Old Pass Gallery

The Old Pass Gallery occupies one of the most historically significant buildings in Raton - the former Wells Fargo building on South First Street, built around 1910 during the height of Raton's railroad and coal mining prosperity, when this stretch of northeastern New Mexico was one of the most economically active corridors in the Territory. The building's solid brick construction and street-level storefront have survived more than a century of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain winters, and today they house one of the most community-rooted galleries in New Mexico. The gallery is operated by the Raton Arts and Humanities Council, whose mission is to encourage and strengthen the cultural life of the area - providing residents of all backgrounds and levels of artistic training with opportunities for participation, self-expression, education, and enjoyment. That mission is visible in the breadth of the Old Pass Gallery's programming: more than 200 local and regional artists are represented throughout the year, working in painting, drawing, photography, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, fiber art, glass, and mixed media. This is not a gallery that curates to a single aesthetic or collector market - it is a genuine community arts space that reflects the full range of creative life in Colfax County and the surrounding region. The gallery's location at the foot of Raton Pass gives it a particular historical resonance. The Santa Fe Trail passed through this very corridor for more than half a century, and the high desert and mountain landscape of northeastern New Mexico - the Cimarron Canyon, the Vermejo River valley, the forests of Philmont - has drawn painters and photographers for as long as artists have been working in the Southwest. The work shown at the Old Pass Gallery carries that geographic heritage: this is art made by people who live in and love this specific stretch of the world, and that rootedness gives the gallery its character. Visitors to Raton making the drive on I-25 between Santa Fe and Denver are well advised to exit and spend an afternoon with the gallery and the intact 19th-century commercial architecture of the downtown. The Old Pass Gallery is among the most authentic and unhurried gallery experiences in northern New Mexico.