SANTA FE: December 17, 2019 -- The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) is proud to announce that The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has funded  the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Native Art (MoCNA) to conduct research and development for the exhibition  Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology , tentatively scheduled for summer 2021. 

This international Indigenous art exhibition addresses the long-term effects of nuclear testing and uranium mining on Native communities world-wide. There are over one thousand abandoned uranium mines and mills on the Navajo Nation alone; and generations later, tribal members continue to suffer from cancer and birth defects resulting from uranium contamination. The Research Fellowship will allow MoCNA to examine how international Indigenous artists respond to the damages caused by nuclear and uranium poisoning in their communities. The exhibition curator Manuela Well-Off-Man will interview international Indigenous artists and consult with scholars and curators who could help to shape the  project and contribute to the exhibition catalog. Research will be conducted in the United States, Australia, and Greenland. The Exposure  Curatorial Research project will be an important opportunity for MoCNA to contribute new scholarship to the field of contemporary Native art.   IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Director Patsy Phillips (Cherokee) remarked, " The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts' Curatorial Research Fellowship is a welcome opportunity for MoCNA to collaborate with international Indigenous artists, curators, environmentalists, and experts in the field to develop a thoughtful approach to the exhibition  Exposure: Native Art and Political Ecology,   and to address the effects that nuclear poisoning and uranium extraction have on Native people. Over the years The Andy Warhol Foundation has generously supported several MoCNA initiatives which has allowed us to do important work such as  Exposure,  and to contribute to the contemporary art field.  We are very excited about Warhol's support for this project!"

 

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Offering undergraduate degrees in Studio Arts, Creative Writing, Cinematic Arts and Technology, Indigenous Liberal Studies, Museum Studies, and Performing Arts -- an MFA in Creative Writing -- along with certificates in Business and Entrepreneurship, Museum Studies, and Native American Art History -- IAIA is the only college in the nation dedicated to the study of contemporary Native arts. The school serves 495 full time equivalent (FTE) Native and non-Native American college students from across the globe.  IAIA is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission -- and is the only college in New Mexico accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.