The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building (the old Post Office), a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Federal Building. The museum houses the National Collection of Contemporary Indian Art, with more than 7,000 items.

History

The Institute of American Indian Arts was co-founded by Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916–2002) and Dr. George Boyce in 1962 with funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[2] The school was founded upon the recommendation of the BIA Department of Education and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Three factors led to the school’s founding: growing dissatisfaction with the academic program at the Santa Fe Indian School, the BIA’s emerging interest in higher education, and the influence of the Southwest Indian Art Project and the Rockefeller Foundation.

IAIA began on the SFIS campus in October 1962. From 1962 to 1979, IAIA ran a high school program, and began offering college- and graduate-level art courses in 1975. In 1986, the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development was congressionally chartered as a nonprofit organization, similar to the structure of the Smithsonian Institution, which separated the school from the BIA. It was designated a land-grant college in 1994 alongside 31 other tribal colleges.[3] In 2001, the school was accredited, including the accreditation of four year degrees. A two-year low-residency MFA in creative writing was accredited in 2013.

Today, IAIA sits on a 140-acre (57 ha) campus 12 miles (19 km) south of downtown Santa Fe and also operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, which is located in Santa Fe Plaza, as well as the Center for Lifelong Education.

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, 2004
In 1991 the college founded the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, now the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), in downtown Santa Fe, with a focus on contemporary intertribal Native American art, the MoCNA is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building (the old Post Office), a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4] The museum also features the Allan Houser Sculpture Garden.

Performance by Wayne Nez Gaussoin (Picuris/Navajo) at MoCNA

IAIA MoCNA columns flanking a sculpture by Bob Haozous (Chiricahua Apache)

The main entrance of MoCNA

Partnerships

IAIA is a member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, which includes tribally and federally chartered institutions working to strengthen tribal nations and make a difference in the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives. IAIA generally serves geographically isolated populations of Native Americans that have few other means of accessing education beyond the high school level.[5]

During the early 1970s, faculty member Ed Wapp, Jr.’s E-Yah-Pah-Hah Chanters toured nationally with the Hanay Geiogamah’s American Indian Theatre Ensemble, a company in residence at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City.[6] A program from this tour describes the musical ensemble as “students from the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, N.M., and are under the direction of Ed Wapp, Jr. Their music is presented in both the traditional and contemporary American Indian forms. Songs are selected from the Plains, Eastern, Great Basin, Southwest and Northwest Coast areas of Indian Country.”[7]

Notable faculty

Imogene Goodshot Arquero, beadwork artist
Louis W. Ballard, Quapaw/Cherokee composer
Gregory Cajete, Santa Clara Pueblo ethnobiologist and author
Karita Coffey, Comanche ceramist
Jon Davis, European-American poet
Lois Ellen Frank, cultural anthropologist and food historian[8]
Allan Houser, Chiricahua Apache sculptor
Charles Loloma, Hopi jeweler
Otellie Loloma, Hopi potter, sculptor, painter
Linda Lomahaftewa, Hopi/Choctaw printmaker
Larry McNeil, Tlingit/Nisga’a photographer
N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa writer
Josephine Myers-Wapp, Comanche textile artist
Wendy Ponca, Osage Nation fashion designer and textile artist
Fritz Scholder, Luiseño painter
Arthur Sze, Chinese-American poet
James Thomas Stevens, Akwesasne Mohawk poet and writer
Azalea Thorpe; an award for the fiber arts program is named in her honor[9]
Charlene Teters, Spokane painter and installation artist
Gerald Vizenor, White Earth Ojibwe writer
Ed Wapp, Jr. musician; son of Josephine Myers-Wapp
Will Wilson, Diné photographer
Elizabeth Woody, Navajo/Tenino (Warm Springs)/Wasco-Yakama artist and author
Melanie Yazzie, Navajo printmaker
William S. Yellow Robe, Jr., Assiniboine writer

Notable alumni

Marcus Amerman, Choctaw Nation beadwork artist
Ralph Aragon, Pueblo painter and sculptor
Esther Belin, Diné multimedia artist and writer
Sherwin Bitsui, Navajo poet
Jackie Larson Bread, Blackfoot beadwork artist
T.C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo, 1946–1978), painter and printmaker
Sherman Chaddlesone (Kiowa, 1947–2013), painter
Eddie Chuculate, Muscogee/Cherokee author and journalist
Kelly Church, Odawa/Ojibwe/Potawatomi basket maker, birchbark biter
Karita Coffey, Comanche ceramic artist
Bunky Echo-Hawk, Pawnee/Yakama painter
Anita Fields, Osage/Muskogee ceramicist
Bill Glass Jr., Cherokee Nation ceramic artist and sculptor
Gina Gray (Osage, 1954–2014), printmaker and painter
Benjamin Harjo Jr., Shawnee/Seminole painter and printmaker
Joy Harjo, Muscogee poet and jazz musician, US Poet Laureate
Allison Hedge Coke, American author
Kevin Locke, Lakota/Anishinaabe hoop dancer
Gerald McMaster, Plains Cree Siksika First Nation author, artist, and curator
Melissa Melero-Moose, Northern Paiute/Modoc mixed-media artist, curator, and cofounder of the Great Basin Native Artists
America Meredith, Cherokee Nation painter, printmaker, and curator
Dan Namingha, Hopi-Tewa painter and sculptor
Jody Naranjo, Santa Clara Pueblo potter
Jamie Okuma, Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock beadwork artist and fashion designer
Tommy Orange, Cheyenne-Arapaho best-selling novelist
Mary Gay Osceola, Seminole painter and printmaker
Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage/Cheyenne River Lakota), ledger artist
Kevin Red Star, Crow painter
Layli Long Soldier, Oglala Lakota poet, writer, and artist.
James Thomas Stevens, Akwesasne Mohawk poet
Roxanne Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo ceramic artist and sculptor
Charlene Teters, Spokane painter and installation artist
Randy’L He-dow Teton, Shoshone-Bannock model for Sacajawea Gold Dollar coin
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Seminole/Muscogee/Diné photographer, writer, curator, and educator
Marie Watt, Seneca textile artist, printmaker and conceptual artist
Terese Marie Mailhot, Sto:lo writer
Jolene Yazzie, Navajo graphic designer
Debra Yepa-Pappan, Jemez Pueblo/Korean digital multimedia artist and museum professional
Alfred Young Man, PhD (Chippewa-Cree), painter, author, professor
Notable administration and staff
Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916–2002), co-founder and president
Joseph Sanchez, curator and artist, one of the Indian Group of Seven
Duane Slick, (born 1961) painter, taught at IAIA from 1992 until 1995.

institute of american indian arts mfa

A Creative Community Grounded in Indigenous Values

The Institute of American Indian Arts has played a key role in the direction and shape of Native expression for over 50 years. The IAIA MFA in Creative Writing, now in its eighth year, is expanding on this legacy, graduating successful writers who are making distinct contributions to the body of Native American and world literatures.

“From the beginning to the end, every one of my workshops was powerful and compassionate and gave me tools to make my writing better. I sold my book less than a year after I graduated. It wouldn’t have been the book it is without this program, without the guidance that I got there. There’s nothing else like it.”
—Tommy Orange, author of There, There (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018), Class of 2016

Our MFACW program is unique among low-residency MFA programs in Creative Writing, as we emphasize the importance of Native writers offering voice to the Native experience. The program and the literature we read carries a distinct Native American and First Nations emphasis.

The Low Residency Model

The Institute of American Indian Arts’ Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing provides a professional degree in creative writing while allowing students to live at home and continue participating in work, family, and community.

Students and faculty mentors gather twice a year on the IAIA campus for an intensive week of workshops, lectures, and readings. At the end of the week, each student is matched with a faculty mentor, who then works one-on-one with the student for the 16-week online semester, developing the student’s creative work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or screenwriting.

The important difference in the IAIA program arises from IAIA’s mission “to empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning, and outreach.” Our program is open to everyone, but the focus is aligned with our unique mission.

Since its founding in 2013, the program has graduated 135 students with their MFAs; up to 45 students are currently enrolled in four tracks—poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting.

IAIA MFACW Mentors are a dynamic group of Native and non-Native writers who have won, among many other awards, Lannan Literary Awards, Whiting Awards, a National Book Award, a PEN Open Book Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, and a Donald Hall Prize from the Associated Writing Programs. Over three-quarters of our faculty mentors are established Native American or First Nations authors.

2020–2021 College Catalog

MFACW Mentors include Ramona Ausubel, Esther Belin (Diné), Marie-Helene Bertino, Sherwin Bitsui (Diné), Kimberly Blaeser (Anishinaabe), Abigail Chabitnoy (Koniag), Cynthia Cruz, Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee), Danielle Geller (Diné), Geoff Harris, Brandon Hobson (Cherokee), Pam Houston, Toni Jensen (Métis), Kristiana Kahakauwila (Native Hawaiian), Joan Naviyuk Kane (Iñupiaq), Chip Livingston (Creek), Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma), Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca), Cedar Sigo (Suquamish), Brooke Swaney Pepion (Blackfeet/Salish) and David Treuer (Ojibwe).

MFA alumni and current students have had books accepted by Alfred A. Knopf, W.W. Norton, Counterpoint Press/Doubleday Canada, Anhinga Press, Finishing Line Press, Blue Hand Books, Lost Alphabet Press, Milkweed Press, Anvil Press, Heyday Books, Catapult, Ecco/Harper Collins, and several University presses. They have also published in The New Yorker, Tin House, American Poetry Review, Utne Reader, Narrative Magazine, Boston Review, Witness, Denver Quarterly, Agni, Quarterly West, American Indian Culture & Research Journal, Epoch, Tupelo Quarterly, Portland Review, Hunger Mountain, Quarterly West, Sentence, High Country News, Brevity, Yellow Medicine Review, Fourth Genre, CutBank, Cream City Review, The Rumpus, and Waxwing, among many others.

IAIA students and alumni have appeared on Al-Jazeera, NPR, KSFR, and Native America Calling, and have won scholarships to residencies to Yaddo, MacDowell, Native American TV Writers Lab, Sundance Institute, Denali National Park, The Sitka Island Institute, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Hypatia-in-the-Woods, Fishtrap, Idyllwild, Playa, Jentel, Lambda, VONA, Writers@Work, Napa Valley, Split This Rock, Breadloaf, the New York State Summer Writers Conference, Sierra Nevada College, Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, the Vermont Studio Center, and Writing by Writers’ Workshops.

With generous support from the Lannan Foundation, the MFA Program sponsors, during each residency, The Readers Series, eight evenings of readings on the IAIA campus featuring original work from MFACW Mentors and Visiting Writers. Past and upcoming readers include such luminaries as Joy Harjo (Mvskoke), Nick Flynn, Orlando White (Diné), Carolyn Forché, Andre Dubus III, Luci Tapahonso (Diné), Arthur Sze, Greg Glazner, N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa), Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), Debra Magpie Earling (Bitterroot Salish), Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muskogee), M.L. Smoker (Assiniboine/Sioux), Ross Gay, Layli Long Soldier (Lakota), Justin Torres, Faith Adiele, David Treuer (Ojibwe), and Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (Blackfoot/Sami).

Deadline and Application

The deadline to apply for the Fall semester is February 1. Each academic year begins with the July Residency. Applications received after the deadline will be reviewed for the waitlist and for the following semester.

The Institute of American Indian Arts’ Low Residency MFA program is among the most affordable MFA programs in the country. For a detailed accounting, see Tuition and the college catalog. Contact MFA Director

MFA Residencies

Date	Type
January 3–10, 2021 (TBD)	Residency
May 10–15, 2021	Graduation Residency
July 18–24, 2021	Residency
January 8–16, 2022	Residency
May 9–14, 2022	Graduation Residency
July 17–23, 2022	Residency

Apply to the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing

The graduate application for the MFA in Creative Writing is available at IAIA Online Application. Please note that although the Low Residency MFA Program begins with an on-campus residency in July, the July residency is considered part of the Fall semester. Please choose “Fall” not “Summer” on the application. If you find you need to submit additional materials, please e-mail those documents to admissions@iaia.edu or mail them to the Admissions Office at the address below. Your application will not be considered for admission until it is complete. To process your application, we will need:

1. A completed application (submitted electronically)
2. A $25, non-refundable, application fee
3. A sample of your creative work (see guidelines below)
4. An application essay (see guidelines below)
5. A sample craft or scholarly essay (see guidelines below)
6. Two letters of recommendation sent directly by recommenders to: Admissions Office, The Institute of American Indian Arts, 83 Avan Nu Po Road, Santa Fe, NM 87508 or e-mailed as attachments to admissions@iaia.edu. Letters should address the applicant’s aptitude, determination, and ability to work within a community of writers.
7. College transcripts from all colleges attended sent directly to: Admissions Office, The Institute of American Indian Arts, 83 Avan Nu Po Road, Santa Fe, NM 87508. Links to electronic transcripts should be sent to admissions@iaia.edu.

Once we have received all of your application materials, your application will be reviewed. Materials must be received by 5 pm on February 1, 2021, the closing date for all applications. Applications completed after 5 pm on February 1 will be considered for any remaining openings, wait-listed, or considered for the following year. At this time, we are only accepting students into the program in the fall semesters. Admission will be competitive; we will be accepting only thirty students into the program each year. There is no separate application for the Institute of American Indian Arts’ Scholarships; students who apply before February 1 will be considered for all IAIA scholarships.

A bachelor’s degree is required, but it need not have been with an English or writing major.

Should you be accepted into the program, you will need to pay a $200 deposit by May 15 to hold your place. For questions about the application process, please contact admissions at admissions@iaia.edu

Creative Manuscript

Please submit examples of your work in one of these areas:

• poetry: a maximum of 10 pages (single-spaced, not more than one poem to a page)
• fiction: a maximum of 20 pages (double-spaced)
• creative nonfiction: a maximum of 20 pages (double-spaced)
• screenwriting: a maximum of 30 pages (industry-standard formatting)

You may apply in two genres, but a complete manuscript must be submitted for both genres in which you choose to apply. You will only be selected to enroll in one genre. Each manuscript should be typewritten, single-sided, numbered in the lower-right hand corner, and set in 12 point Times Roman (or Courier for a screenplay). Please do not staple. Manuscripts will not be returned. Any pages beyond the maximum will not be read.

Personal Essay

Please submit an essay (2–3 typed, double-spaced pages) in which you address the following questions:

• How long have you been writing seriously?
• What previous study have you done in writing and literature?
• Is there any additional experience that seems particularly relevant to your application?
• Are you prepared to hear direct criticism of your work and apply that criticism to revision?
• What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of your writing?
• Do you foresee anything that might prevent you from devoting 25 hours per week to your study or from corresponding consistently with your faculty advisor?

More than transcripts or letters of recommendation, the essay gives us some understanding of your experience with writing and criticism, your goals for work in the program, your readiness to work in the low-residency format, and the appropriateness of your admission.

Craft Essay

Please submit a writing sample (3–4 pages, double-spaced) that demonstrates your abilities as a reader and critical thinker. This sample may be something formal that you have written previously for a class, or you may write a short essay on a literary work you’ve recently read. The essay should in some way engage questions dealing with the writer’s craft and/or ways in which the writer’s work has served as a model for your own literary ambitions.

Admissions Procedure Checklist

• Application completed and signed
• Application fee $25 (non-refundable) included with the application
• Application Essay enclosed
• Creative Manuscript enclosed
• Craft Essay enclosed
• Official college transcipt(s) sent
• Two letters of recommendation sent directly to the Admissions Office

Application should be submitted electronically or mailed with a $25 application fee (payable to The Institute of American Indian Arts) to:

Admissions Office The Institute of American Indian Arts 83 Avan Nu Po Road Santa Fe, NM 87508

To applicants who are reapplying: If you are reapplying to the IAIA MFA in Creative Writing Program within one year of your previous application, submit the following: 1) a new or revised creative manuscript, 2) a new or revised personal essay, 3) a new or revised craft essay, 4) a new application form, and the $25.00 application fee. Updated references and transcripts are optional.

Housing Application

Students who are accepted into the program will be emailed a housing application prior to the late July residency.