Apr. 20—Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts has formed a new partnership with the California Institute of the Arts.
The partnership will allow the schools to collaborate and influence each other through student and faculty exchanges.
"CalArts is at the beginning of a process of Indigenization, and we're looking to IAIA for how to best approach that," said Dr. Chad Hamill (Spokan), CalArts President's Fellow for Indigenous Arts and Expression.
While IAIA will provide guidance to CalArts in its Indigenization efforts, CalArts, located in the greater Los Angeles area, will offer IAIA students accessibility to cutting-edge and experimental art-making technologies, and future job opportunities. The school has deep ties to animation and film studios, theater and music industries, and experience-design companies.
"As a school that has been in existence for 60 years, IAIA has built connections with many institutions interested in Indigenous arts and artists," said IAIA Academic Dean Felipe Colón (Laguna Pueblo) in a press release. "IAIA has long had informal community connections with CalArts through our students, alumni, and faculty. Through this partnership, we will build a reciprocal and collaborative relationship for the future."
CalArts is a nonprofit interdisciplinary art institute offering undergraduate and graduate degrees through numerous programs of study, including traditional and digital media arts, filmmaking, performance, and music. Its mission is "to promote a community of artists that, through artistic practice, seeks to transform themselves, each other, and the world."
As CalArts enters its 51st year, the school seeks to diversify its student body, staff, faculty, and curriculum by building collaborations and sharing resources with Indigenous artists, educators, nations, and institutions like IAIA, the only college in the world dedicated to the study of contemporary Native American and Alaska Native arts.