Georgia O’Keeffe Museum moving buildings to make room for growth

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is looking toward the future, finalizing a plan to build and grow the museum to create an O’Keeffe campus. “While it served us well it’s kinda our first home, we’ve really outgrown it,” said Cody Hartley, museum director.

After 26 years, The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum near the Santa Fe Plaza is ready to expand its collection into a new space. “The new facility is going to be just a few steps from our original museum,” said Hartley.

The project will require them to demolish the old Safeway building they currently use as an education annex. Rebuilding the O’Keeffe campus will allow them to grow their 7,000 square feet to more than 55,000.

“That includes expanded educational and programmatic facilities, classrooms, new galleries, exhibition spaces, and public amenities to serve our growing audience locally and nationally and to really help us preserve and share our collections,” said Hartley.

Museum director Cody Hartley says while the building is going to change, they hope to pay respect to the culture here.

“The building really pays homage to this place to traditional architecture while being of our own times and forward-looking,” said Hartley.

The project also includes plans for nearly an acre of community green space to take guests right to the museum’s front door. “Using regional planting to be water-wise and sustainable the goal there really is to help our visitors understand this place but also to create an amenity for the community,” said Hartley.

They expect the project to cost around $ 75 million most of which has been raised by private donors. “We’ve raised about 80% of that to date,” said Hartley.

He says it’s costly but worth it. “It’s kinda a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a new museum that does everything we want to be able to do in terms of our exhibitions, our programs, and creating an amazing experience for our visitors,” said Hartley.

Officials hope the new Georgia O’Keeffe Museum will open in 2026. The original museum will be repurposed and used as exhibit space.