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Long a beacon for visual artists, Taos has also become a magnet for touring musicians, especially in summer, when performers and audiences are drawn to the heady high-desert atmosphere. Festivals celebrate the visual arts, music, poetry, and film.
The Society of the Muse of the Southwest (aka SOMOS) is a nonprofit literary arts organization with frequent readings, performances, and workshops by writers, poets, and storytellers of regional and national significance. It's also home of the annual Taos Writers Conference and the Taos Storytelling Festival as well as a wonderful used bookshop.
Since 1993, this esteemed group of musicians has performed traditional—Bach, Beethoven, Brahms—and contemporary chamber music concerts. Performances are generally held in the Arthur Bell Auditorium (at the Harwood Museum of Art) and are vivid thanks to the state-of-the-art sound design.
Since 1953, when the Taos Center for the Arts was founded by a group of working artists, TCA has been a leader in arts collaboration and partnership. With a 275-seat theater (the largest indoor auditorium in town) and two galleries, TCA curates culturally relevant films, art exhibitions, and live performances by creatives of local, regional, and international renown.
