Events - June 3, 2018

The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (MIAC) periodically features art recently acquired through gifts or purchases. What’s New in New: Selections from the Carol Warren Collection, highlights the collection donated to the Museum by Carol Warren, who was a volunteer in the Collections Department for more than 20 years.

The collection consists of over 200 works of art, including paintings, pottery, jewelry and textiles from some of Santa Fe’s most prominent contemporary artists. A selection of this collection will be on exhibit and will include pieces created by renowned artists such as Tony Abeyta, Tammy Garcia, Dan Namingha, and Jody Naranjo.

The exhibition, co-curated by, C.L. Kieffer Nail, Antonio Chavarria, and Valerie Verzuh, will not only highlight outstanding contemporary artists, but it will also feature multigenerational artists by including work of artists within the same family that have crafted their trade alongside each other.

“By displaying pieces made by related artists, we hope to demonstrate ways in which Native artists inspire each other through instruction as well as how individual artists exhibit their own identity through what is essentially a family practice,” said curator C. L. Kieffer Nail.

In accepting new items, whether they were made yesterday or 12,000 years ago, museum staff consider various issues such as curatorial collecting objectives, gaps in collections, potential future use of the objects such as publication and exhibition, storage limitations and special preservation requirements.

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology collections inspire appreciation for and promote knowledge of the diverse native arts, histories, languages, and cultures of the Greater Southwest. This mission is made possible through the active acquisition of material culture that contributes to an understanding of the peoples that made them.

The creative talents of Native artists in the past, present and future, give purpose to the MIAC. This is why it continues to collect and preserve art and artifacts made by tribal artists from all time periods. It endeavors to educate visitors about ancient yet living Native cultures, and provide Indian artists with examples of their ancestors’ gifts.

The accessioned collections of the museum are made possible by the generosity of donors and the cultivation of such by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and its affiliated support groups.

The Atomic Histories exhibit explores the most famous events, sometimes little known stories, and inventions born here which impact our lives, and helps to recognize the remarkable contributions of thousands of people involved in writing New Mexico’s Atomic Histories for the last 75 years. 

Photo courtesy of the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives 

Learn to use a Geiger counter, calculate your own annual radiation dose, and more!

Free event

Join us to celebrate the opening of a new exhibition in our Lloyd Kiva New Contemporary Exhibition hall! What’s New in New: Selections from the Carol Warren Collection features a broad and deep collection of art including pieces by Tony Abeyta, Pat Priutt, Tammy Garcia, among dozens of others. From 1 - 4pm, Bernice Naranjo (Taos Pueblo) - who is also represented in the exhibition - will demonstrate for visitors in the Buchsbaum Pottery Gallery.

Also offered is a special dance by the Dinetah Dancers at 1pm and a lecture regarding the Long Walk by Jennifer Denetdale (Navajo) at 1:30pm.

As this is the first Sunday of the month, admission is free for New Mexico residents! Also make sure to check out our new display of an early 20th century rug woven to commemorate the Long Walk.

Photographer Meridel Rubenstein’s "Oppenheimer’s Chair and The Meeting"  offers a thought-provoking work that weaves together two threads of history, as a feature within the exhibition; "Atomic Histories".