Warren Keating, Vivo Contemporary

Canyon Road has not died. It’s just wilted.

But as anyone strolling the popular art-centric street knows, something’s missing and other things are gone. A few galleries are clearly shuttered, with the occasional “for rent” or “for sale” sign hanging in their windows.

“We’re struggling,” acknowledges

artist Warren Keating, head of the Santa Fe Gallery Association and one of the creative forces behind Vivo Contemporary gallery.

He says many members of the association have been silent about their status or their plans. In many ways, it speaks volumes.

“That says to me people are not ready to talk about the future yet,” he says.

He’s not sure which galleries are

closed for good or temporarily. But he acknowledges the pandemic has taken something vital away from one of the city’s most vibrant artistic thoroughfares.

“It’s direction and motivation,” he says. “People are really quiet and not proactive and not even around. “

One gallery on the north side of the street, once bustling with activity, is now dark, quiet and seemingly empty. Yet someone recently put up a string

of colored holiday lights in one window — an act suggesting the ghosts of long-gone artists are trying to reach out and say, “We’re still around.”

Even the annual Christmas Eve Farolito Walk, an event that really defined what the street was about — at least years ago — was reduced to a drive-by event in the name of public health orders.

Keating says he thinks beyond the obvious physical impacts of the pandemic.

Gone, too, he says, are gallery education and entertainment, such as the Friday night After Hours program, in which “the local community could enjoy and participate in artist talks, music concerts, artist demonstrations and even flower-arranging demos.”

Also lost — at least for now — are the input and criticism of arts writers, whom, he says, he also worries about.

“It’s the cycle of life, I reckon,” he says.