Author: FAAM Staff

The Museum at Warm Springs announces award winners for the 33rd Annual Warm Springs Tribal Member and Youth Exhibit on view through February 20, 2027 WARM SPRINGS, Ore. — Celebrating the 33rd year of its Warm Springs Tribal Member and Youth Exhibit, the Museum at Warm Springs has announced the award winners. This popular annual juried exhibition displays the immense talent and artistic excellence of Warm Springs adult and youth tribal citizens. The judge’s choice award in the traditional category went to Debra Stacona (Warm Springs) for her customary pine-needle hat, For Prayers & Protection. Judge’s choice for the contemporary…

Issue No. 51, Summer 2026 (July–September) Click here to purchase a digital copy for $7.00 from Issuu. To purchase a print copy, click below: Features Espacio MUY: Contemporary Maya and Zoque Art in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas By Constanza Ontiveros Valdés, PhD, 26–33 Shaping the Dream: The Legacy of Native American Art at Idyllwild Arts By Shaliyah Ben (Diné), 36–42 Ataloa McLendon: Chickasaw Visionary By Tamara M. Elder, 43 Artist Once More Known: Louise Platero in Two Museum Collections By John Dale Beety, 44–49 Beads, Brushes and Blood Memory: The Paintings of Michael and Sierra Barber By Matthew…

CATOOSA, Okla. – Best of Show at the 21st Annual Cherokee Art Market went to Arla Lucia (Seneca-Cayuga) for Cosmic Carry-on for Ava: Come with Me to Cowskin (2006). She taught herself how to bead and developed her own unique take of Haudenonsaunee raised beadwork. She had beaded Ava’s bag with sculptural rosettes in the round, but felt it was unfinished, so she took it apart and rebuilt the purse with a butterfly and dragonfly charms hanging from gold linked chains. The juried market showcases the work of 170 artists representing more than 50 federally recognized tribes and First Nations.…

Santa Fe, NM – The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), the University for Indigenous Creative Excellence, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mary Deleary (Chippewas of the Thames First Nation) ‘10 as Director of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), effective October 19, 2026. Deleary, an IAIA alum and current Director of the IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA), brings extensive experience in museum practice, curation and exhibition development, archives, collections-based research, Indigenous research methodologies, and Anishinaabe governance and leadership practices. As Research Center Director, she led initiatives that expanded opportunities for learning, research, and…

After nearly five decades in federal prison, Leonard Peltier returned to his home community in North Dakota in February 2025 after President Joe Biden commuted his sentence to home confinement. The Turtle Mountain Ojibwe citizen, Lakota/Dakota descent, and longtime American Indian Movement activist began painting during his incarceration, developing a body of work that reflects his experiences, Indigenous identity, and connection to his people. The Exhibition On October 4, 2026, twenty of Peltier’s paintings will be on exhibition at the Quaker Meetinghouse at 15 Rutherford Place in New York City. The works will be brought from North Dakota by Peltier’s…

TULSA, Okla. — After more than five years of anticipation, Gilcrease Museum announced today that it will reopen to the public in March 2027. Visitors will return to a reimagined experience featuring one of the most significant collections of art, history and culture in the Americas. Closed since July 4, 2021, Gilcrease is undergoing a $140.9 million transformation following the demolition of its original facility. The reopening marks a new chapter for one of Oklahoma’s treasured cultural institutions. More than 75 years after Thomas Gilcrease (Muscogee, 1890–1962) established the museum in Tulsa, the reopening brings together the museum, Helmerich Center for…

Olympia, WA — The annual Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts (CSMoFA) is set to bring Indigenous futurism to audiences with its upcoming exhibition, Temporal: Stories of Indigenous Present, Re-imagining Indigenous Futures. This multimedia event opens on October 2, 2026, at the Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts (TCMOFA) and serves as a radical act of reclamation for Indigenous stories and arts. Curated by Mikaela Shafer, a Hopi mother, artist, and community advocate, CSMoFA stands as a bold re-envisioning of museum space. In collaboration with the Indigenous Creatives Collective, this exhibition embodies a commitment to uplifting Indigenous voices and stories,…

When art brings people together, its impact can reach far beyond the walls where it is displayed. This week, Native artists and supporters will come together for Native Art Supporting Hearts. The online auction is benefiting the Sparkle Strong Foundation, a Norman, Oklahoma-based nonprofit supporting families living in the pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Sparkle Strong Foundation was founded at the bedside of sweet baby Jewels, daughter of FAAM operations manager, Jessica Poolaw Ma’ilo. Today, the organization carries her legacy and loving memory forward. Sparkle Strong provides practical support and resources to families facing the uncertainty and exhaustion of…

Best of Show for the 104th annual Santa Fe Indian Market went to Sergio Youngblood Lugo (Santa Clara Pueblo) for his 4-Sided Floating Melon Bowl, an extraordinary blackware pot that is a miracle of engineering design—and persistence. Lugo described how he had to recreate the pot and its lid after the first versions failed, over the span of months. “A lot of people don’t see what artists go through,” Lugo said, “especially when you’re doing something that has never been done before.” He continued, “Failure is just part of pottery-making.” What makes a successful artist is the willingness to try…

Santa Fe, NM — Obscura Gallery will host an exhibition and book signing celebrating In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America, co-authored by Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams and photographer/author Sarah Stacke. The exhibition is on view from August 14 to September 26, 2026. On Saturday, August 15, the book signing begins at 3:00 pm. and the artists’ reception will follow from 4:00–6 :00pm at Obscura Gallery with many of the artists present. The exhibition, curated by Obscura Gallery, Brian Adams, and Sarah Stacke, presents work by 20 contemporary Indigenous American photographers featured in the book who explore…