Shaping Indigenous Futures: The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts’ Role in Contemporary Native Art and Culture
Title: America’s Cultural Treasures: The Institute of American Indian Arts and the Living Legacy of MoCNA
As part of the Ford Foundation’s “America’s Cultural Treasures” initiative, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, stands as a vibrant testament to the longstanding and evolving contributions of Native and Indigenous artists in the United States. More than just a museum, MoCNA is a living, breathing institution that centers the creative voices of Native people, challenges outdated narratives, and redefines the landscape of American art through education, advocacy, and innovation.
Recognizing Their Own Stories
Too often in American art history, Native and Indigenous voices have been excluded or romanticized, relegated either to a distant past or to frames built by others. MoCNA and its parent institution, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), empower artists to tell their own stories — stories that are vital, diverse, and dynamic.
Contemporary artist and IAIA trustee Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) captures the emotional and intellectual importance of such self-driven storytelling: “When you’re in a space where you’re constantly having to explain your identity to other people, your growth is limited. I returned to IAIA specifically to give myself a break so that I could focus on who I was and what my expression looks like.”
A Home for Indigenous Expression
Founded in 1962, IAIA was conceived as a counterpoint to the assimilation-driven educational programs once dominant in Native communities. Rather than stripping students of their cultural heritage, IAIA nurtures identity and creativity, positioning culture as the starting point for artistic exploration and growth.
From those roots sprang MoCNA, initially a sales gallery and teaching space that grew into a museum dedicated entirely to contemporary Native art. In 2009, IAIA formally rebranded the museum to emphasize this mission, deepening its commitment to showcasing the broad spectrum of contemporary Indigenous expression. Its downtown Santa Fe location places Native perspectives at the center of America’s third-largest art market, helping shift public perception and support for Indigenous artists.
More Than a Museum
MoCNA is not merely a cultural repository but a full participant in the ongoing development of Native arts. It hosts the annual senior exhibition for IAIA’s Bachelor of Fine Arts students — often their first opportunity to show work in a professional museum setting. For many, such as Rose B. Simpson, this experience becomes a foundational moment in their career: “It changes your pathways to what’s possible.”
This mission is bolstered by a dedicated team, including Director Patsy Phillips (Cherokee Nation), Curator of Collections Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer (Choctaw/Hopi), and staff educators like Wayne Gaussoin (Diné, Picuris, and French Descent). Alongside IAIA leadership, these professionals uphold the values of mentorship, representation, and knowledge-sharing that equip students not only to make art but to shape their communities and future institutions.
A Curriculum Rooted in Cultural Difference
IAIA’s foundational philosophy embraces “cultural difference as the basis of free expression.” This significant shift, championed early on by Lloyd “Kiva” New (Cherokee), rejected the static “Studio Style” art once taught in assimilationist boarding schools like the Santa Fe Indian School. That style, which featured sanitized, flat depictions of Native life, is still popular in commercial settings — a reflection not of authenticity, but of consumer demand.
MoCNA seeks to subvert such commodification through nuanced, progressive exhibitions. Installations like “Womb of the Earth: Cosmovisions of the Rainforest” and “Dreaming with AI” challenge mainstream imaginaries and broaden what Indigenous representation can look like in a modern context.
Global Indigenous Connections
MoCNA’s impact transcends the boundaries of the United States. Under Phillips’s leadership, the museum has sought to amplify international Indigenous voices. The ground-breaking 2021 exhibition “Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology” brought together artists from the United States, Canada, the Pacific Islands, Greenland, Japan, and Australia to address the impact of colonialism and environmental injustice. It became a seminal example of global Indigenous solidarity and storytelling.
Such efforts recognize the interwoven realities of Indigenous histories around the world. By offering space for these global dialogues, MoCNA asserts that Indigenous knowledge systems are not relics of the past, but blueprints for sustainable, just futures.
Education as Liberation
Central to MoCNA’s vision is its insistence that education be more than the issuance of degrees — it must be a form of cultural empowerment. The museum doesn’t just “preserve” history like a traditional archive; it actively “perpetuates” lived culture, embedding exhibited materials and ideas into the wider IAIA curriculum.
As IAIA Provost Felipe J. Estudillo Colón (Laguna Pueblo) explains, this model mirrors Indigenous