MIAC Receives Half-Million Dollar Gift

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture announced late Thursday a gift of $500,000 from philanthropists and longtime supporters JoAnn and Bob Balzer. The money will go toward building a new contemporary-focused wing of the Museum Hill mainstay that would open in 2022.

"It just came at the right time," says MIAC Director Della Warrior (Otoe-Missouria). "There is just so much going on in Native art—it's really expanding and moving in new forms and mediums. It's always changing and evolving, and MIAC…needed another gallery to be able to offer more emerging artists."

Opened in 1987, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (710 Camino Lejo, 476-1269) already boasts permanent exhibits, such as the Buchsbaum Gallery of Southwestern Pottery, but Warrior says more contemporary offerings have been a long term goal. The upcoming Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass event in April, for example—which will feature over 140 pieces by 33 glass artists from across the country as well as Australia and New Zealand—will be one of the first large-scale Indigenous-based glass shows in the country, according to Warrior.

As for the newly announced JoAnn and Bob Balzer Native Market and Contemporary Art Gallery, Warrior says the options are limitless. Like so many other institutions, the museum is currently closed to the public, but has met the COVID-19 pandemic with a more robust suite of online options. Warrior also says staffers, who have been telecommuting during statewide health orders, are working toward being ready within three days of sanctions lifting.

"As things are looking better, we're planning," she tells SFR. "Whenever we get the word, we'll be ready to open."

In a press release from the state's Department of Cultural Affairs, the Balzers say they "literally moved to Santa Fe because of our love of Native American art and culture…this unique gallery, planned for innovative and cutting-edge exhibits, will highlight Native market art and artists, and create a greater appreciation of contemporary Native American art, bringing it to a larger audience."

"I think it's going to be a really exciting space and a changing gallery. It's been on our wish list for so long," Warrior says. "We'll have new art forms, we'll showcase some of the excellent art that is winning awards in various Native markets. I've been totally elated. The timing was right. It was meant to be."