Amy H.
Yelp
I was extremely disappointed with this place. This disappointment was not based on the collection - because they were not open ANY day that we tried to go there - but rather on the factors below. Also, we had a five-museum pass ($25 per person), and I felt ripped off because this place was closed so much that we could not get in and properly use our pass.
1) This museum does an absolutely awful job of making it known when they are closed due to inclement weather. We happened to encounter an employee of the museum and she said that they follow the closure schedule of UNM. I have not been able to find this statement anywhere on their site, so how is a potential visitor supposed to know this? She also told us that they state on their site when they closed. I went to their site trying to verify this, but could not find such a thing. It seems like their own employees should be apprised of where and when they disclose closures. Also, we called every time before arriving at the museum. Their answering service is not updated with a voice message saying they are closed, and our calls were never answered, so we were left with the decision to tramp through the snow to their building or not attempt to go at all.
2) I feel that their closure policy should be better disclosed on their site and should be changed, considering that this building is not part of the campus of UNM-Taos and that this is one of the most accessible museums in Taos. The snow crews cleaned out their parking lot and in front of the museum both days that we went and they were closed due to snow. At our hotel, we mentioned our disappointment in their high number of closures (as well as the Blumenschein's high number of closures), and they informed us that quite a few other people staying at our hotel had complained as well. Harwood, these are people that would have paid to go into your museum, so that equates to dollars that you did not receive! We attempted to go there two of the days that they were closed, but I think they were closed due to snow four days that week. Most of the galleries were open. We also had been out to the Martinez Hacienda on one of those days, which is much more remote than this museum, and it was open!
3) One of the times we walked through the snow to visit the museum, an employee was entering the museum, but because of their closure policy, she said they were closed. That is silly to me; if you have a staff member at your small museum, why not have it open? That makes more business sense to me.
I normally do not write reviews either this negative or long, but this place was a huge disappointment!