New Mexico Magazine
New Mexico Magazine is a key promoter of the state's artistic assets and attractions, helping to drive tourism and build the New Mexico economy.
New Mexico Magazine
Santa Fe
2016 Recipient, Major Contributor to the Arts
Founded in 1923 as the New Mexico Highway Journal, New Mexico Magazine is the oldest state magazine in the country. Today, as an arm of the New Mexico Tourism Department, New Mexico Magazine is a key promoter of the state's artistic assets and attractions, helping to drive tourism and build the New Mexico economy.
New Mexico Magazine currently boasts an international circulation of 92,000, a total monthly readership of 240,000, and a combined print and digital audience of over 300,000. "No doubt, New Mexico Magazine's success is partly due to its in-depth coverage of the arts, one of the state's major attractions for residents and visitors alike," said nominator Carmella Padilla, who received a Governor's Arts Award in 2009 for literary arts and is a frequent contributor to the magazine, which she credits with helping to launch her professional writing career. "Above all, I value having a voice in a publication devoted to promoting the state, and the places and people, I most love."
The archive of New Mexico Magazine includes a who's who of notable New Mexican writers, including Mabel Dodge Lujan, D.H. Lawrence, Rudolfo Anaya, Tony Hillerman and countless others. Renowned photographers such as Douglas Kent Hall and Jack Parsons have contributed to the magazine. "Like the artistry it promotes, New Mexico Magazine is itself a dedicated work of art, the creation of countless staff members, past and present who, month after month, decade after decade, have ensured its delivery," Padilla said, calling the publication "one of our state's most esteemed artistic treasures." Coverage by New Mexico Magazine of its many festivals, artists and galleries has helped Silver City become known nationally as "one of the Best Small Arts Towns in America," said Faye McCalmont, the former longtime executive director of the Mimbres Region Arts Council, which received a Governor's Arts Award in 2013. "It would be fascinating to discover how many others like myself were first drawn to the Land of Enchantment — and learned to appreciate its arts and culture — through New Mexico Magazine." McCalmont said she moved to New Mexico some 24 years ago "in part because of the beautiful photos and articles in New Mexico Magazine that painted a compelling picture of life in the Southwest."
Artist Michael Hurd said he remembers as a young boy seeing publicity about his parents, artists Peter Hurd and Henrietta Wyeth, in New Mexico Magazine, and in LIFE and other notable magazines. "(LIFE has) faded away, but New Mexico Magazine remains a strong and vivid source for the great stories within our state," Hurd said.