Paris of the 1920s, with all its creative brain power, had nothing on Santa Fe at that time. Sure, we didn’t have an Eiffel Tower or a Rive Gauche or a Kiki de Montparnasse dancing on bar tops. But what Santa Fe lacked in the 1920s in grandiose boulevards and smoky cafés our artists and writers — a growing art colony — made up for in creative collaboration and bohemian lifestyles.
And with the likes of artist Will Shuster, who had survived World War I, the Santa Fe arts scene also made up for it with a strong dose of post-war lust for life. The proof is in the burning man. As the city celebrates Zozobra’s centennial, the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which has overseen Zozobra since the 1960s, has put together a once-in-a-hundred-years-worthy production for Friday, August 30, including adding another day of celebrations at the Railyard.
For starters, the New Mexico History Museum opened its new exhibition, Zozobra: A Fire That Never Goes Out , which runs through September 2025. Despite what the title suggests, it’s not merely a timeline of Zozobra’s evolution. Rather, it speaks to how Zozo brings the Santa Fe community together and of the creative collaboration that got Zozobra going in 1924, when it started as a backyard party, and to 1926, when it became a public event.
Zozobra: A Fire That Never Goes Out at the New Mexico History Museum (open through September 2025) Museum open 10 a.m. to 5 p.
m. Saturday through Thursday and 10 a.m.
to 7 p.m. Friday 113 Lincoln A.