Podcasts about contemporary native arts

An exhibition at The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Alberta celebrates the work of the Indigenous Group of Seven, influential Indigenous artists who, over a period of decades, pushed a new definition of Native art in Canada. We'll also highlight exhibitions honoring contemporary and up-and-coming Native American artists including the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture exhibition, "Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art", and the Institute of American Indian Art's annual showcase of work by the visual arts graduating class. GUESTS Joseph Sánchez, artist, former curator for IAIA's Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, member of the Indigenous Group of Seven, and co-curator of “The Ancestors Are Talking” exhibit at The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies Kayla Wanatee (Meskwaki Tribe), multi-disciplinary artist and a spring 2025 IAIA Bachelor's of Fine Arts graduate Kassidy Plyler (Catawba), artist and cultural public programs specialist for the Catawba Nation

Explore the iconic Santa Fe Indian Market, the largest juried Native American art show in the world. Wander through bustling streets filled with extraordinary jewelry, pottery and paintings. Learn from Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Executive Director Jamie Schulze the stories behind the art and the over 1,000 artists from over 200 tribes who participate in this annual event. Join Darley Newman to dive into the best food, fashion, and local museums to add to your Santa Fe Indian Market itinerary, including where to find the best Indian tacos.Go behind the scenes at special events like Best of Show and the SWAIA Native Fashion Show, hearing from designers like Patricia Michaels, a former contestant on Bravo's “Project Runway,” and past Governor of Pojoaque Pueblo, artist George Rivera. Hear from creatives like Del Curfman and Kathleen Wall about their inspiration, including their education at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Step inside the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts with Director Patsy Phillips and visit the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture to see a special fashion exhibition by Patricia Michaels. Whether you're a first-time visitor or a seasoned market-goer, this episode offers insider tips, artist spotlights, and a deeper appreciation for this cultural treasure in the heart of Santa Fe.

2022 witnessed a rebirth for Native art. More galleries, museums, and art spaces reopened following pandemic restrictions - and organizers brought back public shows featuring Native fashion designers. The Santa Fe Indian Market and the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, both a nexus for regional and national Native artists, marked their 100th year. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce recaps the year in Indigenous art and fashion with Joe Williams (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), director of Native American programs at the Plains Art Museum, and Miranda Belarde-Lewis (Zuni and Tlingit), independent curator and assistant professor in the Information School at the University of Washington.

2022 witnessed a rebirth for Native art. More galleries, museums, and art spaces reopened following pandemic restrictions - and organizers brought back public shows featuring Native fashion designers. The Santa Fe Indian Market and the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, both a nexus for regional and national Native artists, marked their 100th year. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce recaps the year in Indigenous art and fashion with Joe Williams (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), director of Native American programs at the Plains Art Museum, and Miranda Belarde-Lewis (Zuni and Tlingit), independent curator and assistant professor in the Information School at the University of Washington.

Indigenous artists from North America and beyond document their relationships with nuclear testing and uranium contamination in their homelands in “Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology,” an exhibit at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We'll speak with curators and artists about the exhibit that combines frustration with the […]

Indigenous artists from North America and beyond document their relationships with nuclear testing and uranium contamination in their homelands in “Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology,” an exhibit at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We'll speak with curators and artists about the exhibit that combines frustration with the […]

Indigenous artists from North America and beyond document their relationships with nuclear testing and uranium contamination in their homelands in “Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology,” an exhibit at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We'll speak with curators and artists about the exhibit that combines frustration with the power of artistic expression.

Emily Arthur (Eastern Band Cherokee descent) is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves as Chair of the Printmaking Area within the Art Department where they will host (SGCI) Southern Graphics Council Conference in March 16 – 19 2022 titled Our Shared Future. Arthur received an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and has served as a Fellow at the Barnes Foundation for Advanced Theoretical and Critical Research, Pennsylvania. Additional education includes the Rhode Island School of Design, University of Georgia and the Tamarind Institute of Lithography at the University of New Mexico. Arthur is awarded to the Notable Women in the Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts and has been nominated for a Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Grant. She is the recipient of a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant provided by the State of Florida and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, Chazen Museum of Art, Minneapolis Museum of American Art, Tweed Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Autry National Center of the American West and the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Arthur's work is included in the recent 2020 book, Knowing Native Arts (Lincoln): University of Nebraska Press, by Nancy Marie Mithlo as well as Dr. Mithlo's forthcoming book titled Visualizing Genocide co-authored with Yve Chavez, Ph.D. Arthur is also a co-curator and co-author of Re-Riding History: From the Southern Plains to the Matanzas Bay, edited by Phillip Earenfight, PhD. (The Trout Gallery: Carlisle, PA, Fall 2018). Arthur has served as an International Artist in Residence in France and Japan with artists from the Diné/Navajo Nation and as part of the 2011 Venice International Print Studios where she exhibited at the University of Ca” Foscari on Occasion of the Venice Biennale 54th International. International permanent collections include the nations of Iceland, Russia, Estonia, Ireland, France, Italy United Kingdom, India, Argentina, New Zealand, and Japan.

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe just received its largest donation ever. The $3 million unrestricted donation comes from MacKenzie Scott and her husband Dan Jewett, and was among the 286 gifts to help change the narrative about people struggling against inequities. The gift follows a $1.7 million grant from the […]

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe just received its largest donation ever. The $3 million unrestricted donation comes from MacKenzie Scott and her husband Dan Jewett, and was among the 286 gifts to help change the narrative about people struggling against inequities. The gift follows a $1.7 million grant from the Ford Foundation in 2020. And Scott previously donated $5 million to the IAIA. We'll check in with the country's only institution dedicated to progressive work by contemporary Indigenous artists.

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe just received its largest donation ever. The $3 million unrestricted donation comes from MacKenzie Scott and her husband Dan Jewett, and was among the 286 gifts to help change the narrative about people struggling against inequities. The gift follows a $1.7 million grant from the […]

This week on New Mexico in Focus… honoring Native American Heritage month with a celebration of native resilience and innovation. Correspondent Antonia Gonzales interviews tribal leaders and the Secretary of Indian Affairs about the surge of COVID-19 cases across New Mexico. The pandemic has hit Indigenous communities especially hard, and more recently the situation has become especially challenging for Acoma Pueblo, where Indian Health Services has closed a key facility. The group talks about upholding sovereignty while also working to keep citizens safe. Native Americans have always had a deep and vibrant connection to the land, and that includes the sustainability of our food sources. There is a recent movement to return to these Indigenous food systems and best practices for individual health benefits and the overall wellness of tribal communities and Mother Earth. Correspondent Antonia Gonzales visits Jemez Pueblo to meet with a business owner who is focused on helping us all decolonize our diets. This week, we also celebrate the country’s first Native American Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. She went to school here in New Mexico at the Institute of American Indian Arts as well as UNM. And earlier this month, she was appointed to a rare third term as Poet Laureate, starting in September of 2021. She held a discussion and reading from her new book of poetry “An American Sunrise” at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe in the Fall of 2019. Harjo reads selections from that book, including the works “For Those Who Would Govern” and “Indian School Night Song Blues.”

Jeff sits down with artist Anita Fields to hear her perspective about the intersection of indigenous art, culture, and language. She also reflects about the significance of Speak: Speak While You Can, the recently closed exhibit at Living Arts.To learn more about Anita and her art, visit https://www.anitafieldsart.comBorn in Oklahoma, artist Anita Fields creates works of clay and textile that reflect the worldview of her Native Osage culture. Her practice explores the complexities of cultural influences and the intersections of balance and chaos found within our lives. The early Osage notions of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented in her work. Heavily textured layers and distorted writing are elements found in both her clay and textile works. These reference the complex layers and distortion of truths found in the written history of indigenous cultures. Fields creates narratives that asks viewers to consider other ways of seeing and being in an effort to understand our shared existence.The power of transformation and transformative actions are realized by creating various forms of clothing, coverings, and figurative forms. The works become indicators of how we understand our surroundings and visualize our place within the world.Landscapes, environment, and the influences of nature are themes found throughout the work of Anita Fields. They reflect time, place, and how the earth holds the memory of cultures who once called a specific terrain home. Fields is currently a 2017-2020 fellow with the Kaiser Foundation Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Fields' work has been featured in American Craft, Ms Magazine, American Style, and First American Art. Her work can be found in several collections, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Art and Design, New York City, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, and the National Museum of American Indian, Smithsonian, Washington, DC.

Jeff sits down with artist Anita Fields to hear her perspective about the intersection of indigenous art, culture, and language.She also reflects about the significance of Speak: Speak While You Can, the recently closed exhibit at Living Arts.To learn more about Anita and her art, visithttps://www.anitafieldsart.comBorn in Oklahoma, artist Anita Fields creates works of clay and textile that reflect the worldview of her Native Osage culture. Her practice explores the complexities of cultural influences and the intersections of balance and chaos found within our lives. The early Osage notions of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented in her work. Heavily textured layers and distorted writing are elements found in both her clay and textile works. These reference the complex layers and distortion of truths found in the written history of indigenous cultures. Fields creates narratives that asks viewers to consider other ways of seeing and being in an effort to understand our shared existence.The power of transformation and transformative actions are realized by creating various forms of clothing, coverings, and figurative forms. The works become indicators of how we understand our surroundings and visualize our place within the world.Landscapes, environment, and the influences of nature are themes found throughout the work of Anita Fields. They reflect time, place, and how the earth holds the memory of cultures who once called a specific terrain home. Fields is currently a 2017-2020 fellow with the Kaiser Foundation Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Fields’ work has been featured in American Craft, Ms Magazine, American Style, and First American Art. Her work can be found in several collections, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Art and Design, New York City, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, and the National Museum of American Indian, Smithsonian, Washington, DC.

Native American artists have long used explorations of the future as a way to reflect on the present. Contemporary Native artists, from the Mohawk sci-fi multimedia artist Skawennati to the Navajo photographer Will Wilson, have been using innovative techniques to create visual art, literature, comics, and installations to build on that tradition and reframe it in a modern context. Often described as “Indigenous Futurisms,” this movement has reconsidered science fiction’s colonialist narratives in ways that place the Native American experience at their heart. What are the inspirations for this wave of futuristic work? How does it build on the many traditions of Native American art forms? And to what extent does this art suggest ideas for addressing civilizational threats like climate change, plagues, inequality, and mass violence? Harvard historian and Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract author Philip J. Deloria, visual and performance artist Kite, and writer and Sweet Land librettist Aja Couchois Duncan visited Zócalo to explore the future through the art of today. Moderated by Manuela Well-Off-Man, Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, this Zócalo event took place at Cross Campus in downtown Los Angeles.

Matt Garcia’s artistic practice investigates ecology, its relationship to knowledge systems and how media can connect communities to a reclaiming or re-imagining of lost epistemology. Matthew Garcia is an assistant professor of Art and Design at Dominican University of California located in the San Francisco Bay Area and the founder of the interdisciplinary collective Desert ArtLAB. In 2010, Garcia established Desert ArtLAb to explore how a connection to desert ecology and art can foster a sense of belonging, empowerment, and self-determination.  Garcia's work has been presented nationally and internationally at: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Paris, France), Museum of Contemporary Native Art - MoCNA (Santa Fe,NM), Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara ,The International Symposium on Electronic Art (2012,2015), Balance-Unbalance Festival (Noose, Australia) and HASTAC (Lima, Peru). Garcia is a 2016 Creative Capital awardee in Emerging Fields.  Garcia's current project, The Desertification Cookbook, visually re-brands the concept of deserts not as a post-apocalyptic growth of wasteland, but as a culinary and ecological opportunity. The cookbook is a collection of bilingual community driven recipes, statements, strategies and actions for exploring, surviving, and belonging in the desert borderlands.  The book mentioned in the interview is Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience by Enrique Salmón. Desert ArtLAB: Ecologies of Resistance, installation view, 2017, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. Image courtesy IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. MOBILE ECO-STUDIO, 2013

Fiesta de Santa Fe has been a defining tradition of the city's cultural life for over 300 years. This year, the annual celebrations will not include La Entrada, a pageant about the reclaiming of Santa Fe by Spanish forces after their expulsion by the Pueblo Indians in 1680. That decision was controversial and divisive. Hoping to reconcile disagreements in the community is an exhibition at Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts. Reconciliation runs through January 19, 2020 at IAIA's Museum of Contemporary Native Arts .

Kade L. Twist, is an interdisciplinary artist working with video, sound, interactive media, text and installation environments. Twist's work combines re-imagined tribal stories with geopolitical narratives to examine the unresolved tensions between market-driven systems, consumerism and American Indian cultural self-determination.   Twist is one of the co-founders of Postcommodity, an interdisciplinary artist collective. With his individual work and the collective Postcommodity, Twist has exhibited work nationally and internationally including the: Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona; National Museum of the American Indian, Gustav Heye Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; SITE Santa Fe; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Museum; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Nuit Blanche, Toronto; Contour: 5th Biennial of the Moving Image, Mechelen, Belgium; Adelaide International, Adelaide, Australia; National Museum of of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo; and the 18th Beinnale of Sydney.

William (Will) Wilson is a Diné photographer who spent his formative years living in the Navajo Nation. Born in San Francisco in 1969, Wilson studied photography at the University of New Mexico (Dissertation Tracked MFA in Photography, 2002) and Oberlin College (BA, Studio Art and Art History, 1993). In 2007, Wilson won the Native American Fine Art Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum, and in 2010 was awarded a prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Wilson has held visiting professorships at the Institute of American Indian Arts (1999-2000), Oberlin College (2000-01), and the University of Arizona (2006-08). From 2009 to 2011, Wilson managed the National Vision Project, a Ford Foundation funded initiative at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, and helped to coordinate the New Mexico Arts Temporary Installations Made for the Environment (TIME) program on the Navajo Nation. Wilson is part of the Science and Arts Research Collaborative (SARC) which brings together artists interested in using science and technology in their practice with collaborators from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia Labs as part of the International Symposium on Electronic Arts, 2012 (ISEA). Currently, Wilson’s work can be seen at the Portland Art Museum in: Contemporary Native American Photographers and the Edward S. Curtis Legacy, Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star and Will Wilson. He is the Photography Program Head at the Santa Fe Community College.

This week we tackle the big subjects: the future of the Portland Building, the humor (or lack thereof) of rape jokes, the history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival & more. Join us!The Future Of Portland's Most Loved/Hated BuildingThis week the Portland City Council will consider legislation to start renovating one of the city’s most recognizable works of architecture: The Portland Building. It's both Portland's most famous building (it's the text book case for postmodern architect) and perhaps its most reviled. First up, we take a look at what's wrong with the building. Hint: the problems run deeper than a color scheme that feels drawn from your grandma's kitchen.Then we listen to an excerpt of the building's architect, Michael Graves, before hearing the case for remodeling the building smartly from Randy Gragg, the director of the University of Oregon's John Yeon Center for Architecture and the Landscape.Adrienne Truscott's "Asking For It"There’s been a lot of talk in the comedy world over the last several years about rape jokes: are they funny, or seriously unfunny? Now there’s a show that tackles the issue head-on. The politically-minded theater presenters Boom Arts are bringing performer Adrienne Truscott to town for a show the New York Times called “as upsetting as it is hilarious." Truscott sports a blonde wig, jean jacket, and little else. Literally, she’s naked from the waist down. The show’s called “Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It" (actually, the name’s quite a bit longer, but we’ll let Truscott explain it to producer Aaron Scott), and it runs through Oct. 24 at the Headwaters Theater.opbmusic Session: Alela Diane and Ryan FrancesconiMusicians Alela Diane and Ryan Francesconi didn’t set out to make an album, but they did. It’s called “Cold Moon,” and it came out Oct. 23. You can see videos of their opbmusic Session here, or catch them live at Revolution Hall on Oct. 17.Oregon Experience: The Oregon Shakespeare FestivalOregon Experience opens its season on Monday with a special about one of the brightest jewels in Oregon’s arts crown: the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Sure, you might know that it's the biggest regional theater in the country with the biggest resident acting company. Sure, you know that it attracts folks from around the world. But did you know it has a mammoth costume warehouse for rentals to everyone from Justin Timberlake on "Saturday Night Live" to Al Pacino in "Richard III."Disjecta Brings On The NoiseChiara Giovando, the new curator-in-residence at the north Portland contemporary art center Disjecta, gives us a tour of her first show, "The Book Of Scores." It's all about sound art. Oregon Art Beat: Artist Greg RobinsonThis weekend the Portland Art Museum opens a brand new Center for Contemporary Native Arts with an exhibition featuring the work of three Oregon Native artists. One of those artists is Greg Robinson, who taught himself to produce pieces in the traditional style of his tribe, the Chinook. If you have a picture in your mind right now of what his pieces look like, think again. Chinook art isn’t anything like the popular stereotypes of Pacific Northwest native art. The music for today came from the local band Black Prairie’s album “Wild Ones,” who did the album in tandem with a book by Jon Mooallem about the strange and wonderful relationship between humans and animals. Mooallem will be one of several public radio personalities sharing stories at the singular Pop-up Magazine on Oct. 20 at the Aladdin Theater. It’s a touring show that’s like watching a magazine get performed live, with journalists and writers doing everything from reading short humorous essays to telling feature length stories with documentary footage and photographs.

Featuring art events throughout New Mexico, including at SCA Contemporary, Bright Rain Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and Preston Center for Contemporary Art

Featuring art events throughout New Mexico, including at Blue Rain Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Waxlander Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Altermann Galleries & Auctioneers and more

A book talk at the UNM Bookstore for “Simon J. Ortiz: A Poetic Legacy of Indigenous Continuance” featuring: Evelina Lucero, Isleta & Ohkay Owingeh, chair of Creative Writing at the College of Contemporary Native Arts, a center of the Institute of American Indian Arts, and co-editor of the book; Gregory Cajete, Tewa, chair of Native American Studies at UNM and author of the preface; and Simon Ortiz, Acoma, poet, writer and professor at Arizona State University.