Santa Fe Indian Market attracts thousands of visitors to the city’s Plaza
Santa Fe Indian Market attracts thousands of visitors who will fill the city’s Plaza
Over this weekend, more than 120,000 shoppers will swarm onto the Plaza buying pottery, paintings, jewelry and more at the 97th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market.
Booths of about 1,000 artists from the Yukon to Maine will snake around the Plaza, spilling into its side streets for two days of celebration and shopping.
Last year, an informal study revealed visitors have come from as far away as Tanzania, Egypt, Myanmar, Poland, Latvia, Finland, Belarus, Uruguay, Australia, Indonesia and Tasmania.
All of the work is juried to assure both quality and authenticity. Visitors can see Native American dancers and musicians perform on the Plaza Bandstand. Models will strut the latest Native fashions in the Haute Couture Fashion Show and the Native American clothing contest. Vendors selling Indian fry bread and traditional Native oven bread will abut the Plaza, filling the air with sizzling aromas.
A new “Art of Technology Award” comes with a top prize of $5,000.
Facing his first year as executive director of the market’s sponsor, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, Ira Wilson (Navajo), who spent the past 26 years as lead buyer for Albuquerque’s Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, is just trying to get through his debut as head of the largest and most prestigious juried Indian market in the country.
“There’s not a lot of changes to the format,” he said. “It’s just getting through it once to know what’s really going on.”
The I.M.:Edge contemporary show is moving to the front lobby of the Santa Fe Community Convention Center from a background location, he added. For the first time, the show will operate under the theme “activism and identity,” with the chosen works based on the artists’ integration of social and political views, as well as their identity.
The greatest change has been the elimination of a long-established tenure program for legacy artists, a move that elicited protests from the artists.
“It was a tough move for SWAIA to make,” Wilson said. “It was to make it fair.”
Wilson said he expects the decision to result in an influx of new artists.
In May, board chair Elizabeth Kirk warned a group of artists that the market could end after 100 years because of a lack of funding. Of the numerous tribes and pueblos supporting the market, only the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is donating to the annual event that costs $1.3 million to stage. About four years ago, seven tribal entities supported the market. She also said just 13 of the artists showing are dues-paying SWAIA members.
Last year, SWAIA was forced to solicit last-minute funding after it came up more than $100,000 short.
“We were a little behind when I started,” Wilson said. “It’s a not-for-profit organization. We have to be creative going forward to find new relationships. We’re kind of scanning the landscape as it is now.”
SWAIA organizers sent out letters asking the artists to renew their membership, he added.
“We’re doing OK right now,” he said. “People have responded.”
He already has some ideas for next year. “I’d like to introduce cuisine,” he said, “because there are a lot Native chefs out there.”
A former musician with the indigenous band Red Earth, he’d also like to add more music to the mix.
“Maybe a fundraising event,” he said.