participating artists, the tour gives back to the entire community through partnerships such as the ones with the Placitas Elementary School Art Department and the Placitas Community Library. During the month of April, select artists participating in the tour have work in the display case on the bottom level of the Albuquerque Sunport. Local vendors Placitas Pizza and Chicky’s Coffee will sell food and drinks at La Estrella Event Center (664 Hwy 165 adjacent to the Placitas Post Office) during the event, and they and all sponsors receive exposure throughout the year when the brochure is included in welcome packets distributed to promote life in Placitas.
The event has come a long way since Riha Rothberg and a small group of Placitas artists organized the first tour 27 years ago. In its first year, 36 artists showed their work in 26 different studios. This year’s tour features more than twice that number. A total of 79 artists employing paint, glass, steel, wood, fiber, photography, clay, mixed media, etc. will be displaying their work in 61 individual studios in seven designated Placitas neighborhoods. Eighteen artists are first-timers.
The tour is divided into seven, color-coded neighborhoods to help visitors locate the studios they want to visit. The tour map is posted online (placitastudiotour.org) as well as in brochures available in advance of the tour at select locations including La Puerta Real Estate, Homestead Village and all studio locations. Maps on the Placitas Studio Tour website offer the added advantage of being able to click on individual neighborhoods and from there access links to the artist or artists in each area whose work is of interest. The PST Facebook pages are filled with additional in-studio photos of artists on the tour and samples of their work that supplement the individual examples in the brochure and on the tour poster.
Helping visitors to take in as much as possible of the breadth of the tour would be a logistical nightmare for less dedicated volunteers. While visitors’ efforts to take in every stop on the 2-day tour would otherwise be daunting–likely impossible!–tour organizers have made every effort to help refine their search for the art they absolutely don’t want to miss. The process began with “Taste of the Tour—Meet and Greet” in February, a public event at La Estrella Event Center where samples of work by participating artists were exhibited and a raffle raised $600 that was gifted to the Placitas Elementary School Art Department.
But perhaps the best way to consider the seemingly endless possibilities is to visit the Placitas Studio Tour Preview Exhibit hosted by the Placitas Community Library beginning April 20 through May 12 where one work by each of the artists on the tour will be exhibited. The work will be organized by neighborhoods so people can chart a logical course after noting the studios they don’t want to miss. Works exhibited in the library, which will be open during tour hours both Saturday and Sunday, may be purchased at the library and will benefit the artist as if purchased in an individual studio.
The only downside for artists on the tour is their inability to leave their own studios to compare notes and see what other artists are up to. But worry not. The PST board has also taken this into account and organized both a preview of the library exhibition exclusively for artists and an after-tour that allows artists who sign up to survey a sampling of other studios. What will they think of next?