Dr. Nancy Marie Mithlo Papers Housed at IAIA Archives
Photograph of Dr. Nancy Marie Mithlo by Julien McRoberts
A collection of papers donated by Dr. Nancy Marie Mithlo (Fort Sill Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache Tribe) ’85—Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) alum, former IAIA Professor, and former IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) acting director—have been processed recently and are now available as the Nancy Marie Mithlo Papers (IAIAMS032) at the IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA), which opened its archives to researchers this past summer.
With decades of experience as an academic, published author, and curator, Dr. Mithlo is a formidable intellectual force in the Native art world and beyond. Dr. Mithlo is currently a professor in the department of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and formerly taught at the California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Smith College, Santa Fe Community College, the University of New Mexico, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her extensive writings include articles for academic journals and art magazines, art reviews, books, conference presentations, exhibition catalog essays, and more.
“The students, staff, and faculty at IAIA are a unique creative force,” asserts Dr. Mithlo. “Their production, documentation, and dissemination of Indigenous aesthetic cultural works over the past six decades represent the very heartbeat of Native North America. It has been an honor to have called IAIA my academic home since my student days in 1985. My friendships at IAIA and MoCNA continue to inform my research and writing, providing inspiration and direction for my work.”
The Nancy Marie Mithlo Papers are housed in 83 manuscript cases at the IAIA Archives,ncompassing the early part of Dr. Mithlo’s career from her time at IAIA as an undergraduate in 1985-1986 until 2009. Subjects include her coursework and theses, various IAIA/MoCNA projects and exhibitions, articles, speeches, publications, and other miscellaneous records.
According to IAIA Archivist and Museum Studies Faculty member Ryan Flahive, Dr. Mithlo has donated her records periodically to IAIA. “Her first donation was in 2012,” shares Flahive. “She’s added to it over the years.”
Assistant Archivist and IAIA alum Rose Marie Cutropia ’14, who has been working hard processing these papers, has worked in both the IAIA Archives and the MoCNA Collection since 2012. Ms. Cutropia’s past projects encompass artist files, alumni association records, the Lloyd H. New Papers (IAIAMS015), the Suzan Shown Harjo Papers (IAIAMS028), The Kay V. Wiest Negative Collection (IAIAMS010), and the Winona Garmhausen Papers (IAIAMS007).
“The students, staff, and faculty at IAIA are a unique creative force. Their production, documentation, and dissemination of Indigenous aesthetic cultural works over the past six decades represent the very heartbeat of Native North America. It has been an honor to have called IAIA my academic home since my student days in 1985. My friendships at IAIA and MoCNA continue to inform my research and writing, providing inspiration and direction for my work.”
Several series or groups of related archival records in the Nancy Marie Mithlo Papers were fascinating for Ms. Cutropia. In 1988, while working towards her doctorate, Dr. Mithlo and her seven-year-old daughter spent an extended period on the Pueblo of Zuni with other graduate students working on a teen suicide prevention project led by anthropologist Clifford R. Barnett. “They went to live on the Pueblo of Zuni for the spring and the summer of 1988, and she kept a notebook,” reveals Ms. Cutropia. The notebook includes written, typed, glued, and drawn components about life on the pueblo and her daughter’s experience attending school with Zuni children. Dr. Mithlo reprinted pages from the notebook and created an exhibition at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology.
From 1991 to 1992, Dr. Mithlo conducted 24 artist interviews. The interviews of the female artists in this group became the basis for a long-term study; the data was used for Dr. Mithlo’s dissertation in 1993 and her book, Our Indian Princess: Subverting the Stereotype, in 2009.
Ms. Cutropia also notes that this collection contains previously unknown information about Lloyd New. “She interviewed him a couple of times,” she explains.
To access the IAIA Archives for research inquiries, contact IAIA Archivist Ryan Flahive at rflahive@iaia.edu or (505) 424-2392.
The IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts
The IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA) is dedicated to advancing scholarship, discourse, and interpretation of contemporary Indigenous arts for regional, national, and international audiences.