The Taos Studio Tour is a free, self-guided annual art event held each Labor Day weekend in Taos, New Mexico. For three days, local artists open their working studios to the public, inviting visitors to meet the artists, experience artwork in the spaces where it is created, and explore a wide range of media and creative practices. The weekend typically begins with a preview exhibition and reception on Thursday evening, followed by open studio visits from Saturday through Monday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm.

The Studio Tour was founded and stewarded for many years by the Taos Art Organization (TAO), a nonprofit formed by local artists to advocate for the arts, build community, and create direct connections between artists and the public. Under TAO’s leadership, the Tour grew into one of Taos’s most anticipated annual cultural events, reflecting the town’s strong tradition of artist-led initiatives. Since spring 2025, Taos MainStreet has served as the fiscal agent for the Studio Tour, supporting its continued sustainability and growth. The 19th Taos Studio Tour will take place over Labor Day Weekend in 2026, continuing a nearly two-decade legacy of access, creativity, and community engagement.

Historically Artistic

Today, Taos is recognized as a living, multi-voiced arts community shaped by Indigenous, Hispano, and contemporary artists working across traditional and experimental forms, supported by collectives, open-studio practices, and artist-led initiatives that emphasize access, process, and community connection. This contemporary landscape stands in contrast to—and in dialogue with—the early twentieth-century art economy shaped by the Taos Society of Artists, which formally disbanded in 1927 after helping establish Taos as a national art destination. Founded in 1915 by Euro-American painters including Joseph Henry Sharp, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Bert Geer Phillips, and E. Irving Couse, the Society promoted a romanticized vision of the Southwest that reflected both the artists’ fascination with the region and the cultural limitations of their era. While their work brought visibility to Taos, it also privileged external perspectives and excluded many local voices. The evolution from a closed, market-driven society to today’s more decentralized, inclusive, and artist-organized ecosystem reflects a broader shift in how Taos understands authorship, representation, and cultural stewardship in the arts. Taos has always been—and continues to be—shaped by Indigenous makers, Hispano traditions, women artists, and contemporary creatives whose work challenges, expands, and redefines the narratives first popularized by the Society. Revisiting the Society now invites a broader, more inclusive understanding of Taos as a living cultural landscape, shaped not by a single group, but by many overlapping voices across generations.