Cultural Center Fountain Theatre
Mesilla Valley · Las Cruces
An intimate performing arts and visual art center in Las Cruces presenting local theater productions and gallery exhibitions, anchoring the city's growing creative district.
Art Galleries in Las Cruces
Las Cruces is southern New Mexico's largest city, a rapidly growing university community along the Rio Grande with an arts scene that reflects the deep Mexican American cultural heritage of the Mesilla Valley and the contemporary energy of New Mexico State University. Old Mesilla, the historic plaza village annexed by Las Cruces, contains galleries and studios in adobe buildings along a 19th-century plaza that has been a center of trade and culture since the Spanish colonial period. The Las Cruces Museum of Art and NMSU's University Art Gallery present exhibition programs that serve a regional audience extending into El Paso, and the city's growing creative community has taken root in renovated downtown buildings along Main Street.
Cultural Center Museum Las Cruces Museum of Art
Downtown Las Cruces · Las Cruces
A free civic museum in downtown Las Cruces presenting rotating exhibitions of regional and national artists alongside a growing permanent collection rooted in the art traditions of southern New Mexico.
Museum New Mexico State University Art Museum
NMSU Campus · Las Cruces
The NMSU Art Museum houses over 7,000 works spanning five centuries, with particular strengths in 20th-century American prints, Mexican and Latin American photography, and New Mexico art - all free and open to the public.
Where to Stay in Las Cruces
Find hotels, inns, and vacation rentals near Las Cruces's galleries and cultural venues.
Search Hotels on Booking.com →
Affiliate link, we may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Art in the Mesilla Valley
Las Cruces is one of New Mexico's fastest-growing cities, and its arts scene is growing with it, fueled by the presence of New Mexico State University and by the city's position at the crossroads of two great border cultures. The New Mexico State University Art Museum presents a serious program of exhibitions with particular attention to artists from the US-Mexico borderlands, while the Las Cruces Museum of Art showcases local and regional work in a welcoming downtown facility. The historic village of La Mesilla, just southwest of downtown, preserves a 19th-century plaza commercial district and hosts galleries and studios in adobe buildings that have housed artists and craftspeople for generations. The Fountain Theatre anchors a performing arts community that complements the visual arts scene. The surrounding landscape, with the Organ Mountains rising dramatically to the east and the Rio Grande cottonwood bosque extending north, provides extraordinary subject matter for landscape painters and photographers. The White Sands National Park, a short drive to the northeast, has attracted artists since its otherworldly gypsum dune fields were first accessible to visitors.