Lensic Performing Arts Center
Enriching our community through performing arts and education
The Lensic Performing Arts Center is Santa Fe’s year-round home for the performing arts. Our mission is to enrich lives by bringing diverse art and people together in the historic Lensic Theater, a cornerstone of downtown Santa Fe since 1931. The Lensic Performing Arts Center is New Mexico’s largest performing arts education provider, reaching 13,000 students annually. The Lensic also programs events throughout New Mexico as Lensic 360, including 50+ free events with the annual Santa Fe Summer Scene program.
The Lensic's Summer Scene is now in its third year. This programming significantly adds to the unparalleled arts and culture offerings in Santa Fe, a small city with less than 90,000 people that truly punches above its weight. It was not always the case, as Lensic 360 Director, Jamie Lenfestey recalls:
“I was walking through the Railyard on a night where there was a show there and on the Plaza as well. I walked past a couple and overheard the woman exclaim, 'I can’t believe how much is going on in this town!' I stopped in my tracks, turned back, and said, 'I have been waiting 20 years for someone to say that!'"
Summer Scene has grown enormously through the years, bringing an extraordinary vibrancy to this unique community that connects us with friends, neighbors, and visitors alike, through our shared love of music and our beautiful City Different.
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The Santa Fe Community Foundation invited local nonprofits to submit stories related to our July topic of Arts & Culture.
New Mexico Acequia Association
Youth education and outreach are central to the work of the New Mexico Acequia Association. Through these programs, young people engage with their local acequias and build the skills to become future community leaders.
River Source
River Source supports people advancing watershed stewardship to create significant community engagement and long-lasting impacts for intergenerational learning and ecological restoration. We provide science and policy education and the building of watershed and climate resilience in New Mexico. Our goal is to be weavers, bringing together elders, youth, and land managers to spark action for caring for our water, forests, and land and leveraging the full potential of people working together.
The Art of Generosity: Bienvenidos Outreach
The Art of Generosity — our new editorial series with Table Magazine — shines light on the people and organizations strengthening communities across New Mexico. In this first story, we meet Susan Tarver of Bienvenidos Outreach, whose work reflects how compassion, connection, and everyday acts of generosity can help neighbors meet basic needs and build lasting support systems.
