The stunning mountain views in northern New Mexico that inspired some of Georgia O’Keeffe’s most famous landscape paintings, like “My Front Yard, Summer, 1941,” will be preserved through a new conservation plan, officials announced on Tuesday.
A foundation for Ghost Ranch, where O’Keeffe had a summer house and seven acres of land, and the Presbyterian Church Foundation, which owns the ranch, have partnered with the State of New Mexico and the New Mexico Land Conservancy to protect 6,000 acres through conservation easements, the organizations said in a statement.
The plan will also ensure sustainable operations of Ghost Ranch’s educational and art programming in the coming years.
The conservation plans will not affect the home and studio of hers in Abiquiú. That and the Ghost Ranch home are owned and managed by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.
O’Keeffe had a deep appreciation for the rugged landscape and painted Cerro Pedernal, a mesa, many times during her career.
David Evans, the chief executive of the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center, which hosts outdoor activities, said in an email interview that the partnership was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to protect a well-known landscape.
He added that the ranch wanted to get ahead of any future threats. “Development is encroaching around Abiquiú Lake, and this conservation easement protects lakefront acres that are part of the Ghost Ranch lands,” he said.
The easements, voluntary agreements that preserve land for conservation while allowing landowners to retain ownership, will not affect the 550 acres of the main ranch facilities that draw thousands of visitors each year. (The ranch is leased to and managed by the National Ghost Ranch Foundation.)
The state will provide more than $900,000 through a conservation act program to help cover transaction costs.
The plan “is a great example of what can happen when people work together to preserve what we love about New Mexico,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “We’re excited to leave a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy the stunning landscapes and vistas that drew Georgia O’Keeffe to northern New Mexico and continue to define this region’s incomparable beauty.”
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
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