PRESS RELEASES


Current Press Releases | Archived Press Releases


Current Press Releases


January 22, 2010

When Was the Last Time You Visited the Institute of American Indian Arts?
Ribbon-Cutting and Open House Provide a Perfect Reason


Contact:
Staci Golar, 505.424.2351
sgolar@iaia.edu

If you have never visited the Institute of American Indian Arts’ (IAIA) beautiful campus, located just minutes from Santa Fe’s plaza on 83 Avan Nu Po Road, you now have the perfect opportunity. On January 29, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. IAIA will officially welcome two new buildings to its college grounds (a science and technology building and a sculpture and foundry building) with a ribbon cutting followed by a campus-wide open house. The event is free and open to the public.

The ceremonies will commence with an American Indian blessing and song. Speakers will include IAIA board of trustees chair Loren Kieve (Cherokee Nation), IAIA President, Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee Nation) faculty for new media arts, 3D arts and museum studies and more.

The new buildings represent $8.65 million in construction, with $7.65 acquired through grants from the Department of Education’s Title III program and approximately $1 million provided in state funding through the GO bond and severance tax. The sculpture and foundry building will enable students to study woodworking, welding, forging, casting, ceramics and large scale metal, stone and glass sculpture, alleviating current space limitations. The new science and technology structure will house advanced digital technologies including a multi-media digital dome, a museum collections center for the National Collection of Contemporary Native American art, a conservation teaching lab to provide students with hands-on training in collections care and conservation and a science lab that will contain flexible instructional spaces to better deliver the science portion IAIA’s degree requirements. It will also house a gallery/viewing room that will be open daily, allowing visitors to see the collection that is in storage and exhibits taken from the collection, as well. Both buildings will be Silver LEED certified.

“I would like to extend a personal invitation to everyone in our community to attend this event and visit our beautiful campus,” Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee Nation), President of IAIA, said. “These two buildings will truly revolutionize what IAIA can offer as an educational institution. Not only will they increase our capacity to serve our students, but they will give us the ability to expand programming that the general public will benefit from year-round, as well.”

For more information on the January 29th event, please call 505.424.2351 or email sgolar@iaia.edu. To RSVP please call 505.424.2335 or email dkeron@iaia.edu. For more information about IAIA, please visit www.iaia.edu.
###

About IAIA
IAIA’s mission is to empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning and outreach.

Offering degrees in studio arts, creative writing, new media arts, Indigenous liberal studies, and museum studies, IAIA is the only college in New Mexico with National Association of Schools of Art and Design accreditation. IAIA is also accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges.



Click here to download full press release in PDF format.