Institute of American Indian Arts

The Institute of American Indian Arts opened in October of nineteen sixty-two, on the site of the old Santa Fe Indian School. It was co-founded by Lloyd Kiva New, a Cherokee textile designer, and Dr. George Boyce, with Bureau of Indian Affairs funding and a radical premise: that Native artists should not be confined to traditional forms but should be free to engage with contemporary art on their own terms.

The school welcomed students from tribes across the country and quickly became a launching pad for a generation of Native artists who reshaped American art. Congress formally chartered IAIA in nineteen eighty-six as a federally chartered institution devoted to Native arts. It has since grown from a high school to a four-year college, and its alumni include some of the most acclaimed Native painters, sculptors, and writers working today.