Rehousing Four Collections of the Institute of American Indian Arts

FAIN: PG-52457-15

Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture (Santa Fe, NM 87508-1300)
Ryan Flahive (Project Director: May 2014 to September 2016)

Purchase of rehousing supplies for four archival collections that document the history of the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture (IAIA) and the evolution of Native American traditional and contemporary art since the 1950s.  The institute, founded in Santa Fe in 1961serves as a model for arts and cultural training programs for indigenous peoples throughout the world.  The collections that would be preserved are 1) the Kay Wiest Collection, which documents student life at the IAIA in the 1960s and ‘70s; 2) printed matter that relates to the history of the institution; 3) biographical files on Native artists; and 4) the Yeffe Kimball Collection, images of Native American communities during the 1950s and ‘60s.  The IAIA archives are an important resource for the fields of Native American art, Indian art education, tribal college management, and American art history of the 20th century and are widely consulted by scholars, curators, teachers, students, and the public.

The Preservation Assistance Grant from NEH would support the purchase of preservation supplies to rehouse four distinct groups of photographs, negatives, transparencies, slides, and printed matter from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Archives. These collections hold much significance to the humanities—documenting not only the history of IAIA and the contemporary Native art movement (but also the photographic history of American Indians during the 1950s.