Starting in June 2025, Sydney Cooper is a Community of Practice Fellow at Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM, focused on the following community project.

The Sena Store Archive
(Working title)

This project is a community gathered archive of the Sena Store: a 1920’s pitched roof adobe Mercantile with a classic western facade at the apex of county road 84 in the Pojoaque Valley. 

The archive is being gathered with and co-curated by the local community. 

Owned and operated by Pablo Sena and his family, the store functioned as the center of everyday life for much of the Pojoaque Valley from the early 20’s through 1964. In those days, prior to the construction of the current highway, County Rd 84 was the route to Los Alamos. 

The Pojoaque valley drops from Nambe in the east at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, to San Ildefonso Pueblo and the Rio Grande in the west. The Sena Store, sometimes known as Pojoaque Station, was a traditional rural Mercantile, a gas station and a car repair shop for the valley. The products sold ranged from hardware to groceries, kitchenware to farming and ranching supplies. 

In 2021, after many years serving as a dance studio, an antique shop, coffee shop and pizza parlor, I was fortunate to be able to purchase it from the Sena family. 

It was and is my dream studio! Both a commercial space and an historic adobe.

During the remodel I have experienced incredible generosity and kindness from the community. When I am working outside someone from the valley will invariably slow down, or pull over and share with me their memories of their experiences at the store. The valley is still filled with people holding these memories. 

Initially we will open the restored former car repair shop at the north west corner of the store a few days a week for people from the community. We will hold space around a table for visiting with each-other and sharing stories and images from the cherished times they remember so fondly.