In 2019, Stuart Ashman was the CEO of the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when the organization started a program to include artists who were born in the United States. The program would partner with six institutions: the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Museum of International Folk Art, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, the School for Advanced Research, and IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. Each museum would pick an artist and a medium to be represented at the International Folk Art Market. The result of the program was the inclusion of Native American voices in the market.
Works by Penny Singer (Diné (Navajo)) on view in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Iva Honyestewa (Hopi/Navajo) holds up one of her baskets.
“I love the program because it allows us to collaborate with a group of world-class cultural institutions but also because it further highlights the universality of technique, creative impulse, motifs, etc.,” Ashman said at the time. “We have found in the past few years that the U.S.-born artists are excited to exhibit on the global stage with so many master artists from around the world and that some wonderful, post-market collaborations are taking place between U.S. and foreign artists.”
Native American artists participating in this year’s market, being held July 6 through 9 in Santa Fe, include Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli), Maggie Thompson (Fond Du Lac Ojibwe), Iva Honyestewa (Hopi/Navajo) and Penny Singer (Diné (Navajo)).
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful and very important that IFAM has invited more Indigenous artists (and the first Native Hawaiian!) to participate in this year’s market,” says Lehuauakea (they/them). “Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian makers have such beautiful and varied traditions to add to the conversation of global folk art, and it is a valuable shift to offer a platform to these artists alongside those from around the world.
Lehuauakea says they will be bringing a varied grouping of material. “This year, I will be showing a large number of kapa (barkcloth) paintings, both framed and unframed in a range of sizes and patterns, hand-painted and decorated using traditional tools and natural pigments I’ve gathered. I will also be bringing earrings from my line of hand-carved, sustainable earrings with designs inspired by traditional tools I use to print patterns on my kapa pieces.”
Kapa work by Lehuauakea (Kanaka Maoli).
A shirt by Penny Singer (Diné (Navajo)) on view in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Basketmaker Iva Honyestewa will be showing a colorful selection of works at the July market. “My basket, the Pootsaya, sends out a message of bringing people together. There is so much meaning in symbolism and feelings that goes into each piece. And yes I believe my basket weaving does have folk art qualities,” she says. “I will be bringing sifter baskets, ladles, piki trays, yucca rattles and my Pootsayas. Possibly some flat wall hangings. I am excited to do this show.”
July 6-9, 2023
International Folk Art Market
Santa Fe Railyard Park, 740 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505, www.folkartmarket.org
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