Taos Society of Artists’ Home + Studios | Couse-Sharp Historic Site

The Couse Home, Studio, and Garden from the south
E.I. Couse in his studio at work on San Juan Pottery, 1911. Couse first came to Taos in 1902, at the suggestion of Ernest Blumenschein.
The Couse studio, virtually intact, as he left it in 1936.
J.H. Sharp and his wife Louise with E. I. Couse’s grandchildren, Virginia and Irving.
J.H. Sharp in his studio, 1946. Sharp was the first to come to Taos, in 1893, and eventually built this studio.
Sharp’s 1915 Studio was restored in 2017 and hosts a permanent rotation exhibition of his work, collections, and ephemera
Kibbey Whitman Couse, the only child of E.I. Couse and his wife Virginia, was a noted inventor.
Kibbey Couse’s machine shop on the Couse–Sharp Historic Site.
E.I. Couse with his grandchildren, Virginia and Irving. Virginia Couse Leavitt became a guiding force of the Couse Foundation.
Virginia Couse Leavitt, E.I.’s granddaughter, and her late husband, Ernest Leavitt. Visionary custodians of a unique legacy.

June 12 at 11 a.m. we held the official drawing by Virginia Couse Leavitt for our 20th Anniversary Commemoration virtual door prize: a specially commissioned (and donated!) oil painting by renowned artist Josh Elliott. And the winner is: Drew Bachhuber! See the drawing on our YouTube Channel or via our Facebook page.

Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who bought a ticket to our Commemoration and those who sent generous donations in response to our anniversary. We raised more than $30,000 to continue our programs and preserve the treasure that is the Couse-Sharp Historic Site.
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Couse-Sharp Historic Site is open for limited tours. Please visit couse-sharp.org/tour for more information about availability and restrictions. We are thrilled to welcome visitors again!
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Visit our latest seasonal exhibition, Glimpses of the Past: Historic New Mexico Prints 1880-1950, in the Luna Chapel through Nov. 6. If you can't make it in person, view it virtually at GlimpsesofthePast.org

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See the virtual version of our Stitched in Sovereignty: Contemporary Beadwork from Indigenous North America exhibition at the StitchedInSovereignty.org website.

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Two visionary painters, whose art captured the Southwest.

Explore the studios of E. I. Couse and J. H. Sharp, founding members of the Taos Society of Artists. These two painters helped create the cultural fabric of Taos and the West as we know it today.

Visit the Couse home and see how these pioneer painters lived. Stand at Couse’s easel, see the model’s stage and props. All remains as it was 100 years ago. Witness this unbroken chain of history as it is preserved into the future, with the restoration of Sharp’s 1915 studio and the building of a new archive and research center. Explore the artists' work on the Couse Portfolio and Sharp Portfolio pages.