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Education

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) offers community members opportunities to take part in becoming a volunteer, docent, or intern. MoCNA also offers tours of the exhibitions for individuals, educations, and travel and corporate groups. On this web page, you can also learn more about the Vision Project and publications.

Tour Requests

MoCNA offers group tours for educational, travel, and corporate groups. Group tours must be arranged at least three weeks prior to arrival. Please fill out and submit the form below for tour requests and allow up to 3–5 working days for a response. Please contact Museum Educator Wayne N. Gaussoin (Diné, Picuris, and French Descent) at (505) 428-5907 or wgaussoin@iaia.edu for any questions.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

What if my group is over twenty people?
They will have to be broken into smaller groups with a maximum of twenty per group and rotations starting in thirty-minute increments depending on the exhibits open and number of guides available.

What time should I arrive for my group?
Please arrive on time. For school groups, please arrive 20 minutes early to drop off bags or take care of restroom needs.

How long are the tours?
Full museum tours run 45 to 60 minutes.

What exhibits are on view when I want to visit the museum?
Please visit our website for current and upcoming exhibitions at https://iaia.edu/mocna/mocna-exhibitions/

What if I need to cancel?
For cancellations, please email or call with a 24-hour advance notice.

Where do we unload/load for buses and groups over 20 people?

  • Unload/Load in front of museum on Cathedral Place.
  • Please call Security at (505) 428-5905 upon arrival.
  • School groups will enter through the side entrance on Palace Ave.

Where do I park?
The museum does not have parking. There are many metered parking spaces nearby and paid parking at the Water Street Municipal Lot. Please find City of Santa Fe parking lots information here: https://santafenm.gov/public- works/parking#Parking%20Lots%20and%20Garages

What are admission prices?
Admission is free for:

  • School groups
  • All Native Americans
  • Veterans
  • Those with proof of the following memberships:
    • North American Reciprocal Museum Association (NARM)
    • American Alliance of Museum (AAM)
  • Share the Experience Pass (STEP)

All other admission prices and info can be found here: https://iaia.edu/mocna/mocna-visit/

Walk-In Tours with our Docents

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts provides current exhibition highlight tours every week on Mondays and Saturdays at 11 am led by our docents. With cost of admission, these walk-in tours are free to our guests and offer insight into contemporary Native American art and experience. In some cases, we might not have a docent available, so please call (505) 428-5907 during museum hours to confirm the walk-in tours are offered on a particular day or ask the museum admission desk.

Artist Eliza Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo) and guests at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA)

Artist Eliza Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo) and guests at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA)

Docents and Volunteers

Become a docent or volunteer at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA). Learn something new, meet like-minded people, and have some fun!

Volunteers and docents can gain exposure to the workings of a major art museum and contribute valuable visitor services to a nonprofit institution. Our volunteers and docents contribute their talents, knowledge, skills, enthusiasm, and energy—and, in turn, provide an invaluable service to our community. Be a part of the contemporary Native art scene, share your expertise, and help support MoCNA’s mission. Volunteering at MoCNA offers a unique experience working with contemporary Native art alongside internationally recognized museum professionals, IAIA students, and other community volunteers.

Benefits include:

  • A chance to meet new people with similar interests.
  • Complimentary attendance to selected programs and events.
  • Advance notice of events and programs.
  • An invitation to a special volunteer and docent recognition event.
  • Museum Store discounts.
  • Educational training and resources about current exhibitions.
  • Experience with museum standards and fieldwork

Here is a brief list of opportunities you can be involved with:

Education and Outreach

  • Tours for schools and adult groups
  • Walk-in tours
  • Gallery conversation starters
  • Assistance with public programs and special events
  • Event set-up and breakdown

Exhibitions

  • Gallery preparation
  • Exhibition installation/de-installation
  • Research projects
  • Editing

General Administration

  • Updating Library Catalogue and Image Archives
  • Assistance with archiving printed materials and press clippings
  • General office organization

Docents and Volunteers Portal (password protected)

  • Resource guides
  • Docents curriculum guide info
  • Manifestations curriculum

Manifestations: New Native Arts Criticism

Manifestations Curriculum Guide (cover)

Manifestations Curriculum Guide (cover)

The edited volume Manifestations: New Native Arts Criticism addresses the most pressing concerns in the field of contemporary Native arts practice, including the nature of place, identity debates, pedagogy, vocabulary, professional standing, and our global presence. As the central training institution for emerging Native artists, poets, filmmakers and museum studies professionals nationally for the past fifty years, the Institute of American Indian Arts is the authority on Indigenous aesthetic practice in Native North America. Not since the Heard Museum’s 1992 Shared Visions has such a comprehensive survey of our field been attempted. A product of the Ford Foundation’s Advancing the Dialogue in Native Arts in Society initiative, IAIA’s Manifestations publication represents the most authoritative source for emerging dialogues on Native arts practices and concerns.

Manifestationshighlights the work and biographies of sixty contemporary Native artists who have made central contributions to the contemporary Native art field. The publication features sixty biographical essays by fourteen Indigenous authors (curators, art historians, anthropologists, and academics), more than 100 full-color reproductions four contextual essays by senior theorists and scholars, and forewords by the MoCNA Director Patsy Phillips (Cherokee) and the Vision Project manager Will Wilson (Navajo).

Manifestations: New Native Arts Criticism senior editor is Dr. Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache). The publication can be purchased in the Museum Store. For more information about purchasing the book, please call (505) 983-1666.

Download and view the Manifestations Curriculum Guide.

Internships

Internship opportunities available (unpaid) at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) introduce interns to various departments (exhibition, collection, administration, research, membership, etc…) and the operations of our museum. Placements are based on museum needs and requirements along with applicant’s skills and interests.

MoCNA has hosted internships with students from colleges and universities nationwide and may be eligible to receive college credit.

Please submit the following:

  • Letter of Intent (500 words max.)
  • Résumé and Curriculum Vitae
  • Letter of Intent (500 words max.)

For more information, please contact Museum Educator Wayne Gaussoin (Diné, Picuris, and French Descent) at (505) 428-5907 or wgaussoin@iaia.edu..

Social Engagement Artist Residency

MoCNA’s Social Engagement Art Residency (SEAR) of 2024 is funded by the Mellon Foundation. This partnership offers us the flexibility to mold a program based on Native artist social engagement and impact that meet the objectives of the Mellon Foundation while supporting MoCNA’s goals in terms of activating contemporary Native artist leadership, capacity, and community building.

MoCNA’s SEAR hosts two Indigenous artists twice a year for a ten-day residency at MoCNA located in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. Artists will have the chance to work together or brainstorm their own separate projects, working with their chosen local community or within the Santa Fe regional area. Examples of communities to work with would include advocacy groups and/or Indigenous communities addressing current social and political issues. Art works could cover various media and a wide range of project methods that engage the community or a specific facet of the community, strategically producing both artful and social outcomes. Artists are invited to give a talk about their work at the end of their residency at MoCNA as a public program and the IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) community.

While the outcomes of social practice art could result in video installations, sound installations, photography, prints, or murals, which function perfectly within a museum or gallery context, sometimes the results are also realized in the relationships themselves, in shifts of community power, community-driven strategies, and social infrastructures that resolve pre-existing conflicts, traumas, or social injustices. This opportunity provides Indigenous artists with a meaningful period of artmaking and interaction with IAIA students, MoCNA staff and faculty, and the Santa Fe arts community.

MoCNA looks to enable contemporary Native artists to negotiate and position community-driven Indigenous narratives within the public sphere. SEAR is a program that serves as a conduit to generate community dialogue and amplify Indigenous voices. MoCNA’s goal is to realize projects with artists that recognize and support contemporary Indigenous discourse and celebrate and engage the vibrant community that both MoCNA and the Santa Fe community have to offer.

Learn more at the Social Engagement Art Residency page.

Storytelling Through Comics (S1 W1): Jeffrey Veregge

Storytelling Through Comics (S1 W1): Jeffrey Veregge

Resources

While the museum is closed temporarily, we welcome you to engage with contemporary Native art through our array of online resources. Through art-making, curriculum guides, and other fun activities, visitors of all ages are able to engage with various works of art in MoCNA’s exhibitions and collections. We will be uploading new content every other week, so definitely come back!

At Home

Enjoy a series of activities for all ages, such as word search, crossword puzzles, word scramble, mazes, and trivia. Simply download, print, and enjoy!

Educational Workbooks

The MoCNA Education program has created a series of educational workbooks for each of the artists featured in the Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future exhibition. These workbooks explore topics related to the artwork and interests of each artist.

  1. Storytelling Through Comics (S1 W1): Jeffrey Veregge

Coloring Pages

Enjoy coloring pages depicting a work of art in our collection or exhibitions. These coloring pages were created by Daniel McCoy Jr (Muscogee Creek/Citizen Band Potawatomi) ’16, from MoCNA collections and exhibitions. Simply download, print, and color away. Share your creations with us on Instagram by tagging @iaiamocna. We can’t wait to see your creations! Download and view 2020_iaia_mocna_daniel_mccoy_jr_coloring_pages (compressed file with all 10 coloring pages, 20.5 MB).

Wayne Gaussoin

Wayne Gaussoin

(Diné, Picuris, and French Descent)

Museum Educator
Museum
P (505) 428-5907
E wgaussoin@iaia.edu