PRESS RELEASES


Current Press Releases | Archived Press Releases


Current Press Releases


May 7, 2009

Winona LaDuke to Speak at College Commencement Ceremony

Contact:
Staci Golar, 505.424.2351 (ph)
sgolar@iaia.edu

The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) College of Contemporary Native Arts will celebrate the graduation of its class of 2009 Friday, May 15 at 11:00 a.m. on its campus at 83 Avan Nu Po Road. The public is invited to attend.

The ceremony will include a processional by Native American drum group the Zotigh Singers of Albuquerque, NM, an invocation by the Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department Alvin Warren (Santa Clara Pueblo) and a commencement speech by Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe). Taketo Yamashita, an international student from Japan, will be speaking on behalf of the class. As part of the ceremony, an honorary degree will be awarded to renowned Hopi painter Dan Namingha. Later that day, from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., the public is also invited to attend the closing reception for Tran-si-tion, an exhibit featuring the work of the college’s BFA graduates at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, downtown (108 Cathedral Place).

Commencement speaker Winona LaDuke travels to Santa Fe from Minnesota where she is the Program Director for the Honor the Earth Fund. LaDuke is also the Founding Director for the White Earth Land Recovery Project. In 1994 she was nominated by Time magazine as one of America’s fifty most promising leaders under the age of forty. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, LaDuke has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues and is a former board member of Greenpeace, USA. In 1998 Ms. Magazine named her “Woman of the Year” for her work with Honor the Earth. In 1996 and 2000 LaDuke ran for Vice President on the Green Party ticket.

For more information, please call 505.424.2351 or email sgolar@iaia.edu. For more information about the Institute of American Indian Arts or the College of Contemporary Native Arts please visit www.iaia.edu.

###


IAIA’s Mission:
To empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning and outreach


Click here to download full press release in PDF format.