A Story of the Arts

The painting on the moving truck

Since it was almost lost yesterday to a pair of ambitious movers, I thought I would document the story of this painting by Arlene Loretto.

It starts with LaDonna Harris. My father first met her when she worked for him at the Council on Foundations. While Ms. Harris was in our social sphere, it was her former husband, Senator Fred Harris, that I met first as his student at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He taught American Politics and it was a fascinating class. As a reminder, Sen. Harris served on the Kerner Commission. One of my favorite things to do in class was to ask him about his Senate days, as he would always tell the most interesting stories. I digress. 

Ms. Harris was very active in American Indian rights as well as supporting the traditional arts. My father would support some of her work with grants. This led to Ms. Harris inviting my father to a charity event in Santa Fe, NM. As I was living in Albuquerque at the time, my father scheduled a visit around the event and took me with him. The event was to raise funds for the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) museum. This is where I first met Ms. Harris.

The Santa Fe New Mexican
(Santa Fe, New Mexico)
16 Aug 1990, Thu · Page 54

The IAIA purchased the Old Federal Building in Santa Fe, NM to house its growing art collection. In a stroke of genius, they decide to fund raise by having former students draw “graffiti” on the dry wall of the building before it was demolished. Then, they had a silent auction and the winning bidders would receive a piece of the wall with the artwork. My father gave me a limit which allowed me to bid on some of the art. I was drawn to a painting by Arlene Loretto and successfully won the bid. The piece of drywall with the painting has been with me since then.

At some point, the board cracked. As it started to deteriorate, I decided to have it mounted to preserve it. I gave it to a local framer who took almost a year (not sure what that was about) to mount it on concrete board and frame it. As this made it too heavy to hang, it sits on the floor of my apartment. It has become part sculpture, part painting.

The Santa Fe New Mexican

(Santa Fe, New Mexico)

12 Aug 1990, Sun · Page 20

Why do I love this artwork? Partly because it is unique and partly because it reminds me of what I loved about living in New Mexico. It represents the culture (I believe Arlene Loretto is a Jemez Pueblo potter), I admire for its resiliency.  It tells a story of America. The first America. Having said that, I think what appeals to me the most is learning that you do not have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to support the arts. It can be something simple. Something that represents a point in time that you want to preserve. Today, I am grateful that I did not lose this beautiful work of art that embodies my life in New Mexico.   

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History of the IAIA Museum

The Institute of American Indian Arts’ (IAIA) art collection grew out of a student honors program. With the help of donations from outside artists and private collectors, the collection provided a catalyst for the formation of a museum in 1972. Until IAIA acquired the Federal Building in Santa Fe in January 1990, however, exhibits were confined to borrowed quarters at the Santa Fe Indian School campus, and most holdings remained in storage.

Turning the Federal Building into a major American Indian art museum meant rescuing it from years of neglect and stylistic atrophy. Architects restored the exterior of the 1922 Pueblo Revival-style building and completely remodeled its interiors. Beyond the intimate transitional galleries and classrooms for museum studies, a series of galleries that housed the Institute’s remarkable National Collection of Contemporary Native Art were also built into the space.

In 1992, IAIA relocated its museum to downtown Santa Fe. The space underwent an extensive renovation in 2004 and reopened in mid-2005 as a newly dynamic setting for exhibitions, educational programs and cross-cultural dialogue.

For years the museum had only 4,000 square feet of exhibition space on the ground floor, as its second floor was devoted to staff offices and collection storage. In 2010, that situation was remedied when the permanent collection moved to a new facility on the IAIA campus (12 miles south of its current location) freeing up an additional 3,600 square feet for programming.

The new collection storage facility, which occupies 7,000 square feet of the new science and technology building on IAIA’s campus, will promote best practices in collections care and adjoin conservation labs where IAIA museum studies students, faculty and visiting scholars may receive hands-on experience working with professional staff and instructors to care for the collection.