Dovetail Milky Way by Albert Reed, SFCT landowner & prior board member.

Stand Up for Nature: Starry Night

October 3, 2026 at 6:00pm
Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Pavilion

This event is SOLD OUT. Please email to join the waitlist.

Join us on Saturday, October 3 at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Pavilion for an evening celebrating one of New Mexico’s most treasured resources: our dark skies.

Dr. Annette S. Lee — astrophysicist, artist, and founder of Native Skywatchers (full bio below) — will show us the vastness of the universe and the connections between Indigenous sky knowledge, science, culture, and conservation. Together, we’ll learn how caring for the sky is inseparable from caring for the land and our communities.

Enjoy inspiring conversation, dinner by Cowgirl BBQ, drinks by of Tumbleroot, Gruet, and Second Street Brewery, and live music by Lone Piñon, as we celebrate our shared commitment to conservation. This sparkling evening is dedicated to raising support and awareness for SFCT’s mission, as well as our collective passion for nature and this special place we call home. We invite you to raise a paddle in support of conserving land and increasing equitable access to nature in northern New Mexico.

Save the date and help us Stand Up for Nature to protect the natural and cultural treasures that connect us all.

Tickets ($195) go on sale Monday, August 17.

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Shine bright with our Starry Night theme: think stars, moonlight, dark skies, celestial sparkle, or whatever makes you feel festive under the New Mexico sky. Dress it up, keep it subtle, or just come as you are.

Astrophysicist | Artist | Author | Educator | Traditional Knowledge Keeper

Native Skywatchers, Founder & Executive Director
OSPAPIK, Senior Researcher
Cosmic Footprint Society, Executive Board Member

Dr. Annette S. Lee, PhD, DSc, MFA, MFA, is an award-winning artist, scientist, and civic engagement leader, whose work is defined by visual and scientific activism. She is a world-class researcher, professional artist, and keeper of traditional knowledge, with bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees in mathematics, physics, and astrophysics, as well as degrees in fine arts and motion media design. The Founder/Director of the nonprofit Native Skywatchers, board member of the Cosmic Footprint Society, International Astronomical Union member, and a Senior Researcher for OSPAPIK (Ocean and Space Pollution, Artistic Practices, and Indigenous Knowledges) at Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest, France. Annette is Native American of Lakota, Irish and Chinese ancestry with Ojibwe community affiliation.

Spirits Dancing: The Night Sky, Indigenous Knowledge, and Living Connections to the Cosmos
Travis Novitsky, Annette S. Lee

For millennia, humans have marveled at the night sky: the wonder of the aurora, the glory of the Milky Way, and the peace that comes with stargazing. In this remarkable book, Travis Novitsky’s photographs portray these marvels, while astrophysicist Annette S. Lee discusses how Western science and Indigenous knowledge can work together to provide a deeper understanding of our place in the universe.

Read Book

Lone Piñon is a New Mexican string band, or “orquesta típica”, whose music celebrates the integrity and diversity of their region’s cultural roots.

With fiddles, upright bass, guitars, accordions, vihuela, and bilingual vocals, they play a wide spectrum of the traditional music that is at home in New Mexico.

The musicians of Lone Piñon learned from elder musicians who instilled in them a respect for continuity and an example of the radicalism, creativity, and cross-cultural solidarity that has always been necessary for musical traditions to adapt and thrive in each generation. In 2014, Lone Piñon was founded as a platform for creativity around the oldest sounds of traditional New Mexico string music, sounds that had all but disappeared from daily life in many Northern New Mexico communities. Through relationship with elders, study of field recordings (including at the Library of Congress), connections to parallel traditional music and dance revitalization movements in the US and Mexico, and hundreds of local and national performances, they have brought the language of the New Mexico orquesta típica back onto the modern stage, back onto dance floors, into a contemporary aesthetic/artistic conversation, and into the ears of a young generation.

Want to be part of this special night? We’re seeking local sponsors to join us in bringing Stand Up for Nature to life — an evening of inspiration, community, and celebration in support of SFCT’s work to protect the landscapes, trails, and cultural heritage of northern NM.

Join us in making a lasting impact. Reach out to Blythe Crawford, , to learn more!

Sponsorship Opportunities