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.