Pueblo of San Felipe

While San Felipe is only 15 miles from Albuquerque, the Pueblo has historically discouraged visits from the outside world and is considered the most conservative Pueblo in Keres language group.  With the advent of accessible transportation in the late 19^th Century, the community, now able to obtain pottery, weavings and decorative arts from neighboring Native communities, focused on agriculture to the exclusion of the arts.  In the 20^th Century, ancient techniques and forms, as well as the sources of quality clay on the Pueblo, were forgotten by all but a few.  As a result, according to a project by the Santa Fe based School for Advanced Research, today’s San Felipe pottery is characterized by a rather experimental style with contemporary potters noting that there is a consistent trend of experimentation and change in their own artistic practice as well as in the production of other art forms in the Pueblo.  Artists working in all media are again active at San Felipe but innovative silverwork and norm shattering pottery are now, somewhat ironically, San Felipe’s main artistic products.

Directions, information about hours, admission fees and programs go to: https://www.newmexico.org/native-culture/native-communities/san-felipe-pueblo/