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Community News

Our IAIA community is brimming with talent, and the Community News captures a monthly glimpse of their noteworthy accomplishments. Our students, alums, staff, faculty, trustees, and other IAIA community members are recipients of awards, scholarships, fellowships, grants, and art residencies. They are highlighted by the press and interviewed on television, radio, and podcasts. They have been published and featured in books, anthologies, magazines, and online publications. Our community participates in art markets, fashion shows, exhibitions, readings, film festivals, and screenings. They create moving artwork, perform, give presentations, organize events, write plays, direct films, curate exhibitions, and act in shows. They regularly win ribbons at art markets.

Our community members serve as integral parts of cultural institutions, serving on boards, running administration, and fundraising. From designing airplane graphics to being shown in national museums, our community has done it. IAIA’s Community News also recognizes community members who have passed.

The following contains information about recent happenings and news within the IAIA community. If you would like to be included in the community news or share information about an IAIA community member, please submit a form to Communications.

February 2024

IAIA MFACW Director Deborah Jackson Taffa (Kwatsaán and Laguna Pueblo) featured in Elle’s “The Best (and Most Anticipated) Nonfiction Books of 2024, So Far”

Creative Capital names IAIA community members Nanibah “Nani” Chacon (Diné and Chicana), Jordan Ann Craig (Northern Cheyenne), Chris Eyre (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes), Chaz John (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Mississippi Band Choctaw, and European), Erica Lord (Athabaskan), and Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Rosebud Sioux) ’08 among 54 artists who received the 2024 “Wild Futures: Art, Culture, Impact” Awards in Visual Arts and Film/Moving Image

IAIA Land-Grant Extension Educator Melanie Kirby (Tortugas Pueblo) appointed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsak, to the inaugural Pollinator Subcommittee of the National Agriculture Research, Extension Education, and Economics Advisory Board, managed by the Office of the Chief Scientist for the USDA

January 2024

IAIA Alum Tommy Orange’s (Cheyenne and Arapaho) ’17 book, Wandering Stars, named among TIME Magazine’s 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2024 list

IAIA Alum Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) ’89 named the 2024 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) Living Treasure

Former IAIA Board of Trustees Member and Chair, Robert “Bob” H. Piestewa Ames (Hopi), passes away (February 26, 1929–December 5, 2023)

  • IAIA Alum Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) ’89 named the 2024 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) Living Treasure
  • IAIA Alum Tommy Orange’s (Cheyenne and Arapaho) ’17 book, Wandering Stars, named among TIME Magazine’s 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2024 list
  • IAIA Alum and MFACW Student Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo) ’21 co-produced a short documentary film, Winding Path, that will premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival under the Documentary Short Film Program
  • IAIA’s MFA in Creative Writing (MFACW) program featured in the SF Reporter
  • Performance Santa Fe presents The Aunties: Women of the White Shell Water Place, a multimedia storytelling experience conceived and created by Indigenous Performance Productions, which features MFACW Director Deborah Taffa (Quechan [Yuma] Nation and Laguna Pueblo)
  • IAIA Alum Melissa Melero-Moose (Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe) ’09 to lead a 2024 Summer Arts Workshop, Abstracting Landscape with Mixed Media Painting, at University of Nevada’s Holman Arts & Media Center
  • IAIA’s MFA in Studio Arts (MFASA) program featured in Hyperallergic
  • Former IAIA Board of Trustees Member and Chair, Robert “Bob” H. Piestewa Ames (Hopi), passes away (February 26, 1929–December 5, 2023)

December 2023

The Washington Monument

IAIA Alums Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo) ’21 and Sabrina Saleha (Diné) ’23 named among the Native American Media Alliance’s (NAMA) fifth annual Native American Animation Lab Fellows

IAIA Alum Monica Silva Lovato (San Felipe and Santo Domingo Pueblo) ’23 a featured artist in Experimental Clay: Exploring 3D Printed Ceramics, an exhibition at UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning Gallery showcasing work that was created during a series of artist residencies hosted at the Hand and Machine Lab

IAIA community members RYAN! Elizabeth Feddersen (Okanogan/Arrow Lakes) and Ursala Hudson (Tlingit) named among NDN Collective’s 2023–2025 Radical Imagination cohort

  • IAIA’s groundbreaking ceremony shared in multiple local news sources, including the Santa Fe New Mexican, KSFR, KRQE, KOAT, and the Los Alamos Daily.
  • IAIA community members RYAN! Elizabeth Feddersen (Okanogan/Arrow Lakes) and Ursala Hudson (Tlingit) named among NDN Collective’s 2023–2025 Radical Imagination cohort
  • IAIA Alums Charine Pilar Gonzales (San Ildefonso Pueblo) ’21 and Sabrina Saleha (Diné) ’23 named among the Native American Media Alliance’s (NAMA) fifth annual Native American Animation Lab Fellows
  • IAIA Performing Arts Students Montana Miller (Navajo) and Isaiah St Cyr (Ho-Chunk) present at the Society for American Theatre Research in Providence, RI
  • IAIA Alum Joy Harjo’s (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 poem, I Am a Prayer, featured in The New Yorker
  • IAIA Alum Nathaniel Fuentes (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’20 featured in Taos News for his film, NEW: ART is Culture, CULTURE is Art, which will premiere at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, on Thursday December 7, with a special Q&A
  • IAIA Alum Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ’18 featured in Artsy’s “Rose B. Simpson Harnesses the Power of Community in Life-Sized Clay Sculptures”
  • IAIA Alum and current MFACW Student Charine Pilar Gonzales’ (San Ildefonso Pueblo) ’21 film, River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh), received the Achievement in Short Filmmaking Award presented by the Native American Media Alliance at the LA Skins Fest Award Gala
  • IAIA MFASA Mentor Raven Chacon (Diné) featured in Hyperallergic’s “The Many Voices of Raven Chacon’s While Hissing
  • IAIA Alum Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma) ’16 featured on PBS’ “Chicago Tonight”
  • IAIA Alum Monica Silva Lovato (San Felipe and Santo Domingo Pueblo) ’23 a featured artist in Experimental Clay: Exploring 3D Printed Ceramics, an exhibition at UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning Gallery showcasing work that was created during a series of artist residencies hosted at the Hand and Machine Lab

November 2023

IAIA Alum Patricia Michaels’ (Taos Pueblo) ’89 custom-made silk feather dress worn by actress Tantoo Cardinal at the international movie premiere for Killers of the Flower Moon

IAIA Alum Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota) ’19 a guest curator for In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art—the show, which is on view October 22, 2023–January 14, 2024, features work by multiple IAIA community members, including Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) ’05 and Ryan Young (Ojibwe) ’19

IAIA graduating senior Simona L. Rael (Chicana from Peña Blanca) ’23 commissioned to paint a Free Flow* New Mexico box, which provides feminine products to the public in need, and is located outside of the Santa Fe Public Library’s Oliver La Farge Branch

  • “A Holographic Poemsong”: Joy Harjo on Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” by IAIA Alum Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 featured in Vanity Fair
  • IAIA graduating senior Simona L. Rael (Chicana from Peña Blanca) ’23 commissioned to paint a Free Flow* New Mexico box, which provides feminine products to the public in need, and is located outside of the Santa Fe Public Library’s Oliver La Farge Branch
  • IAIA Alum Patricia Michaels’ (Taos Pueblo) ’89 custom-made silk feather dress worn by actress Tantoo Cardinal at the international movie premiere for Killers of the Flower Moon
  • IAIA Alum and Adjunct Faculty Margarita Paz-Pedro (Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo, and Santa Clara Pueblo) ’23 featured in Medium + Support in Southwest Contemporary, Vol.8–FW 2023
  • IAIA Alum Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ’18 featured in Harper’s Bazaar’s “Three Indigenous Artists on Why Community-Building is Inherent to Their Work”
  • IAIA Alum and MFACW Student Charine Pilar Gonzales’ (San Ildefonso Pueblo) ’21 short film, River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh), screens at the Santa Fe International Film Festival
  • The Open Society Foundations names Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) ’11 among the recipients of the 2023 Soros Arts Fellowships
  • Through My Eyes, a documentary short by IAIA alum DezBaa’ (Diné) ’21 is an LA Skins Fest official selection and will screen November 19, 2023 at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatres, on Hollywood Boulevard, the film will also be a part of the Native American Media Alliance Unscripted workshop for 2023
  • IAIA Alum Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock) ’00 featured in Forbes
  • IAIA Alum Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota) ’19 a guest curator for In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art—the show, which is on view October 22, 2023–January 14, 2024, features work by multiple IAIA community members, including Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) ’05 and Ryan Young (Ojibwe) ’19
  • IAIA Alum Vivian Carroll (Cherokee Nation) ’20 has two poems included in Taos Journal of Poetry’s online issue #13
  • IAIA faculty member Neecy Twinem (Sac and Fox Nation) and Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) to give an IAIA Continuing Education Artist Talk on Saturday, November 18, 10 am–12 pm in the IAIA CLE Commons, sharing their journeys in writing, illustrating, and publishing children’s books
  • IAIA Faculty Sheila Rocha (Tarasco) and Adjunct Faculty and MFASA student Leah Mata Fragua (Yak Tityu Tityu Yak Tiłhini (Northern Chumash)) present at the Cautionary Tales: Climate Crisis and Indigenous Arts Symposium at the Museum of International Folk Art

October 2023

IAIA Land-Grant Extension Educator Melanie Kirby (Tortugas Pueblo and Mestiza) and former IAIA Trustee Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets’aii Gwich’in), named among seven Indigenous Climate Fixers in nonprofit media organization Grist Grist’s annual list of 50 leaders in climate and justice

2023 IAIA Holiday Art Market

The Land Carries Our Ancestors, an exhibition curated by Jaune Quick-to-see-Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) opens at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, featuring several IAIA community members, including George “Ofuskie” Alexander (Muscogee Creek) ’15, Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa) ’96, Teri Greeves (Kiowa) ’96, Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidasta, Arikara, Lakota) ’11, Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw) ’65, Chris Pappan (Kaw, Osage, Cheyenne River Sioux, Scottish) ’92, Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) ’05, Diego Romero (Cochiti Pueblo) ’86, Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ’18, Marie Watt (Seneca, Scottish, German) ’92, among others. The exhibition is on view September 22, 2023 – January 15, 2024

IAIA Alum Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Rosebud Sioux) ’08 and IAIA MFASA Mentor Raven Chacon (Diné/Chicano) named among the 2023 MacArthur Foundation Fellows, or the “Genius Grants,” which are awarded to talented individuals in a variety of fields who have shown exceptional originality in and dedication to their creative pursuits

  • IAIA Alum Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Rosebud Sioux) ’08 and IAIA MFASA Mentor Raven Chacon (Diné/Chicano) named among the 2023 MacArthur Foundation Fellows
  • The Land Carries Our Ancestors, an exhibition curated by Jaune Quick-to-see-Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) opens at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, featuring several IAIA community members, including George “Ofuskie” Alexander (Muscogee Creek) ’15, Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa) ’96, Teri Greeves (Kiowa) ’96, Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidasta, Arikara, Lakota) ’11, Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw) ’65, Chris Pappan (Kaw, Osage, Cheyenne River Sioux, Scottish) ’92, Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) ’05, Diego Romero (Cochiti Pueblo) ’86, Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ’18, Marie Watt (Seneca, Scottish, German) ’92, among others. The exhibition is on view September 22, 2023 – January 15, 2024
  • IAIA Alum Fransisco Fraire, Jr. (Pascua Yaqui) ’20 to be a featured artist in the Our Song Is Our Strength exhibit, set to open December 1, 2023 at the Richey Resource Center—the exhibit is part of the They Don’t Love You Like I Love You: Indigenous Perspectives on Sovereignty exhibition at the University of Arizona’s Arizona State Museum, curated by IAIA alum Jennifer Juan (Tohono O’odham) ’19
  • IAIA Financial Services Controller, Aimee Balthazar, selected for the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ (NACUBO) 2023­–2024 cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program, a professional development experience for promising mid-level managers in higher education business and finance
  • IAIA Alum Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce and Onondaga) ’95 featured on Native America Calling: Native in the Spotlight
  • IAIA Land-Grant Extension Educator Melanie Kirby (Tortugas Pueblo and Mestiza) and former IAIA Trustee Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets’aii Gwich’in), named among seven Indigenous Climate Fixers in nonprofit media organization Grist Grist’s annual list of 50 leaders in climate and justice
  • IAIA Alum Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ’18 featured in Cowboys & Indians
  • Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1945–1975, MoCNA’s traveling exhibition, opens at Aurora University’s Schingoethe Center
  • Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination, an exhibition at Bard College’s Hessel Museum of Art, which features multiple IAIA community members including 2023 Honorary Doctorate of Humanities recipient Jeffrey Gibson (member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidasta, Arikara, Lakota) ’11, Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw) ’65, 2011 Honorary Doctorate of Humanities recipient James Luna James Luna (Pooyoukitchum, Ipi, Mexican-American), Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee), Marie Watt (Seneca, Scottish, German) ’92, and Dyani White Hawk (Sicunga Rosebud Sioux) ’08 on view through November 26, 2023
  • IAIA MFACW Mentor Bojan Louis (Diné) among the winners of the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Awards
  • IAIA Alum Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidasta, Arikara, Lakota) ’11 to open solo exhibition, Speechless, on view at the Nevada Museum of Art October 7, 2023–June 2, 2024
  • IAIA Alum Hal Homer (Oneida Nation Turtle Clan) passes on (August 25, 1973–September 17, 2023)

September 2023

IAIA alum Jontay “Kahm” Kahmakoatayo (Plains Cree) ’23 featured in Vogue article, “Jontay Kahm, a Rising Plains Cree Designer, Is Reimagining Indigenous Design,” following his debut at the Santa Fe Indian Market fashion show

IAIA alum Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 and former IAIA Trustee Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar (San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo) on Forbes’ “50 Over 50” list

IAIA alum Tony Abeyta (Diné) ’86 receives the US Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies’ 2023 Medal of Arts Award on September 13, 2023, which was presented to him by the First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden, at the White House

  • IAIA alum Jontay “Kahm” Kahmakoatayo (Plains Cree) ’23 featured in Vogue
  • Vogue’s article, “21 Artists to Know at This Year’s Santa Fe Indian Market,” features several IAIA Community members, including Keri Ataumbi (Kiowa) ’96, Hollis Chitto (Laguna Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Mississippi Choctaw) A-i-R ’21, Orlando Dugi (Diné) A-i-R ’18, Teri Greeves (Kiowa) ’96, Jontay “Kahm” Kahmakoatayo (Plains Cree) ’23, Jamie Okuma (Luiseno, Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki), Golga Oscar (Yup’ik) ’20, Pat Pruitt (Laguna Pueblo and Chiricahua Apache) A-i-R ’22, and Penny Singer (Diné) ’96
  • IAIA alum Tony Abeyta (Diné) ’86 receives the US Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies’ 2023 Medal of Arts Award on September 13, 2023, which was presented to him by the First Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden, at the White House
  • IAIA alums Kyle “Hokona” Kootswatew (Hopi), Alica J. Mteuzi (Caddo, Cheyenne, and Arapaho) ’23, and Golga Oscar (Yup’ik) ’20 named among the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation’s (NACF) 2023 LIFT Early Career Support for Native Artists awardees
  • IAIA alum Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota) ’19 named among the 2023 cohort of Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellows
  • IAIA alums Keith Brave Heart (Oglala Sioux Tribe) ’06 and Marty Two Bulls Jr. (Oglala Sioux Tribe) ’11 named the 2023–2024 Oglala Sioux Tribe Artist Laureates
  • IAIA alum Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 and former IAIA Trustee Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar (San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo) on Forbes’ “50 Over 50” list
  • The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts’ (MoCNA) traveling exhibition catalog, Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology, wins the New Mexico Book Association’s award for Best Scholarly and Technical Publication, and is a finalist for the History category
  • IAIA alum Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota) ’19, Erica Lord (Athabaskan and Iñupiat) A-i-R ’17, and Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota) ’19 featured artists at Accola Griefen Gallery for the 2023 Art on Paper Fair
  • Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) names IAIA alum Betty Pasco (Suquamish) a recipient of the first-ever BIMA Recognizes Achievement in the Visual Arts (BRAVA)  Awards
  • IAIA Land-Grant receives the 2023 Golden Chile Food Producer Award from the New Mexico Grown Coalition
  • IAIA MFACA Director, Dr. Jessie Ryker-Crawford (White Earth Chippewa) ’00, receives the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums’ (ATALM) 2023 Guardians of Culture and Lifeways Awards “Leadership Award”
  • IAIA student Tiana Martinez (Ihanktonwan Dakota, Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, Ponca) receives the 2023 Betty and Norman Lockwood Poetry Prize for her poem, “Oxtail End Song,” from the Academy of American Poets’ University and College Poetry Prize program
  • IAIA alum Alica J. Mteuzi (Caddo, Cheyenne, and Arapaho) ’23 has film, REZD OUT, selected for the Minefield Film Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • IAIA alum Vivian Carroll (Cherokee Nation) ’20 has poetry published in New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023, edited by Levi Romero, former New Mexico State Poet Laureate, and Michelle Otero, former Albuquerque Poet Laureate
  • IAIA alum Lindsey Renea Shakespeare (Mescalero Apache, Comanche, Kiowa-Apache, Northern Arapaho) ’01 celebrates 15 years of participation in SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market
  • IAIA ILS Adjunct Faculty Richard Sanchez’s (Isleta Pueblo ancestry) book, White Shell Water Place: An Anthology of Native American Reflections on the 400th Anniversary of the Founding of Santa Fe, receives recommendation in the Pasatiempo
  • IAIA alum Elee Kraljii Gardiner ’20 published in the Best Canadian Poetry anthology and publishes a chapbook, RESIDENCE, of her experience after completing an artistic residency at the Medical Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark in April 2023
  • IAIA Adjunct Faculty Camille Rendal selected to represent the United States with two Medallia artworks in an International Commemorative Medals exhibit at the Firenze Biblioteca in Florence Italy in October 2023
  • IAIA Creative Writing Professor Kim Parko has story “3 Visitations,” which was originally published in Salt Hill Journal, selected for the 2023 Best Small Fictions anthology
  • IAIA and MoCNA featured in Hyperallergic’sHow Does the Santa Fe Indian Market Benefit Museums?
  • IAIA alum Ria Thundercloud (Ho-Chunk and Sandia) ’19 featured in NMPBS “The American Buffalo” Speaker Series
  • IAIA MoCNA featured in Pasatiempo’sDay at the Museums

August 2023

2023 IAIA Honorary Doctorate of Humanities recipient, Jeffrey Gibson (member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent), to represent the United States at 2024 Venice Biennale

IAIA Indigenous Liberal Studies Adjunct Faculty and MFASA student Leah Mata Fragua (Northern Chumash) receives Best of Division in Weavings and Textiles at the Eiteljorg Indian Market and Festival for her art piece 1.6 Degrees

2023 IAIA Holiday Art Market

IAIA alum Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) ’89 and IAIA MFASA Mentor Raven Chacon (Diné and Chicano) win 2023 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts

  • IAIA alum Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) ’89 and IAIA MFASA Mentor Raven Chacon (Diné and Chicano) win 2023 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts
  • President Joe Biden appoints Johnpaul Jones (Choctaw and Cherokee), Madeline Fielding Sayet (Mohegan), Jane Semple Umsted (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ‘18, and Manuelito Wheeler (Navajo Nation) to IAIA Board of Trustees—read about it in the Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, and Yahoo! News
  • 2023 IAIA Honorary Doctorate of Humanities recipient, Jeffrey Gibson (member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent), to represent the United States at 2024 Venice Biennale
  • IAIA Indigenous Liberal Studies Adjunct Faculty and MFASA student Leah Mata Fragua (Northern Chumash) receives Best of Division in Weavings and Textiles at the Eiteljorg Indian Market and Festival for her art piece 1.6 Degrees
  • Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology artists De Haven Solimon Chaffins (Laguna and Zuni Pueblos) ’90 and Mallery Quetawki (Zuni) featured in the School for Advanced Research’s (SAR) exhibition, Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery, at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • IAIA alum Duhon James (Diné) ’14 opens exhibition, Above, I’ll watch you from Here, at Hecho a Mano, on view July 28–August 21
  • IAIA alum Carmen Selam (14 Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation) ’16 featured in Daily Lobo article, Carmen Selam Plays With Pinks, Printmaking, and Polly Pockets
  • Work by IAIA alum Vivian Carroll (Cherokee) ’20 published in Yellow Medicine Review, News from Native California, and Pop Matters
  • IAIA alum Daniel McCoy Jr. (Muscogee Creek and Citizen Band Potawatomi) ’17 opens exhibition, Daniel McCoy: Mvskoke Diaspora, at Hecho a Mano, on view during the month of August
  • IAIA alum Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota) ’19 to open solo exhibition, On the Back Road, at Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art Gallery Santa Fe, on view August 11–September 9, 2023
  • IAIA alum Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’07 and ’18 opens exhibition, Counterculture, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, on view June 3, 2023–August 13, 2023 and October 4, 2023–January 21, 2024

July 2023

IAIA alums Heidi Brandow (Diné and Kānaka Maoli) ’13 and Carly Feddersen (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) ’16 named among the School for Advanced Research (SAR) 2023–2024 cycle of Native Artist Fellows

IAIA alum Boderra Joe (Diné) ’18 to publish poetry book, Desert Teeth, with a book party at Gallery Hózhó on Saturday, July 15, 2023, 5–7 pm

IAIA Land-Grant Extension Educator Melanie Kirby (Tortugas Pueblo) introduces honeybee apiary on the University of New Mexico’s UNM-Taos Klauer campus

June 2023

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, guest curated by Former IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA) Director Dr. Lara Evans (Cherokee Nation) opens at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, featuring artwork by multiple IAIA community members, including Joe Feddersen (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes), Lily Hope (Tlingit) ’10, Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan and Iñupiat) and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe)

IAIA alum Crystal Worl (Tlingit and Athabascan) ’13 designs artwork for an Alaska Airlines aircraft, titled Xáat Kwáani (Salmon People), the plane features Northwest Coast formline art by Worl

2023 IAIA Holiday Art Market

516 ARTS announces Southwest Contemporary’s 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now 2023, which features multiple IAIA community members, including Karma Henry (Paiute, Italian, Portuguese), Ahní Rocheleau, and Cougar “Ndoi” Vigil (Jicarilla Apache), and includes Rachelle B. Pablo (Diné) ’19 on the jury

  • IAIA alum Crystal Worl (Tlingit and Athabascan) ’13 designs artwork for an Alaska Airlines aircraft, titled Xáat Kwáani (Salmon People), the plane features Northwest Coast formline art by Worl
  • IAIA alum Shane Hendren (Navajo) ’23 receives 2023 Award in Craft from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation
  • Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation), Assistant Professor in Art History and Museum Studies at IAIA, co-curates Fashion Fictions exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which features several IAIA community members, including IAIA alum Jontay Kahm (Plains Cree) ’23, Jamie Okuma (Luiseño), and Orlando Dugi (Diné)
  • Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, guest curated by Former IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA) Director Dr. Lara Evans (Cherokee Nation) opens at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, featuring artwork by multiple IAIA community members, including Joe Feddersen (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes), Lily Hope (Tlingit) ’10, Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan and Iñupiat) and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe)
  • 516 ARTS announces Southwest Contemporary’s 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now 2023, which features multiple IAIA community members, including Karma Henry (Paiute, Italian, Portuguese), Ahní Rocheleau, and Cougar “Ndoi” Vigil (Jicarilla Apache), and includes Rachelle B. Pablo (Diné) ’19 on the jury
  • In Focus: New Photography, exhibition at Gallery Hozho opens, featuring work by IAIA alums Treston Chee (Diné) ’20, Boderra Joe (Diné) ’18, Derrell Lopez (Diné) ’23, and Ryan Young (Ojibwe) ’19
  • IAIA alum Marie Watt (Seneca, Scottish, German) ’92 opens solo exhibition, Sky Dances Light, at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 10, from 4–7 pm
  • IAIA alum Carmen Selam (14 Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation) ’16 named 2023 Artist-in-Residence at Risolana
  • IAIA alum Terran Last Gun (Piikani) ’16 featured in the Summer Showcase Group Exhibition at Museum of the Plains Indian
  • IAIA alum Benjamin Harjo Jr. (Seminole and Absentee Shawnee) ’68 passes away (September 19, 1945–May 20, 2023)

May 2023

IAIA graduating senior Jontay Kahmakoatayo (Plains Cree) ’23 named one of ten designers to participate in the 2023 Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indigenous Fashion Show

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Director Patsy Phillips (Cherokee) elected to the American Alliance of Museum’s (AAM) board of directors

IAIA alum Terran Last Gun (Piikani) ’16 featured in the Santa Fe Reporter’s cover story, Branching Lines

  • IAIA graduating senior Jontay Kahmakoatayo (Plains Cree) ’23 named one of ten designers to participate in the 2023 Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) Indigenous Fashion Show
  • IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Director Patsy Phillips (Cherokee) elected to the American Alliance of Museum’s (AAM) board of directors
  • IAIA alum Terran Last Gun (Piikani) ’16 opens solo exhibition, Terran Last Gun: Future Cosmic Energy, at the Missoula Art Museum—on view April 17, 2023–August 12, 2023—and is featured in the Santa Fe Reporter’s cover story, Branching Lines
  • IAIA alum Dakota Mace (Diné) ’13 named an artist-in-residence at Bosque Redondo Memorial through New Mexico Arts and New Mexico Historic Sites
  • IAIA alum Monty Little (Diné) ’15 wins the 2023 Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize from the University of Wisconsin–Madison—his solo exhibition, Premonitions: New Works by Monty Little, will be on view at the Chazen Museum of Art (Chazen) April 17, 2023–July 10, 2023
  • IAIA alum Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce and Onondaga) ’95 featured in New-York Historical Society’s In-Appropriate #1: Frank Buffalo Hyde on His Gwen Stefani Painting
  • IAIA alums Joy Hario (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 and Layli Longsoldier (Oglala Lakota) ’09 featured in The New York Times Style Magazine article, What a U.S. Poet Laureate Wants to Pass Down
  • MoCNA exhibit, Rick Rivet: Journeys, Mounds, and the Metaphysical, featured in Hyperallergic’s Rick Rivet Evokes His Arctic Origin and Pasatiempo’s Coming From a Dark Place
  • MoCNA traveling exhibition, Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology, currently on view at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California, featured in Hyperallergic’s 10 Art Shows to See in LA This May
  • MoCNA exhibition, Art of Indigenous Fashion, featured in itsnewstoyou
  • IAIA alum Michael McCabe (Diné) ’84 passes on (February 8, 1961–April 3, 2023)

April 2023

IAIA alum Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota and Diné) ’17 named among the inaugural cohort for Amazon Studios and IllumiNative’s Episodic Directors Program

IAIA alums Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’18, Marie Watt (Seneca, Scottish, German) ’92, and Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) ’08 featured in W Magazine article Doing It Their Way

2023 IAIA Holiday Art Market

IAIA alum Kathleen Wall (Jemez Pueblo) ’14 featured in Southwest Contemporary

  • IAIA alum Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota and Diné) ’17 named among the inaugural cohort for Amazon Studios and IllumiNative’s Episodic Directors Program
  • IAIA alums Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’18, Marie Watt (Seneca, Scottish, German) ’92, and Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) ’08 featured in W Magazine article Doing It Their Way
  • Former IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA) Director Dr. Lara Evans (Cherokee Nation) guest curating Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, an exhibition at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which includes artwork by multiple IAIA community members, including Joe Feddersen (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes), Lily Hope (Tlingit) ’10, Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan and Iñupiat) and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe)
  • IAIA alums Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) ’11 and Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’18 featured in season 11 of Art21’s Art in the Twenty-First Century series
  • IAIA alum Kathleen Wall (Jemez Pueblo) ’14 featured in Southwest Contemporary
  • IAIA alum DezBaa’ Henderson (Diné) ’21 named an artist-in-residence at Bosque Redondo Memorial through New Mexico Arts and New Mexico Historic Sites
  • IAIA Alum Ken Williams, Jr. (Arapaho/Seneca) featured in Western Art & Architecture
  • IAIA alum Tania Larsson (Gwich’in) ’17 featured in Chatelaine’s “5 Indigenous Makers On What Sustainability Means To Them”
  • IAIA alum Jason Asenap (Comanche and Muscogee Creek), ’17 featured in Alta Live’s “An Indigenous Response to Land Art with Jason Asenap”
  • Former IAIA Artists-in-Residence RYAN! Feddersen (Colville) and Joe Feddersen (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes) featured in Creations of Spirit, an exhibition at the High Desert Museum in in Bend, Oregon

March 2023

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts named among USA TODAY 10Best’s top three best art museums in the United States

IAIA alum Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce and Onondaga) ’95 a contestant on The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a MTV docuseries where seven rising artists compete for $100,000 and a career-defining exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which premiered March 3 on MTV

IAIA student Ethan Nopah honored among American Indian College Fund’s 35 Tribal College Students of the Year at AIHEC

  • IAIA receives grant from Hauser & Wirth Institute to expand digital access to its archives
  • IAIA alum Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce and Onondaga) ’95 a contestant on The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a MTV docuseries where seven rising artists compete for $100,000 and a career-defining exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which premiered March 3 on MTV
  • IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee) and MFA in Creative Writing Director Deborah Taffa (Quechan Nation, Laguna Pueblo, and Chicana) featured in Publisher’s Weekly discussing IAIA’s new Fellowship partnership with MacDowell
  • IAIA alum Layli Longsoldier (Oglala Lakota) ’09 discusses the joys of creative liberation with guest host Mira Jacob on Thresholds, a series of conversations with writers by Lit Hub Radio
  • IAIA alum Joy Hario (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 wins Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry
  • IAIA Students participate in the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) annual conference
  • IAIA student Ethan Nopah honored among American Indian College Fund’s 35 Tribal College Students of the Year at AIHEC
  • There There, by IAIA alum Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho) ’17 selected as Maryland Humanities’ 2023 One Maryland One Book
  • IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts named among USA TODAY 10Best’s top three best art museums in the United States
  • IAIA Trustee and noted artist Brenda Kingery (Chickasaw) featured in Garden & Gun
  • Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1945–1975, MoCNA’s traveling exhibition, opens at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania
  • Between Two Knees, original play by The 1491’s starring IAIA alum Justin “Jud” Eagle Gauthier (Omāēqnomenēw), to open at Seattle Rep

February 2023

IAIA Associate Professor Anne Haven McDonnell receives National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant

IAIA alum Anthony Lovato (Santo Domingo Pueblo) ’78 recipient of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) 2023 Living Treasure Award

2023 IAIA Holiday Art Market

Documentary film, Murder in Big Horn, by IAIA alum Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota and Diné) ’17 to premiere at Sundance Film Festival

  • IAIA alum Anthony Lovato (Santo Domingo Pueblo) ’78 recipient of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) 2023 Living Treasure Award
  • IAIA alum Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce and Onondaga) ’95 to be a contestant on The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist, a docuseries about art making produced in partnership with MTV Entertainment Studios and PB&J TV + Docs, premiering March 3 on MTV
  • IAIA Associate Professor Anne Haven McDonnell receives National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant
  • Documentary film, Murder in Big Horn, by IAIA alum Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota and Diné) ’17 to premiere at Sundance Film Festival
  • Artists as Knowledge Carriers, an art exhibition at 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, NM, to feature multiple IAIA faculty members with an opening reception on Saturday, February 4, 6–8 pm
  • IAIA alum Justin “Jud” Eagle Gauthier (Omāēqnomenēw) stars in The 1491’s Between Two Knees, at Princeton University’s McCarter Theatre Center
  • 10 Books by Native Authors That Left Their Mark on Me article by IAIA alum, Sasha LaPointe (Nooksack) ’17, published in Publisher’s Weekly featuring multiple IAIA alumni, including Layli Longsoldier (Oglala Lakota) ’09, Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho) ’17, and Terese Mailhot (Seabird Island Band) ’17
  • IAIA alum Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) ’11 to create major site-specific art installation at the University of Michigan Museum of Art
  • IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) featured in Condé Nast Traveler
  • IAIA alum and former faculty member Doug Hyde (Nez Perce) ’64 featured in Forbes
  • Former IAIA student Elias Jade Not Afraid (Apsaalooké) collaborates on National Football League (NFL) Origins: An NFL Collection merchandise line for Super Bowl LVII
  • IAIA alum Virgil “Smoker” Marchand (Colville) ’71 passes away (February 24, 1951–January 13, 2023)

January 2023

IAIA student Isabella Edmo (Pyramid Lake Paiute, Shoshone Bannock, and Blackfeet) awarded with Santa Fe Film Institute’s (SFFI) inaugural Imogene Hughes Scholarship

Art by IAIA alum Crystal Worl (Tlingit and Athabascan) ’13 featured on “Art of the Skateboard” U.S. Postal Service stamp for 2023

Poetry by IAIA alum Vivian Carroll (Cherokee) ’20 selected by Taos Poet Laureate, Joshua Concha, for Taos Poetry in Motion film project

  • Art by IAIA alum Crystal Worl (Tlingit and Athabascan) ’13 featured on “Art of the Skateboard” U.S. Postal Service stamp for 2023
  • IAIA student Isabella Edmo (Pyramid Lake Paiute, Shoshone Bannock, and Blackfeet) awarded with Santa Fe Film Institute’s (SFFI) inaugural Imogene Hughes Scholarship
  • An exhibition of artwork by IAIA alums Jacob T. Frye (Tesuque Pueblo) ’19 and David Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo) ’17 opening on February 3 at Gallery Hózhó in Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • IAIA student Echota Cheyenne Killsnight (Northern Cheyenne and Keetoowah) selected as Cherokee Nation Film Office’s (CNFO) first television apprentice
  • Poetry by IAIA alum Vivian Carroll (Cherokee) ’20 selected by Taos Poet Laureate, Joshua Concha, for Taos Poetry in Motion film project
  • IAIA Professor Emeritus Arthur Sze featured in SF Reporter’s “3 Questions”
  • IAIA alum Peter Ray James (Navajo) ’84 featured in Cowboys & Indians
  • IAIA alum Joy Harjo (Mvskoke Nation) ’68 featured in The Brooklyn Rail
  • IAIA alum Frank Buffalo Hyde (Nez Perce and Onondaga) ’95 featured in Indian Country Today’s ICT Newscast
  • IAIA alum Tony Jojola (Isleta Pueblo) ’76 passes away (1958–2022)
  • IAIA alum Gary G. Taylor passes away (1954–2022)
  • IAIA alum Matthew “Matt” Kail Behan passes away (1990–2022)