MISSION STATEMENT
"To empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning and outreach."
IAIA Campus
The Institute of American Indian Arts (congressionally charted as the Institute of American Indian and Alaske Native Culture and Arts Development in 1986) was funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and opened in October of 1962 on the campus of the Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Under first Superintendent Dr. George A. Boyce, the Institute embodied a bold and innovative approach to arts education, and has since played a leadership role in contemporary Indian art education.
The Institute offers four-year degrees in Studio Arts, Visual Communication,
Creative Writing and Museum Studies, and is singularly qualified to
offer students an environment and foundation from which they can create
new forms of artistic expression and accomplishment. Our unique learning
environment promotes Indian leadership and an atmosphere that allows
students to explore their cultural and artistic heritage. It is a place
where the spirit and vision of American Indian and Alaska Native people
is the first priority. It is a place where traditions are rediscovered
and reaffirmed, where it’s possible for American Indian and Alaska
Native students to celebrate their art and cultural identity.
Since 1962, IAIA has empowered Indian People as they strive for education,
economic self-sufficiency, and the expression of their artistic and
cultural traditions. We take great pride in preparing students to pursue
a life of ideas and moral values, to become leaders in a community of
diverse cultures and environments. Our faculty, many of who are IAIA
graduates, give testimony to the positive impact of IAIA’s unique
learning environment, and serve as a catalyst for student achievements.
"IAIA’s real legacy lies in the sense of personal strength
our graduates have found through the arts in the reinforcement of pride
in their identities as Indian peoples."
Lloyd Kiva New, Cherokee, (1916-2002)
IAIA President Emeritus
Today, IAIA has graduated more than 3,800 students representing 90
% of the 562 federally recognized Tribes in the nation, and has become
well known internationally for its achievements. In any given year,
there can be up to 112 tribes represented in our student body. This
diversity provides for cross pollination of ideas that enriches not
only student learning experiences, but their tribal communities and
the nation overall. No where is it more evident, than at IAIA, that
art is an on-going tradition of creativity. Our unique location in Santa
Fe, New Mexico, places the us within one of the most diverse concentrations
of Native peoples in North America, at the heart of the nation’s
oldest multi-cultural communities and in one of the largest art markets
in the country.
Having been named one of the world’s most significant art education
institutions by UNESCO and the International Association of Art, IAIA
continues to be at the forefront of the contemporary Indian art movement,
an unprecedented art movement that is an integral component of Indian
America’s cultural and artistic rebirth. Our students, faculty
and alumni continue to gain renown nationally and internationally for
their innovative and groundbreaking work. The body of their work collectively
came to establish the base of the National Collection of Contemporary
Indian Art, comprised of over 6,500 art objects housed in the Institute
of American Indian Arts Museum.
As the nation’s only fine arts college devoted solely to the artistic
and cultural traditions of all American Indians, our mission has always
been guided by a strong sense of cultural identity, distinguished by
a unique approach to arts education and Indian education in general.
As a multi-tribal learning center, we provide a bridge between a past
rich with tradition and the dynamic ever-evolving American Indian culture
of the new millennium.
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