61. Children’S Adventure Company
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 988-7201
Address: 935 Alto St.
Description: This popular program offers an extensive summer camp, overnight camping, and after-school programs for children ages five up through the 9th grade. Summer day camps include nature trips, cooking, swimming, and art with field trips to Albuquerque every Friday. The company also offers enriched after-school programs for kindergarteners through 6th graders, with price adjustments for children who don’t attend every day. Call for prices.
62. Wise Fool New Mexico
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 992-2558
Address: 2778 Agua Fria #BB
Description: Wise Fool, Santa Fe’s own performing arts circus, offers a six-week workshop year-round that allows kids ages seven through 14 to learn acrobatics, walk on stilts, and swing on the trapeze. Programs geared toward adults are also scheduled.
63. Art Academy De Los Niños
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 473-3003
Address: 2504 Calle de los Niños
Description: The August through May after-school programs here focus on many different art media. Private sessions can also be arranged. The teacher is Sandi Wright, M.A., a longtime art educator who works with students to help develop and release their innate creativity. Media range from drawing and painting to sculpture and pottery. Fees paid monthly for weekly 90-minute classes including materials.
64. Children’S Dance Program
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 982-1662
Address: 2536 Camino Entrada
Description: Pearl Potts offers a range of year-round dance classes for kids, teens, and adults, including ballet, modern dance, tap, jazz, Irish, and creative movement. Seven- to 12-year-olds may attend her two-week summer workshops consisting of four-hour classes; two-hour classes are offered for kids ages five to seven on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Potts also offers creative movement classes for children ages two through seven.
65. Fine Arts For Children And Teens (Fact)
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 992-2787
Address: 1516 Pacheco St.
Description: Aimed at kids ages four through 18, this arts program is hosted by the ARTbarn, a 15-year-old organization aiming to pick up the shortfall in arts education in the schools. Programs take place at the ARTbarn building behind the Pink Church on Pacheco Street, at venues around town, and as after-school programs. Once-a-week sessions last six weeks and include art supplies and nutritious snacks. Kids learn to draw, paint, sculpt, make papier-mâché masks, and other skills, as well as learn art history. Field trips to Shidoni Foundry in Tesuque, the Museum of Fine Arts, and other arts venues are offered. Scholarships are available, and no child is turned away for lack of funds.
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 123 Grant Ave.
67. National Dance Institute Of New Mexico
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 795-7088
Description: This exceptional program works with 39 northern New Mexico public elementary schools each year to offer the students an introduction to movement and dance held at the attractive Dance Barns facility near the Santa Fe River on Alto Street. Lessons culminate with a public performance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center for parents, friends, and the community in general. The National Dance Institute of New Mexico was founded to help children develop discipline, a standard of excellence, and a belief in themselves that will carry over to other aspects of their lives. Participation is free thanks to grants and volunteers.
68. School Of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 983-5591
Description: Children ages three through their teens can study ballet, modern dance, creative movement, and jazz here. Adult classes are also available. The students dance in at least one annual public performance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. An annual performance of The Nutcracker and a spring recital give the students on-stage experience. The school also offers a summer intensive in June.
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 211 West San Francisco St.
70. Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Youth Concerts
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 983-2075
Description: The festival’s youth concerts, founded in 1993, bring music to children in five performances during July and August. Past programs have included jazzy string music, a presentation about violin making, a flamenco-inspired piece for chamber ensemble and dancers, and a program that highlighted young musicians. The concerts are free thanks to private foundations and support from the city of Santa Fe and the state.
71. Santa Fe Opera Youth Night And Backstage Tours
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 986-5900
Address: 7 miles north of Santa Fe on US 84/285
Description: Youth Night at the Opera provides children and young adults an opportunity to attend dress rehearsals of the opera productions at low cost. In 2009, the operas included La Traviata and Don Giovanni. A special adjunct, the Pueblo Opera Program, reaches more than 2,000 pueblo children and their parents. (For more information on the opera, see our The Arts chapter.) The kids see a real opera—not a watered-down production. Most youth night performances sell out early. Children younger than age 18 can accompany a parent free of charge on Opera Day, in early May. Docents show visitors costumes, sets, scenery, and props and explain how the opera makes them.
72. Santa Fe Performing Arts School & Theatre
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 984-1370
Address: 1050 Old Pecos Trail
Description: These after-school and summer programs provide training in music, dance, and drama for Santa Fe kids ages six through 18. Company members use the skills and techniques they learn in the workshops to present four annual productions, two designed for and acted by younger children and two for older company members. Watch the newspapers for a schedule.
73. Southwest Children’S Theatre
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 984-3055
Address: 142 East De Vargas St.
Description: Quality children’s plays and theater education are offered by this nonprofit group, founded in January 1988. Children learn improvisation, creative dramatics, voice and body training, and characterization. Adult professionals join the students for two main-stage productions each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Each summer the company presents an all-student production—written by, produced by, and starring the summer theater students. After-school programs welcome kindergartners through 8th graders, and outreach to area schools offers even greater access to the theater arts for all of Santa Fe’s youth.
74. Body Of Santa Fe
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (505) 986-0362
Address: 333 Cordova Rd.
Description: This community-oriented day spa, natural clothing store, and raw-foods cafe offers a full array of yoga classes. A yoga class for children four to nine years of age is offered on Wednesdays at 4:15 p.m., and a Family Nia movement class is offered on Thursdays at 3:15 p.m.
City: Santa Fe, NM
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 1142 Siler Rd.