Santa Fe
The Creative Capital of America
Owen Lipstein and Maggie Fine of Santa Fe Magazine wanted to know:
Is Santa Fe the creative capital of America?
Everyone already knows the city is creative. The question is what makes it unique, and does that distinction hold up to scrutiny. Not as a slogan. Not as tourism marketing. The search began for an honest answer, grounded in evidence.
I invite you to read this document, not as a report, but as an exploration of who we are. Santa Fe is a vibrant, creative place, yet it is not New York. It’s not Los Angeles or San Francisco. Here we try to understand what makes Santa Fe unique to help us see our shared identity more clearly. To strengthen our sense of place.
All of us who live and work here in Santa Fe—the people who teach our kids, build our homes, cook our food, care for our sick, make art, raise families—share this sense of place, whether you arrived last year or your roots go back generations.
I’ve had a home here for more than twenty-five years. By trade, I’m a data scientist. I’ve spent a career asking questions and letting the numbers point toward answers. I’ve conducted hundreds of quantitative studies and built data products that help people understand what the numbers are actually saying. For thirty years, I’ve run ongoing polling on quality of life, attitudes, and perceptions in Austin, Texas tracking how a city sees itself over time, what it values, what it worries about, how it changes.
That work shaped how I approached this project. But so did curiosity. When Owen Lipstein and Maggie Fine of Santa Fe Magazine first approached me, we discussed what we really wanted to know: What does the data actually say about Santa Fe? Does the evidence support what we sense about this place, or challenge it? A caveat. Data tells you something, not everything. This is one way to look at a city. There are others. I’ve tried to respect both: what can be measured and what resists measurement. The qualitative assessment looks at the anecdotal evidence and the intangibles. Together, they paint a picture of a place unlike any other where creativity is woven into the city’s fabric.
If you’re short on time, start with the Short Summary; or peruse the full special report if you want to go deeper. This is meant to start a conversation, not end one. Comments and additions are welcome. This is my gift to Santa Fe, its citizens, and Santa Fe Magazine. I hope you find something that expands how you see this place we share.
PETER ZANDAN | SANTA FE, FEBRUARY 2026
