Artist Georgia O'Keeffe moved to Santa Fe in 1949 and established it as her new home and artistic haven as it, according to O'Keeffe, expressed “the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.” Though she had been popular and recognized in New York art circles, she found her niche in the rugged New Mexican terrain where she immortalized flowers, shrubs, rocks, shells, and other natural objects through large-scale abstractions. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum has over 3,000 works of art, including 1,149 paintings, drawings, and sculptures done by O'Keeffe from 1901 to 1984. The museum is also dedicated to O'Keeffe's contemporaries and the American contemporary and modernist art movements; artists such as Arthur Dove, Sherrie Levine, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol have had their work displayed at the museum.

Over 200 acres incorporates El Rancho de las Golondrinas, Santa Fe's living history museum. El Rancho represents and exhibits New Mexico's history with emphasis on the Spanish Colonial era. The museum is dedicated to 18th and 19th century New Mexico, with original colonial buildings and reconstructed Northern New Mexican historic buildings. Enjoy lively festivals with music and dance.

Rolling hills, national parks and state forests surround gorgeous Dungog. Its main street is an urban conservation area. Notable historic buildings include the primary school built in 1843 and designed by colonial architect Edmund Blacket, who also designed the University of Sydney and St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney. The Dungog Cinema has a Spanish mission-style façade and is the oldest operating purpose-built cinema in Australia.