IAIA performing arts students have built multiple giant puppets to revive the earliest Indigenous stories of creation. Sheila Rocha, assistant profess of performing arts at IAIA says, “the cumulative knowledge of the Native communities in the Southwest and the petroglyphs of ancestors have led to the creation of a visual experience that takes many forms. The magical process of animating inanimate objects to tell story takes an audience into a realm of ancient memory.”
IAIA is the one of a handful of colleges and universities across the country that offers the study of the earliest use of large scale puppetry.
Special thanks to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, Eileen Wells, The Family of Marie and Tony Hillerman, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) for their generous support of this program