Life at Taos

Aspiring to create sketches in color of the Indians and thier surroundings while on vacation, Professor of Art, Blanche Grant and Nebraska State Historian, Martha Turner arrived at Taos in June of 1920. By August Ms. Turner had returned to Nebraska while Blanche Grant resigned from her position at the University of Nebraska and moved to Taos.

In 1921 Ms. Grant bought an adobe house at La Loma in Taos, where she added a studio that same year. At La Loma she is neighbors with Oscar E. Berninghaus and W. Herbert Dunton, two of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists. She would eventually become friends with all of the Taos Society members. According to people at the old book store at Taos, Ms. Grant would divide her time between painting at her studio in spring through summer and research and writing in the fall and winter.

Promoting Taos and the art colony

Early on, Blanche Grant was active in community affairs at Taos, including advocating for the art colony and the indians of the Pueblo.

When Grant arrives at Taos in August of 1920, the newspapers are reporting on the likely passage of the 19th ammendment, which would be a big win for the womans suffrage movement, something Grant was very much in favor of. The ammendment passes in the last days of August.

In what is likely to be her first painting executed at Taos, Grant summons her excellent painting and story telling abilities to depict a woman of suffrage and education standing with two young Taos girls. This painting is full of symbolism and is a testament to her outstanding ability to tell a story with a brush as well as a pen.

In 1925 she published three Taos related books titled: "One hundred Years Ago in Old Taos, Taos Today, and Taos Indians. In her book "One Hundred Years Ago in Old Taos" Grant includes illustrations of five paintings by Taos Society artists including two by Joseph Henry Sharp, two by Eanger Irving Couse and one by Bert Geer Phillips. Here she also announces an upcoming book to be titled "Taos and its Artists". This title doesn't appear to have been published at the time, but in her 1934 title "When Old Trails Were New" she includes a chapter called "The Taos Art Colony" where she does indeed write about Taos and its artists.

In "Taos Today" she included a sort of guide to Taos with sections on "How to get to Taos", "What there is to see", "Where to go" and "What to do". There is also a calendar with dates of the various fiestas, dances and other celebrations of the Pueblo Indians. In addition, she lists local artists with studios where tourists are welcome to visit by appointment. The list includes the names of many artists who are considered very important today, including:

Active Studios at Taos (1925)
* Victor Higgins — Desert Edge	* Catharine Carter Critcher — Pueblo Road
* Ernest L. Blumenschein — Simpson Street	* E. Martin Hennings — Pueblo Road
* Walter Ufer — Beaubien Lane	* Bert Geer Phillips — Pueblo Road
Leon Gaspard — La Lomita	* W. Herbert Dunton — La Loma
* Joseph Henry Sharp — Carson Street	* Oscar E. Berninghaus — La Loma
* Eanger Irving Couse — Carson Road	Blanche Chloe Grant — La Loma
Ralph Meyers — Mission Shop

* Member of the Taos Society of Artists

Community Activism

There were a series of fires in the early 1930's that almost destroyed the entire Taos Plaza including Emil Bisttram's "Heptagon Gallery", the first art gallery in Taos. In response Blanche Grant began to champion for the creation of a volunteer fire department. Up to this time fires were being quelled by towns people using a bucket brigade.

Eventually a crew of volunteers was assembled. Following this success, it became apparent tthat there was a need for space and equipmnent. In this endeavor, Ms. Grant was able to enlist some of her friends in the art community to dontate a painting or two to help raise money for the cause.

Later, when the fire department needed running water, Blanche was again involved in getting Taos incorporated, which helped to qualify it for funding from the US government and finally get running water to Taos.

Ms. Grant was given a lifetime honorary title as President of the Taos Volunteer Fire Deprtment.

Today there is an art gallery at the Taos Fire Department where over 250 paintings hang. They were all donated by Taos artists over the years. Donating art to the fire department has become a long standing tradition.

Recognising the significance of this unusual collection, the Taos Volunteer Fire Department has never sold any of the paintings. The collection has slowly grown over time to be what it is today.

This gallery and the tradition of donating paintings can trace its roots directly back to the 1930's and the efforts of Blanche Grant.

Death

On June of 16th of 1948, Taos suffered the loss of a friend and champion of the community. Blanche Grant was 73 years old.

Many people from Taos turned out to pay their respects including friends from the art community. Oscar Berninghaus, Victor Higgins and E. Martin Hennings were pallbearers. She is buried at Sierra Vista Cemetery in Taos.

Legacy

Papers relating to an unpublished book called "The Forty Seventh Star - New Mexico" are held in the archives of the Houghton Library of the Harvard University Library.