OLIVE RUSH STUDIO & ART CENTER
Meet Artist Olive Rush. A Painter. A Quaker. A Quiet World Mover.
In 1925, pioneering painter Olive Rush wrote: "Artists are spiritual adventurers, and the strange beauty of the Southwest invites us to dare all things."
In 2023, a new non-profit organization called the Olive Rush Memorial Studio purchased the historic Olive Rush home and studio, including a robust collection of her art and furnishings and an archive of papers and photographs. We intend to transform Rush’s home and garden, including her frescos and painted decorations, into a full-time studio museum and lively community art center.
The studio museum will display Rush’s art and tell her story, as well as those of her female and indigenous friends, students, and colleagues. Through art classes, concerts and other events, the art center will foster creativity and artistic and spiritual adventures among locals and visitors. Become our partner in supporting the Olive Rush Studio & Art Center!
Olive Rush painting at Rush Hill c 1900 (Rush Family Photographs)
OLIVE RUSH’S HOUSE
A Center for Art, Community & Collaborative Friendships
In 1920, at age 47, Olive Rush moved to Santa Fe and bought the small adobe house at 630 Canyon Road. While Rush lived there, the house and garden was a center of art, creativity, spirituality, and collaborative friendships among New Mexico residents and visitors. Our vision is to return the property to that ethos and role.
Rush turned the front room into her studio. Her painting flourished there — becoming freer, more modern, more intuitive and more spirit-centered. She added guest and rental spaces to the property, usually renting to other artists. One 1922 visitor said her home’s “outstanding characteristic was a kind of spiritual cleanliness.” ¹
Rush established a beautiful, bountiful garden under the century old apple trees, with more fruit trees, grape vines, shrubs, vegetables, and flowers. That beauty and produce were shared with her community. In 1943, she wrote to a friend: “One lovely thing about a garden is the way one’s friends enjoy it. And they shout with joy at this season of the year when they enter at the back at the abundance of the fragrance and color not of flowers but of fruit.” ²
Rush respected and befriended local indigenous painters and supported their art as a buyer, reviewer, mentor and teacher of fresco and mural painting. They brought her their drawings for critique, painted murals under her supervision, visited her home, and invited her to their homes and communities.
1 Olive Rush to Ethel Brown 1922, in Gilmore 2016, p 71.
2 Olive Rush to Ethel Brown Leach 1943, in Gilmore 2016, p 185.
Olive Rush serving tea in her garden in 1936 (Olive Rush Studio & Art Center)
THE VISION
A Center for Adventurous Art, the Spirit, Friendship and Scholarship
Our goal is to reach the financial security that allows the Studio and Art Center to be open five days a week for rest, creativity, spiritual adventures, and art.
The house and garden displays Rush’s art on its walls. The studio is restored and maintained as if Rush was still living there. In the restoration, we will retain its simplicity and beauty, while also conserving energy and keeping the art safe.
The studio museum will work with other museums, schools, and scholars to show and tell the story of Olive Rush, her indigenous and female colleagues, and their under-appreciated impacts on American art.
Meanwhile, in the house and garden, artists will paint. Tea will be served. Musicians will play and sing. Dancers will dance. There will be gatherings for worship, singing and poetry, and for celebrating marriages, babies, graduations, and memorials.
Help Support the Vision
Join us and Together We Will Bring the Vision to Life
MONDAY MAY 4 THROUGH SUNDAY MAY 10
We will host a painting class, an Olive Branches art exhibit, a Mele Luna sound immersion concert, and three open visiting days.
MONDAY JUNE 1 THROUGH Sunday JUNE 8
We will host a Madi Sato jazz concert and a singing workshop, a tea in Olive Rush’s garden during Summer Walk, an Olive Branches art exhibit, and two other visiting days.
MONDAY JUNE 30 THROUGH SUNDAY JULY 6
We will host a tea in Olive Rush’s garden during Summer Walk, a painting class, an Olive Branches art exhibit, and three visiting days.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 6 THROUGH FRIDAY AUGUST 8
We will host a tea in Olive Rush’s garden during Summer Walk, a painting class, an Olive Branches art exhibit, and three visiting days.
SUNDAY AUGUST 31 THROUGH SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 7
We will host a Timothy McLaughlin poetry workshop, a tea in Olive Rush’s garden during Summer Walk, a painting class, an Olive Branches art exhibit, and three visiting days.
