Harwood’s current campus limits its ability to serve growing audiences, steward expanding collections, and offer the dynamic, inclusive exhibitions and programs our community deserves.

Expansion is about more than adding space; it is about unlocking the full potential of New Mexico’s arts and ensuring that more people can experience their transformative power. We will strengthen our ability to preserve and share the region’s artistic legacy through expanded collections storage, new exhibition galleries, enhanced educational and community spaces, and improved accessibility across the campus. By creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment, Harwood will better serve students, artists, visitors, scholars, and communities throughout New Mexico and beyond.

To realize this vision, Harwood will launch a $28 million capital and endowment campaign to expand and modernize the museum. The project will add 6,000 square feet of galleries, collections storage, and visitor space while also optimizing existing facilities to meet immediate and long-term needs. Expansion plans include additional climate-controlled storage, new exhibition galleries, improved educational and outdoor gathering spaces, a freight elevator for the safe movement of artwork, and a modern passenger elevator that ensures reliable ADA access throughout the campus for decades to come. The project will also create a more welcoming entrance and enhanced museum store, elevating the visitor experience from arrival to departure.

Campaign planning began in 2025, with a goal of completing construction in time for Harwood’s 110th anniversary in 2033.

$300,000 of philanthropic funding will allow us to retrofit and optimize existing climate-controlled collections space, addressing urgent storage needs while supporting the long-term preservation of Harwood’s collections.

A $2 million Expansion Readiness Fund will ensure that Harwood has the talent, capacity, and operational strength to fully realize the promise of its expanded campus. The fund will support strategic investments in staff compensation, professional development, and program delivery, helping the museum remain competitive in an increasingly challenging cost-of-living environment. By investing in its people, Harwood will build the institutional capacity necessary to steward its collections, engage its communities, and inspire future generations.

$5 million of philanthropic funding will help build the ADA-accessible Museum and Center for Creative Learning to improve our overall infrastructure, educational facilities, and outdoor public spaces to welcome learners and visitors of all ages.

$21 million of philanthropic funding will secure both the future home and future strength of the Harwood Museum. Approximately $16 million will create a larger, more accessible museum through expanded galleries, enhanced collections storage, new elevators, and improved visitor spaces. Approximately $5 million will establish permanent endowment support for operations, facilities stewardship, and endowed leadership and curatorial positions, ensuring that the museum not only grows, but thrives for generations to come.

Harwood’s greatest asset is its people. As the museum expands its reach and impact, investing in talented professionals and emerging leaders is essential to advancing excellence in scholarship, education, collections stewardship, and community engagement.

With $2 million in funding, we will invest in our staff; endow leadership positions; and establish paid internship, practicum, and fellowship programs that position Harwood as a premier learning museum within the University of New Mexico system. Through hands-on experiences at both Harwood Museum in Taos and the future Harwood-Santa Fe site, students and emerging museum professionals will gain meaningful, mentored pathways in curatorial practice, education, collections management, public engagement, and museum leadership. Together, these sites will create a unique cross-campus learning network that connects UNM students, faculty, artists, and communities through experiential learning, research, and creative practice. These opportunities will expand equity and access to museum careers while strengthening the creative economy regionally and nationally, cultivating the next generation of museum leaders.