Join the New Mexico History Museum every second Saturday of the month from June 2017-February 2018 for a presentation and conversation-style gallery talk in conjunction with the current exhibit, Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest.
Siddiq Hans von Briesen, the brother of Lama Foundation cofounder Barbara Durkee, was an early communard at Lama. Von Briesen will speak about the commune’s evolution over its fifty years.
Lama Foundation sits in a forested area at 8,800 feet on the western aspect of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range north of Taos, New Mexico. In 1967 local artist Herman “the hermit” Rednick found a piece of land with a natural spring and encouraged Steve and Barbara Durkee and Jonathan Altman to establish their alternative-living effort there. The Durkees had been living in Garnerville, New York, where their social circle of artists had become known for psychedelic light shows and experiments with LSD. Drawn to nature, the two ventured to the Southwest in search of an idyllic place to situate a new commune. Shortly after founding Lama, they imposed a rule forbidding the use of illegal drugs on the property. As a result, some original numbers decamped immediately. Gradually the commune flourished as the residents constructed uniquely impressive buildings and devoted themselves to spiritual practice from every persuasion. Lama Foundation is one of very few of the communes that remain in the northern Rio Grande Watershed.
