Welcome to Aldea Gallery in Silver City, NM

Aldea Gallery features paintings and a wide selection of fine art prints and cards by watercolor painter Brent Flenniken; folk art and jewelry by Donna Flenniken, and the select work of a number of other local artists.

Aldea Gallery is located in one of the oldest buildings in historic downtown Silver City, New Mexico. The L.C. Parker Building was built in 1882 when Silver City was a wild silver mining town. Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch hung out in nearby saloons in the 1880s.

The gallery, owned by Donna Flenniken, looks out on Bullard Street (Main Street was washed away by floods decades ago). Behind the gallery, with a connecting hall, is Hacienda Realty’s downtown office which faces Yankie Street (formerly Yankie Creek). The real estate firm is owned by Flenniken’s daughter, Blake Farley.

For at least 75 years, the gallery building housed a series of clothing stores, while the current real estate office was inhabited mostly by doctors, dentists, and photographers. The gallery, with original stamped tin ceiling tiles, is a beautiful space that required little renovation. However, the real estate office was significantly remodeled in 2020-2021 to restore it to New Mexico Mission Architectural Style, with custom-made doors and windows and partially-exposed brick walls made of handmade “Silver City brick.”

Below the gallery is a huge basement with dirt floors and walls made of large stones. An old door covers the entrance to one of the century-old tunnels that oldtimers say were built by Chinese workers who were harshly discriminated against by the town's white population —to the point that it was unsafe for them to be out after sunset.