The need to produce wearing apparel in this rugged and isolated location spawned another traditional art form: weaving. Nomadic Navajo Indians migrated into northern New Mexico shortly before the Spanish arrived in 1540. They learned spinning and weaving skills from the Pueblo Indians, using portable vertical looms, and later adopted the use of wool from the Spanish. Like Navajo weavers, Spanish colonists living along the Rio Grande basin made beautiful and functional weavings. They wove striking blankets on a fixed treadle loom. There are villages surrounding Taos that still raise sheep, spin wool, and weave textiles in much the same way their ancestors did.

The Spanish brought their religious traditions to Taos valley and over the years these symbols and artistic techniques merged and melded with those of the Pueblo residents. 

A pivotal moment in Taos art history happened on a sunny fall day in 1898. It happened with a broken wagon wheel. That wheel was on a horse-drawn carriage transporting two European-trained east coast artists to Mexico. Bert G. Phillips and Ernest L. Blumenschein stayed in the Taos area to have the wheel repaired, became enchanted with the light and the rich culture and stayed. Word spread in Paris, New York, and St Louis; associates of the two artists began visiting Taos. In 1915, the first formal meeting of the Taos Society of Artists was held with six members present. Over the next few years the membership grew to twelve.

Sometimes a few influential individuals can change the nature of a community. Two of these people, Mabel Dodge and Millicent Rogers, independently discovered Taos in the early 1900s, settled, and began inviting their circles of creative friends to visit. The likes of DH Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Ansel Adams came and created and invited more friends to visit. Many stayed and are part of the art history of Taos.

After World War II, another group of artists began relocating to Taos from New York and San Francisco. Many of this group became know as “Taos Moderns,” appreciating the magical light and the majestic landscape but translating these influences into abstraction.

The summer of love in the late 1960s turned Taos life upside down and started yet another influx of creative beings, many from southern California. The hippie era of communes and free love was immortalized in Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" film. Hopper moved to Taos as did many of his artist friends. These artists were sculptors, photographers, installation artists as well as painters and many are still working in Taos today.