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Research Center

The IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts mission is Uniting Art, Artists, and Archives.

The Institute of American Indian Arts established the IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA) to support IAIA’s dedication to advancing scholarship, discourse, and interpretation of contemporary Native art for regional, national, and international audiences. RCCNA streamlines access to the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) permanent collection and the IAIA archives by providing a “one-stop-shop” to students, artists, scholars, and community members. RCCNA patrons now have simultaneous online access to MoCNA’s 9000+ Contemporary Indigenous artworks and the IAIA Archival holdings that document the activities of significant Native American artists and arts advocates.

RCCNA provides reference, research support, workshops, internships, fellowships, artist residencies, exhibitions, curriculum development, and has an active acquisition program for art and archival materials. Artistic practice and scholarly activity are usually treated as separate endeavors within Western philosophy, with intellectual pursuits more highly valued than creative practices; however, within Indigenous knowledge systems physical “making” is integral to knowledge production. The RCCNA hosts Artists-in-Residence and Scholarly Fellowships, with overlapping approaches for each.

Search

Search art and archives simultaneously.

Archives

Learn more about the IAIA Archives.

Museum Collection

Access to the Museum Collection.

A-i-R

Explore the Artist-in-Residence Program.
Lara Evans

Lara Evans

(Cherokee)

Director
IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts
P (505) 424-2389
E levans@iaia.edu

Biography

Lara M. Evans is an artist, scholar, curator, and an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. She earned her PhD in art history at the University of New Mexico in 2005, specialization within Native American art history is contemporary art. Dr. Evans joined the Museum Studies department at IAIA in 2012 after eight years as faculty at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Since 2015, Dr. Evans has also been Program Director for the IAIA Artist-in-Residence Program (A-i-R), which brings 12-14 Native American artists to campus for month-long residency sessions each year. Dr. Evans’ curatorial projects at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art have included Now is the Time: Investigating Native Histories and Visions of the Future (2017) and War Department: Selections from MoCNA’s Permanent Collection (2015–2016).

Katherine Barry

Katherine Barry

Collections Registrar
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
P (505) 428-5898
E katherine.barry@iaia.edu

Ryan Flahive

Ryan Flahive

Archivist
Library
P (505) 424-2392
E rflahive@iaia.edu

Hannah Yetwin

Hannah Yetwin

Metadata Specialist
IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts
P (505) 424-2322
E hannah.yetwin@iaia.edu
Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer

Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer

(Choctaw/Hopi)

Curator of Collections
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
P (505) 428-5899
E tlomahaftewa-singer@iaia.edu

About IAIA

The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is the only college in the world dedicated to the study of contemporary Native American and Alaska Native arts. IAIA offers undergraduate degrees in Cinematic Arts and Technology, Creative Writing, Indigenous Liberal Studies, Museum Studies, Performing Arts, and Studio Arts; graduate degrees in Creative Writing and Studio Arts; and certificates in Broadcast Journalism, Business and Entrepreneurship, Museum Studies, and Native American Art History. The college serves approximately 500 full-time equivalent (FTE) Native and non-Native American students from around the globe, representing nearly a hundred federally recognized tribes. Named one of the top art institutions by UNESCO and the International Association of Art, IAIA is among the leading art institutes in our nation and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

The Institute of American Indian Arts sits on the homelands of the Pueblo nations.