America's 15 Best Small-Town Art Museums

"Creative visionaries like Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams have been streaming into these parts since at least the 19th century, attracted by the millennia of Native American history and the shifting light over the starkly beautiful desert. In 2003, the Taos Art Museum moved to its current digs, the former residence of Russian-born portraitist and landscape painter Nicolai Fechin, who embellished his adobe home with triptych windows and carved doors. The space celebrates the works of the Taos Society of Artists, a collective that painted during the first three decades of the 20th century. Their canvases portray horseback riders, aspens and cottonwoods, and simple adobe pueblos. Such features continue to inspire; many locals claim that Taos has the highest number of artists per capita anywhere in the world." - Travel + Leisure Editors