MIAC | October 2024

The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs announced that Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota) has been appointed Executive Director of Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) in Santa Fe, NM, after serving a successful eight months as interim director. Danyelle has been a tremendous fundraising partner and has worked tirelessly to move the museum forward. She has hired wonderful new staff, re-engaged the Indian Advisory Panel, opened (and co-curated) the Balzer Gallery, secured grants to fund repatriation work, and much, much more. I'm sure this is only the beginning of many more successes to come. Congratulations, Danyelle!

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is excited to announce that the exhibition Makowa: The Worlds Above Us is scheduled to open June 1, 2025 in the Masterpieces Gallery. Makowa takes an expansive view of the worlds above: constellations, birds, eclipses, clouds, astronauts and more, over day and night and throughout the seasons and eras. The exhibit will juxtapose artistic renderings of celestial events with cutting-edge telescopic imaging. It will draw together stories about how stars came to be where they are and how stars help people know where they are. The exhibit asks viewers to participate in a long lineage of observers who have made sense of the worlds above.

Night photography, pottery, textiles, interviews, and maps will be among the exhibit components. Interviews will highlight the first Indigenous astronaut John Herrington (Chickasaw), along with a range of Indigenous astrophysicists, sky watchers, and artists collaborating on the exhibition.

The Museum of New Mexico Foundation is organizing a VIP luncheon this autumn to share more information on this exciting new exhibition. Contact Lauren Paige if you would like to attend.

MIAC is happy to announce that they have been awarded a 2024 NAGPRA Consultation/ Documentation Grant in the amount of $100,000 by the Department of Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, through the National Park Service and National NAGPRA program. This highly competitive award is one of 39 to museums, tribes, and universities across the country. The grant supports work to return ancestors and sacred objects to their home communities, part of the work to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The funding will allow for additional staffing at the Archaeological Research Collections and will support Tribes visiting, reviewing, advising on, and taking home these sacred item and ancestors over the next year.

In addition, MIAC has received support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management for NAGPRA work on their collections. The museum will be welcoming new faces to support these efforts soon. MIAC is actively seeking a number of other granting and funding opportunities to support this important work and to build strong relationships with Tribal partners, including the many other ways they may choose to engage with collections cared for at ARC. MIAC looks forward to welcoming Tribal scholars, elders, artists, students and other Tribal members for research visits, new partnerships, and other collaborations.

The Museum of New Mexico Foundation is proud to announce we will be opening a Tribal Consultation fund to support MIAC's ongoing work. If you are interested in making a private donation to support repatriation and tribal consultation work, please contact Lauren Paige to learn more about this important fundraising effort.