Q & A: SWAIA Hires a New Director

Native American Art magazine virtually sits down with Kim Peone to discuss the future of the Santa Fe Indian Market and her new role as the executive director.

After a nationwide search, SWAIA’s Board of Directors
(www.swaia.org) recently announced the selection of Kim Peone as its new executive director. Peone is an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington and currently resides in Santa Fe.

“The Board is excited by the impressive background Peone brings to SWAIA to lead Indian Market through our centennial year (2022) and into the next century. Peone’s 30 years of experience in Indian Country, astute business and financial background, as well as great managerial and leadership skills were a perfect fit for SWAIA’s needs going forward,” says board chair Tom Teegarden.

Good morning Kim and congratulations. Tell us a little bit about your connection to this position and to Santa Fe.
Well, I was born in Santa Fe, grew up there, and my parents met at IAIA. My mother is from central Washington, the Colville Confederated Tribes and my father is Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and they met in their youth while attending IAIA. We moved away eventually, but Santa Fe has always been placed we came back to. Indian Market was always a destination for us, so it’s interesting how this has come around full circle. I’m ecstatic. I feel like I’m coming home. I moved to Santa Fe last July and am just ready to get everything going with this new position!

What do you hope to bring to SWAIA?
I have a very strong work ethic and I always tell people that the dirt is in the detail. One of the challenges right now is that Indian Market has shut down so we need to look at what is the next stage and how do we get there. As the director, I have a financial background as well as an IT background, so I need to look at the financials, look at everything. The last five audits and determine who are the operators, what are we doing with the whole operation. We have to be very strategic of what the business model will be to get us through the next year.

Are there any plans for Indian Market this year, 2020?
We are working hard on doing a virtual market and one of my previous businesses was in IT and we were an IBM partner, so we are looking at those platforms and finding ways we can capture data and structure the data we have. The virtual idea can bring the organization to a whole different level. We would definitely entertain the opportunity to do an actual market as well. Not a full-blown one but something smaller, so we are having conversations with the city and many different partners for that. If there was an opportunity, we would definitely look into it and consider it as an option. But it’s all contingent on where we are at.

What are some of the challenges you face?
A lot of what we do is driven by the data that shows the Santa Fe Indian Market brings a $165 million economic impact to the city of Santa Fe. We need to see how much of that is coming back to Indian Market to support it. Why aren’t there more people involved? This has to be a partnership of inclusiveness not exclusiveness. I definitely feel like we need to be inclusive. We need partners, we need to build bridges, to communicate, to tell our story. We need to tell who we are, and we need to be excited about it. We need to smooth out some of those rough places. We have reached an important point not only for SWAIA but for small businesses and artists. It’s the perfect storm to rethink business models and partnerships with galleries and merchants who definitely benefit from the presence of Indian Market. Those things take time but it’s these moments that call for leaders to be creative.

What are some of your memories of Santa Fe Indian Market?
Despite what we do digitally or virtually the market will never go away. People will always have the opportunity to come to Santa Fe, to experience it for what it is, to see it as the mecca for art. It’s the Land of Enchantment. I see the market as a marriage between traditional and contemporary. I remember being a little girl and my mom and dad going to the market. I must have been 5 or 6 years old. And they would go booth to booth and visit with all the artists, sit in the booths. Chitchatting. Someone might come by and ask a question, and everyone would talk for a while. It just felt so welcoming. It reminds me of the Pueblo Feast days. Come in, have dinner with us, share food with everyone, come be a part of who we are. That’s what
I feel is so special about Indian Market. I think of my dad in heaven cheering me on. I think of all our ancestors, the plethora of people who’ve come before us, paved the way. They are cheering us on as well.