Pop Stars

New collective provides tangible goods, redefines Santa Fe style

"I've done this, basically, to do something different than the traditional brick-and-mortar," artist Jennifer Joseph says as she refreshes the stock of "Not Your Grandma's Santa Fe Style," a special pop-up shop she, along with the Santa Fe Collective, have set up inside Marcy Street's Community Gallery at the Convention Center building.

The shop rounds up the best from a dozen or so local artists, including Rita Bard, Richard Kurtz and Lori Swartz, and provides a good platform for last-minute shoppers to buy local and give unexpected gifts this holiday season that won't break the bank. "Everything is under $250," Joseph, herself a full-time artist, says.

She started the collective last spring "as a way of promoting local, contemporary artists and to also show and present work that's accessible," and since then has launched similar initiatives in diverse venues across town including the old Rouge Cat and Sweet Lily Bakery, and branched out to a herb shop in Brooklyn and the popular Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice, Calif. "That was interesting," she says of the latter.

"We're trying, but we're also realizing that our context is here," Joseph says of taking the show on the road.

At the most recent iteration, a partnership with the city's Arts Commission, a wall partition serves as a main retail space, with rolling racks and a nearby windowsill doubling as extra display areas. Goods include custom T-shirts by Edie Tsong and Yon Hudson, text-based artworks by Michael Namingha, bone china rings by Yuki Murata and one-of-a-kind rocks from the Embudo Basin that have been cleaned and gilded with 24-karat gold by Marion Wasserman.

The endeavor proved to be a family affair for Joseph, with bronze-cast botanicals by husband Chris Collins (pictured left) and hematite jewelry by Mom Bonnie Joseph, also available for sale. "They're pretty rock 'n' roll," she says, picking up a necklace.

Joseph plans on having the shop open though midday on Thursday and then take orders online though the co-op's website, santafecollective.com.

"I wanted to create a new model, so that we could do something different and new that doesn't necessarily takes itself so seriously," she says of what separates her group from others in town. "I look at it as a way to support artists in a very small way and get our work out there."

Though Joseph admits she's not expecting a windfall anytime soon, her motivation is to "provide some level of support" for local artists. "Everybody's sold something," she says. "For the other artists to get a check in the mail unexpectedly is, I'm sure, nice."

If they happen to dust off the concept of Santa Fe style along the way, even better.

"They've been open to it, definitely," Joseph says of customers' reaction to the sui generis stock. "People have been like, 'Wow, this is cool.' I can't say that it's been necessarily a financial success, but it's really great to get the work out there."

Joseph aims to stage the collective's next pop-up in February. In the meantime, she'll continue to challenge dated notions and provide a stage for hometown artists along the way.

"Long-term, even though I just said I don't want a brick-and-mortar store, I kind of do. I'm getting to the age where you don't want to be schlepping stuff around all the time," she shares with a laugh. "I think from a business point of view, to know where we are at any given time, because as it is now, it's sort of catch us if you can. That's great. We love popping up because overhead is minimal, but the reality is [that] in order to grow the business, we're gonna have to have a space long-term, but we do plan on getting out and putting the Santa Fe brand out there."

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