The Harwood Museum of Art has maintained a unique record of northern New Mexico's rich multicultural heritage and Taos' role in the development of seminal American art.

Founded in 1923 and operated by the University of New Mexico since 1936, the Harwood is the second oldest museum in the state. The historic adobe compound which houses the Harwood Museum dates to the mid-19th century. It has been a landmark since Burt and Elizabeth Harwood bought the property in 1916 and made it into one of the first examples of Pueblo Revival architecture. Southwest architect John Gaw Meem oversaw its further expansion in 1937. In 1923, Elizabeth Case Harwood and a group of Taos artists created the Harwood Foundation as a private nonprofit organization to serve as a library, museum and educational center. The Harwood Museum is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The Permanent Collection includes 19th century retablos (religious paintings on wood) and works by 20th century artists. Many of the best known artists who have worked in Taos are represented. Works on view range from the early days of the art colony, including paintings by Victor Higgins, Oscar Berninghaus and other members of the Taos Society of Artists, the Taos Moderns, a post-WW II influx of modernist painters, to contemporary works by artists such as Larry Bell, Bea Mandelman, Louis Ribak, Agnes Martin and Earl Stroh.

The Harwood also preserves a photographic archives of 17,000 images of the land, people and artwork of New Mexico from the early 1900s to the present day. Special changing exhibitions take place several times each year. The Museum has an important collection of Hispanic works that covers a broad range of the historic traditions of Northern New Mexico, including the largest public collection of wood sculptures by Patrociño Barela.