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.
Umoja ABQ
Founded by refugee leader Chantal Muhumure, Umoja ABQ empowers refugee and immigrant women with the education, resources, and support they need to build self-sufficient, thriving lives. Through programs ranging from financial literacy and driver's education to maternal health and workforce development, Umoja ABQ is helping families create new opportunities and stronger futures in New Mexico.
LGBTQ Grant County
With support from the Envision Fund at Santa Fe Community Foundation, LGBTQ Grant County is strengthening its foundation and expanding year-round programming for LGBTQ+ youth, elders, and allies in rural southwest New Mexico.
Black Men Flower Project
Black Men Flower Project uses flowers as a tool for connection, affirmation, and community-building. In a society that has unnecessarily gendered expressions of care and beauty, even something as natural as flowers can feel off-limits to men. By placing flowers directly into the hands of Black men, the nonprofit challenges those assumptions and create new social permissions for vulnerability, gratitude, and brotherhood.
