THE COUSE FOUNDATION And The Couse/Sharp Historic Site "...preserving the past for the future"
			Taos Art Colony In September of 1898, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips, two young artists from New York, discovered the beauty and fascination of the Taos Valley of northern New Mexico. Both had studied in Europe and their experience with art colonies there stimulated a desire to establish such a colony in Taos. Here the landscape, the Native American and Spanish cultures, and the spectacular light caused Phillips to say to Blumenschein, "For heaven's sake, tell people what we have found! Send some artists out here. There is a lifetime's work for twenty men." Couse was their first convert, arriving in 1902 and returning every year thereafter. Founders of the Taos Society of Artists at the Couse house, ca. 1915: Joseph Henry Sharp, Ernest L. Blumenschein, W. Herbert (Buck) Dunton, E.I. Couse, Bert G. Phillips, Oscar E. Berninghaus. By 1915, six professional artists from the East had made Taos a focus of their work. In that year they formed the Taos Society of Artists, sending circuit exhibitions of their paintings across the country and exposing audiences to new cultures, new visions, and a new landscape. This put Taos "on the map" for art and tourism, making it one of the most important art colonies in America. The Society lasted until 1927, by which time a number of additional members had been added. Prompted by the reputation of the Taos Society of Artists and later enhanced by the presence of the art patron, Mabel Dodge Luhan, the art community expanded rapidly. Today it remains a vital and ever growing artists' milieu.

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