Shidoni, Tesuque, NM – SOLD

About the property

Shidoni occupies five acres at 1508 Bishops Lodge Road in the village of Tesuque, north of Santa Fe, with more than 270 feet of frontage along the Rio Tesuque and approximately 18,000 square feet of buildings on site. The property holds a pre-moratorium well, a critical asset in northern New Mexico water-rights terms. For nearly half a century the site operated as the Shidoni Foundry, gallery, and sculpture garden, and it remains one of the most recognized cultural addresses in the Tesuque Valley.

The Webster Estates team handled the sale.

The Shidoni story: Tommy Hicks, Gil Beach, and the foundry

Shidoni was founded in 1971 by sculptor Tommy Hicks (Thomas C. Hicks Jr.) and architect Gil Beach. The site had begun the year before as part of Arts Forum, an 80-acre artist live-and-work community that did not survive its second year. Hicks purchased the foundry equipment and the core acreage out of the bankruptcy and reopened the operation under a new name. “Shidoni” is an Anglicized rendering of a Navajo greeting; the choice of name reflects the place rather than describing it.

Hicks ran the foundry as a public-facing operation. The casting work itself, the patina yard, the pour days, the sculpture garden out back, were open to visitors in a way that few foundries anywhere in the country attempted at that scale. Over its working life Shidoni cast bronze for a roll call of New Mexico and national sculptors. Allan Houser cast at Shidoni (multiple cataloged works, including “Little Buffalo” in 1976). Bill Mauldin and Michael Naranjo cast at Shidoni. Una Hanbury cast at Shidoni. The foundry’s working catalog ran into the thousands of editions across roughly fifty years.

The foundry closed in 2017. Tommy Hicks died in 2019 at age 91. The gallery and sculpture garden continued under his family for a period after the foundry pour ceased; the property came to market in the cycle that followed.

The site

The five acres run along the Rio Tesuque in the bottom of the Tesuque Valley, on the road that connects Santa Fe to the village and continues up to Tesuque Ridge. The 18,000 square feet of buildings includes the original foundry shed, the casting bays, the gallery building, and the supporting structures. The sculpture garden is the asset that visitors knew best, the meadow along the river populated by large bronze and steel works on long-term display. The pre-moratorium well is the asset that determines what is possible on the site going forward; in a county where new wells have been substantially restricted since the moratorium took effect, the existence of the existing right is structurally important.

The neighborhood

The village of Tesuque sits in the valley north of Santa Fe along Bishops Lodge Road, between The Plaza and the Tesuque-Pojoaque corridor. The village holds Tesuque Village Market, the Tesuque Glassworks and Pottery, and a long-established residential and small-commercial fabric. The Santa Fe Opera grounds are immediately north. Tesuque Ridge Ranch, where Webster Estates also handled the sale of Hacienda de Las Hermanas, sits above the village to the west.

For the village and broader Tesuque market context, see our Tesuque village guide.

About the transaction

The Webster Estates team handled the sale. Properties of Shidoni’s character do not sell often by any conventional benchmark; the site sits at the intersection of cultural institution, working industrial-arts facility, and rural residential land, and that combination produces a buyer pool of essentially one at a time. We represented the property through marketing and close, working from our office at 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who founded Shidoni? A: Shidoni was founded in 1971 by sculptor Tommy Hicks (Thomas C. Hicks Jr.) and architect Gil Beach. Hicks acquired the foundry equipment out of the bankruptcy of Arts Forum, the artist live-and-work community that had occupied the site the year before.

Q: When did the Shidoni foundry close? A: The Shidoni Foundry closed in 2017. Tommy Hicks died in 2019 at age 91.

Q: Where is Shidoni located? A: Shidoni occupies 1508 Bishops Lodge Road in the village of Tesuque, north of Santa Fe, along the Rio Tesuque.

Q: How large is the Shidoni property? A: Five acres with approximately 18,000 square feet of buildings, more than 270 feet of Rio Tesuque frontage, and a pre-moratorium well.

Q: What artists cast at Shidoni? A: Allan Houser, Bill Mauldin, Michael Naranjo, and Una Hanbury are among the named sculptors who cast bronze at Shidoni during its working years. The foundry’s catalog ran to thousands of editions across roughly fifty years of operation.

Q: What does the name “Shidoni” mean? A: “Shidoni” is an Anglicized rendering of a Navajo greeting.

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The Webster Estates Team handled this transaction. Chris Webster, Patti Webster, Christopher Webster III, and Paisley Mason Webster, Associate Brokers at Sotheby’s International Realty, operating from 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza since 1976.