The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

land-grant college in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

, United States. The college focuses on

Native American art The visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which in ...

. It operates the Museum of Contemporary

Native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic Santa Fe

Federal Building A federal building is a building housing local offices of various government departments and agencies in countries with a federal system, especially when the central government is referred to as the "federal government A federation (als ...

(the old Post Office), a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as Federal Building. The museum houses the National Collection of Contemporary Indian Art, with more than 7,000 items.

History

The Institute of American Indian Arts was co-founded by Lloyd Kiva New (

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, 1916–2002) and Dr. George Boyce in 1962 with funding from the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

. The school was founded upon the recommendation of the BIA Department of Education and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Three factors led to the school's founding: growing dissatisfaction with the academic program at the Santa Fe Indian School, the BIA's emerging interest in higher education, and the influence of the Southwest Indian Art Project and the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

. IAIA began on the SFIS campus in October 1962. From 1962 to 1979, IAIA ran a high school program, and began offering college- and

graduate-level Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelo ...

art courses in 1975. In 1986, the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development was congressionally chartered as a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

, similar to the structure of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, which separated the school from the BIA. It was designated a land-grant college in 1994 alongside 31 other tribal colleges. In 2001, the school was

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

, including the accreditation of

four year degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and university, universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to s ...

s. A two-year low-residency MFA in creative writing was accredited in 2013. Today, IAIA sits on a campus south of downtown Santa Fe and also operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, which is located in

Santa Fe Plaza The Santa Fe Plaza (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Plaza de Santa Fe'') is a National Historic Landmark in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico in the style of traditional Spanish-American colonial cities. The plaza, or city square is a gathering place ...

, as well as the Center for Lifelong Education.

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

In 1991 the college founded the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, now the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), in downtown Santa Fe, with a focus on contemporary intertribal

, the MoCNA is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building (the old Post Office), a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the

. The museum also features the Allan Houser Sculpture Garden. File:Wayne gaussoin performance.jpg, Performance by Wayne Nez Gaussoin (Picuris/Navajo) at MoCNA File:Institute of American Indian Arts Museum.jpg, IAIA MoCNA columns flanking a sculpture by Bob Haozous (Chiricahua Apache) File:Institute of American Indian Arts.jpg, The main entrance of MoCNA File:Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe.jpg, The MoCNA

Partnerships

IAIA is a member of the

American Indian Higher Education Consortium These organizations for post-secondary education have a common purpose and mission for advocacy in numerous areas of both institutional management and the general public interest. The organizations have specific purpose for issues from faculty uni ...

, which includes tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen

tribal nation In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

s and make a difference in the lives of American Indians and

Alaska Natives Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tli ...

. IAIA generally serves geographically isolated populations of Native Americans that have few other means of accessing education beyond the high school level.American Indian Higher Education Consortium
During the early 1970s, faculty member Ed Wapp, Jr.'s E-Yah-Pah-Hah Chanters toured nationally with the Hanay Geiogamah's American Indian Theatre Ensemble, a company in residence at

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (sometimes abbreviated as La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer Ellen Stewart. Located in the East Village neighborho ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. A program from this tour describes the musical ensemble as "students from the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, N.M., and are under the direction of Ed Wapp, Jr. Their music is presented in both the traditional and contemporary American Indian forms. Songs are selected from the Plains, Eastern, Great Basin, Southwest and Northwest Coast areas of Indian Country."

Notable faculty

* Imogene Goodshot Arquero,

Oglala Lakota The Oglala (pronounced , meaning 'to scatter one's own' in Lakota language, Lakota) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A ...

beadwork artist * Louis W. Ballard,

Quapaw The Quapaw ( , Quapaw language, Quapaw: ) or Arkansas, officially the Quapaw Nation, is a List of federally recognized tribes in the United States, U.S. federally recognized tribe comprising about 6,000 citizens. Also known as the Ogáxpa or � ...

composer * Gregory Cajete, Santa Clara Pueblo ethnobiologist and author * Karita Coffey,

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

ceramist * Jon Davis, European-American poet * Lois Ellen Frank, cultural anthropologist and food historian * Allan Houser,

Chiricahua Apache Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua historically shared a common area, language, customs, and intertwined family relations with their fellow Apaches. ...

sculptor *

Charles Loloma Charles Sequevya Loloma (January 7, 1921 — June 9, 1991) was a Hopi Native American artist known for his jewelry. He also worked in pottery, painting and ceramics. A highly influential Native American jeweler during the 20th century, Loloma p ...

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

jeweler * Otellie Loloma,

potter, sculptor, painter * Linda Lomahaftewa,

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

printmaker * Larry McNeil,

Tlingit The Tlingit or Lingít ( ) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. , they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; ...

Nisga'a The Nisga’a (; ), formerly spelled Nishga or Niska, are an Indigenous people in British Columbia, Canada. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The origin of the term ''Niska'' is uncertain. The spelling ' ...

photographer *

N. Scott Momaday Navarre Scotte Momaday (February 27, 1934–January 24, 2024) was a Kiowa and American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His novel ''House Made of Dawn'' was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 in literature, 1969, and ...

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

writer * Josephine Myers-Wapp,

textile artist * Wendy Ponca,

Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...

fashion designer and textile artist *

Fritz Scholder Fritz William Scholder V (October 6, 1937 – February 10, 2005) was a Native American artist, who produced paintings, monotypes, lithographs, and sculptures. Scholder was an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, a federally r ...

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an Indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...

painter * Arthur Sze,

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

poet * James Thomas Stevens, Akwesasne Mohawk poet and writer * Azalea Thorpe; an award for the fiber arts program is named in her honor * Charlene Teters,

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

painter and installation artist *

Gerald Vizenor Gerald Robert Vizenor (born 1934) is an American writer and scholar, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was D ...

, White Earth Ojibwe writer * Will Wilson,

Diné The Navajo or Diné are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Navajo language, Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Din ...

photographer * Elizabeth Woody,

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

/ Tenino (Warm Springs)/ Wasco-

Yakama The Yakama are a Native Americans in the United State, Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in Eastern Washington, eastern Washington (state), Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally rec ...

artist and author * Melanie Yazzie,

printmaker * William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.,

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...

writer

Notable alumni

* Marcus Amerman, Choctaw Nation beadwork artist * Ralph Aragon, Pueblo painter and sculptor * Katie Doane Tulugaq Avery, Iñupiaq filmmaker * Alexandra Backford, Aleut painter * Esther Belin, Diné multimedia artist and writer * Earl Biss, Crow painter * Sherwin Bitsui, Navajo poet * Diane Burns, Anishinaabe/Chemehuevi poet * Jackie Larson Bread, Blackfoot beadwork artist * T.C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo, 1946–1978), painter and printmaker * Sherman Chaddlesone (Kiowa, 1947–2013), painter * Eddie Chuculate, Muscogee/Cherokee author and journalist * Kelly Church, Odawa/Ojibwe/Potawatomi basket maker, birchbark biter * Karita Coffey,

ceramic artist * Bunky Echo-Hawk, Pawnee/Yakama painter * Anita Fields, Osage/Muskogee ceramicist * Bill Glass Jr., Cherokee Nation ceramic artist and sculptor * Gina Gray (Osage, 1954–2014), printmaker and painter * Benjamin Harjo Jr., Shawnee/Seminole painter and printmaker * Joy Harjo, Muscogee poet and jazz musician, US Poet Laureate * Allison Hedge Coke, American author * Kevin Locke, Lakota/Anishinaabe hoop dancer * Gerald McMaster, Plains Cree Siksika First Nation author, artist, and curator * Melissa Melero-Moose, Northern Paiute/Modoc mixed-media artist, curator, and cofounder of the Great Basin Native Artists * America Meredith, Cherokee Nation painter, printmaker, and curator * Patricia Michaels, Taos Pueblo fashion designer and textile artist * Dan Namingha,

Hopi-Tewa The Hopi-Tewa (also Tano, Southern Tewa, Hano, Thano, or Arizona Tewa) are a Tewa Pueblo group that resides on the eastern part of the Hopi Reservation on or near First Mesa in northeastern Arizona. Synonymy The name ''Tano'' is a Spanish bo ...

painter and sculptor * Jody Naranjo, Santa Clara Pueblo potter * Jamie Okuma, Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock beadwork artist and fashion designer *

Tommy Orange Tommy Orange (born January 19, 1982) is an American novelist and writer from Oakland, California. His first book, '' There There'' (2018), was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received the 2019 American Book Award. Orange ...

, Cheyenne-Arapaho best-selling novelist * Mary Gay Osceola, Seminole painter and printmaker * Chris Pappan Kaw/Osage/Cheyenne River Lakota, ledger artist * Kevin Red Star, Crow painter * Layli Long Soldier, Oglala Lakota poet, writer, and artist. * James Thomas Stevens, Akwesasne Mohawk poet * Roxanne Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo ceramic artist and sculptor * Charlene Teters, Spokane painter and installation artist * Randy'L He-dow Teton, Shoshone-Bannock model for Sacajawea Gold Dollar coin * Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Seminole/Muscogee/Diné photographer, writer, curator, and educator * Marty Two Bulls Sr., Oglala Lakota artist * Marie Watt, Seneca textile artist, printmaker and conceptual artist * Terese Marie Mailhot, Sto:lo writer * Jolene Yazzie, Navajo graphic designer * Debra Yepa-Pappan, Jemez Pueblo/Korean digital multimedia artist and museum professional * Alfred Young Man, PhD, Chippewa/Cree, painter, author, professor * Vernon Bigman, Navajo, abstract painter

Notable administration and staff

* Margaret L. Archuleta (1950–2023), art historian, curator, director of the IAIA Museum * Lloyd Kiva New (

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...

, 1916–2002), co-founder and president * Joseph Sanchez, curator and artist, director of the IAIA Museum, one of the Indian Group of Seven * Duane Slick (

Meskwaki The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hocąk, Hoocągra, or Winnebago are a Siouan languages, Siouan-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois ...

, born 1961), painter, taught at IAIA from 1992 until 1995

References

External links

* {{authority control Native American arts organizations Native American museums in New Mexico American Indian Higher Education Consortium Art museums and galleries in New Mexico Art schools in New Mexico Buildings and structures in Santa Fe, New Mexico Education in Santa Fe, New Mexico Museums in Santa Fe, New Mexico Native Americans in Santa Fe, New Mexico Pueblo Revival architecture in Santa Fe, New Mexico School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Public universities and colleges in New Mexico University museums in New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in Santa Fe, New Mexico Federal buildings in the United States 1962 establishments in New Mexico Universities and colleges established in 1962 1962 in art