Indigenous Celebration New Mexico 2022 is a New Mexico art and culture collaboration like no other.
2022 is a year of momentous celebrations in the realm of New Mexico Indigenous art and culture, marking important milestones for several major Native American institutions with a flurry of festivities, exhibitions, and markets.
A group developed to seize this moment to celebrate those New Mexico organizations with major anniversaries, events, and exhibitions. The entire New Mexico artistic and cultural community was invited to join forces to spotlight Indigenous events across the state with advertising and a comprehensive calendar-website.
The result, Indigenous Celebration NM 2022 was formed. It is the first time in memory that every major New Mexico arts and cultural institution and organization is cooperating in a comprehensive marketing and communications effort. Currently, forty-two institutions and businesses statewide have joined together in this endeavor to celebrate and promote several special anniversaries.
Honoring 115 years of leadership in archeology, anthropology, and social sciences, the School for Advanced Research is applauding a century of excellence for its Southwest Native American Art Collection. Housed in SAR’s Indian Arts Research Center, the collection is noted for its radically participatory approach to stewardship and festivities that includes both lectures and salon discussions focused on issues of broad public concern.
For the past 100 years, SWAIA ‘s Santa Fe Indian Market has brought together the most gifted Native American artists from the U.S. and Canada with millions of visitors and collectors from around the world, and this centennial year will be its largest market event.
La Fonda on the Plaza, Santa Fe’s landmark hotel and one of the early Harvey House hotels so important to the promotion and sales of Native Art, is programming lectures and tours throughout the year, as it commemorates its 100th anniversary.
In Gallup, the spectacular Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial, one of the oldest continuous recognitions of Native American culture and heritage, which attracts an international audience, is also commemorating its 100th anniversary.
The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, New Mexico’s oldest nonprofit independent museum has for eighty-five years been presenting unique exhibitions of contemporary and historic Native American art, often focusing on little-known genres or living Native American artists. This year, celebrating its eighty-fifth anniversary, the banner exhibition is a visual dialogue within an important Navajo family of artists: a father, son, and two daughters: Narciso Abeyta, Pablita Abeyta, Elizabeth Abeyta, and Tony Abeyta, which will run through January 2023.
Special shows celebrating Indigenous art and culture will be presented at both the New Mexico History Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, applauding its fiftieth anniversary this year.
Fine-art galleries around the state, historical sites, film festivals, and even Santa Fe’s historic performing arts center are taking advantage of this year of celebrations by featuring Native American artists. For example, SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico’s adventurous contemporary art venue, is mounting two major shows featuring Indigenous artists Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee) and Nani Chacon (Diné).
Detailed information about all these events, as well as myriad other gallery and museum shows, festivals, and powwows can be found at Indigenous Celebrations NM 2022’s website: indigenouscelebration22.org!
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