SAR News 
Reflections on Grounded in Clay Opening Weekend
It is mid-morning Friday in Santa Fe: sun blaring and the air is thin, I often think that we are so close to the sky that maybe I could touch the clouds myself. At the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC), white tents are erected in the courtyard, awaiting people...
Introducing 2022-2023 Anne Ray Intern Penske McCormack
Hello all! I am Penske McCormack (they/them), and I am one of the two Anne Ray Interns at SAR's Indian Arts Research Center for 2022-2023. I am very excited to introduce myself to the SAR community! Raised in Georgia, I earned my AB in art history from the University...
Introducing 2022-2023 Anne Ray Intern Wayne Nez Gaussoin
Hi! I am Wayne Nez Gaussoin (Picuris/Diné/French descent), and I'm one of the 2022-2023 Anne Ray Interns at the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC). I have a background as a professional artist with over twenty years of experience. I received a Masters of Fine Arts...
Seeking Shade and Strata: A Stroll Through SAR’s Ever-Evolving Campus Tour
Guest post by Emily Santhanam, 2020-2021 Anne Ray Intern I arrived mid-morning at the Reception Center, the summer sun already high and bright. It had been a few months since I’d last visited campus, and over a year since I’d lived there as an Anne Ray intern....
SAR Members Tour Chaco Canyon and Related Sites
Chaco Canyon and the so-called "Chaco Phenomenon" have long evoked intense interest among SAR members. Our more-or-less annual tradition of Chaco field trips continued in mid-August, when fourteen members and SAR staff spent three days visiting Chaco, Salmon Ruins,...
SAR Board Member Appointed to Cultural Property Advisory Committee by President Biden
Alex W. Barker, who joined the SAR board of directors in August, has been appointed by President Biden to the federal government's Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC). Barker, who currently serves as director of the Arkansas Archaeological Survey, is a former...
Celebrating 100 Years of Santa Fe’s Indian Market
The School for American Research (SAR) started the Santa Fe Indian Market one hundred years ago this September. SAR’s first director, Edgar Lee Hewett, spearheaded the effort and printed a statement in the Santa Fe New Mexican on June 27, 1922. He wrote, “The objects of the exhibition are the encouragement of Native arts; to revive old arts, and to keep the arts of each tribe and pueblo as distinct as possible; the establishment and locating of markets for all Indian products; the securing of reasonable prices; authenticity of all handicraft offered for sale.” The first of its kind, the Southwest Indian Fair featured artists across seven states, and included Julian and Maria Martinez, the celebrated potters of San Ildefonso Pueblo, who won a substantial monetary prize for their work.
‘Who Were You When You Stepped to This Pot?’ :
‘Who Were You When You Stepped to This Pot?’1: A Lesson in Community Curation from Grounded in Clay Guest post by Emily SanthanamConsider when and where you’ve seen Pueblo pottery in a museum. How was it displayed? Who wrote the label? What did it tell you about the...
SAR Alumna Op-Ed on Wildfires and Climate Change is Published in Los Angeles Times
Adriana Petryna, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and an SAR summer scholar in 2014, published an op-ed essay in the July 10, 2022, issue of the Los Angeles Times that builds on her recent book, Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an...
Forging Her Path: Dr. Adriana María Linares-Palma, 2021-2022 Paloheimo Fellow
Written by Kat Bernhardt, Advancement Associate, SAR With her sparkling dark eyes and guarded genuine smile, there is a big-hearted openness about Dr. Adriana María Linares-Palma, 2021-2022 Paloheimo Fellow in residence at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in...
Centennial of the Indian Arts Research Center Collections: Gala Dinner and Auction
Thunder and light rain did not keep 100 stalwart gala guests from descending the stone steps to enter a white-tented world where they were warmly welcomed by enchanting floral tablescapes, bird songs of a flute, and handcrafted works by Native American artists for the Centennial Celebration of the Indian Arts Research Center collections at the School for Advanced Research on Saturday, June 18, 2022.
Reflections on SAR’s “Seeking Justice” Webinar Series
On June 2 SAR held the sixth and final webinar in this year's Creative Thought Forum series called Seeking Justice: Toward a More Equitable America, which launched in February. The series was primarily funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities, with support...
SAR Member Trip to Bears Ears, Utah
After a long pandemic-related hiatus, SAR relaunched member field trips on May 13 with a four-day journey to Bears Ears in Utah. Given the scale of this new national monument—more than 2100 square miles—we couldn't possibly do justice to its diverse mesas, canyons,...
SAR Board Member John Arroyo Wins Whiting Fellowship
SAR's academic board members continue to win major fellowships focused on innovative work in the public policy arena. John Arroyo, a recent SAR-Mellon Foundation Latinx Resident Scholar and now a member of SAR's board of directors, has been named a 2022-2023 Public...
Noting the Loss of Two Significant SAR supporters
We are sorry to report the passing of two longtime SAR supporters. Benjamin F. Crane, a distinguished New York attorney who served on the SAR board of directors from 2005 until 2015, died in Brooklyn on February 18 at the age of 92. Ben and his wife Sally, who...
Moments in Places in Time
Growing up in the middle of Alaska, there was a window to another world on the wall of my living room. It was like no place I’d ever seen. There was a church that seemed to be made of clay pinched together by someone’s fingers. And there was a woman with a flared skirt, shawl, and scarf over her head. No one dressed like that in Alaska. I enjoyed stepping back to where it appeared to be a photograph or passage to another land and then move slowly forward to find just that point when the optical illusion fell away and I could see the leaves, the moss, the bark.
SAR Announces 2022-2023 Native Artist Fellows
SAR Announces 2022-2023 Native American Artist Fellows: Hollis Chitto, Orlando Dugi, and Janna Avner.
Unveiling the Restored Jack Lambert Corral
If you've walked or driven past the corner of Garcia Street and Camino Corrales lately, you may have noticed something long obscured by chamisa and other hardy shrubs: a gnarly corral that is probably the oldest such feature still standing in Santa Fe. This small...
SAR Board Member Awarded 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship
Brenda Child, the Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has been awarded a 2022 Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Child was a Katrin Lamon Fellow at SAR in 1992-1993 and now serves on SAR's board...
In Memoriam Nancy Owen Lewis (1945–2022)
With great sadness, SAR notes the passing of Dr. Nancy Owen Lewis, our longtime Director of Scholar Programs, Scholar-in-Residence, and tireless advocate, tour guide, public speaker, and prolific author. Before coming to SAR, Nancy received her Ph.D. in cultural...
Paul Farmer (1959-2022) and SAR
Dr. Paul Farmer, humanitarian, physician, and anthropologist, died in his sleep on February 21 in Butaro, Rwanda, reportedly of a heart attack. He was 62. Eulogies are pouring in from around the world in recognition of Farmer's tireless efforts to treat patients in...
Mellon Foundation Awards $1.5 Million for Groundbreaking Digital Project Focused on Enslaved Native Americans
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1.5 million grant to fund Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Americans Enslaved, an unprecedented digital project centered on millions of Indigenous people whose lives were shaped by slavery.
Guidelines for Collaboration: Museums and Communities Seeking Equitable Change
Museums are evolving. In a cultural moment in which institutions are called toward self-reflection, inclusivity, and accountability, the question remains: what does collaboration mean for museum and community, institution and individual? How can ethical action drive our work?
SAR Remembers Ronald N. Dubin
The Board of Directors and staff of the School for Advanced Research together mourn the loss of Ronald N. Dubin, who passed away in Greenwich, Connecticut, on December 30 at the age of eighty-nine.
The Clay Always Has Something to Say: 2021 Native Artist Fellow Brandon Adriano Ortiz-Concha
When Ortiz-Concha talks about his relationship with clay, he conveys a clear sense of reverence and respect. He sees the act of gathering clay and forming vessels as a moment of intervention in millions of years of geological processes, something not to be taken lightly.
SAR Field Trips: A Wonderful Combination
New to membership in 2021 and seeking opportunities to better understand the Native American history and culture of this New Mexican land we now call home, we joined two fall SAR field trips: The Archaeology of Arroyo Hondo and Tewa Pathways from Tsankawi to Pojoaque.
Learning from Desert Dwellers: Patty Limerick and C. J. Alvarez on Life in a Desert Nation
Drought is now a way of life. As a result, argue Patty Limerick and C. J. Alvarez in their recent Washington Post article, people throughout the United States need to start listening to desert dwellers, “the Indigenous people and others who settled in deserts for generations and who view aridity, not moisture, as ‘normal.’”
How to Publish Your First Book: SAR Press Talks to Rashmi Sadana
SAR Press’s How to Publish blog series comprises interviews with diverse scholars who have recently published or are in the midst of publishing a book and who can offer guidance and encouragement to colleagues who are just starting to think about publishing. We hope that these interviews make a small contribution to supporting junior scholars as they begin the publishing process.
SAR Awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is proud to announce that it recently received notice that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will award the school $167,825 through the NEH American Rescue Plan, which provides relief funding for cultural and educational institutions to help them recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.
Scholar, Mentor, Trailblazer: Linda Cordell’s Influence on Contemporary Archaeology
Women in archaeology have come a long way. They now comprise half of all archaeologists in North America and have surpassed men in the number of archaeology PhDs awarded. They work as the heads of university departments, leaders of field schools, and senior scholars in research institutions. Yet when Linda Cordell (1943–2013) emerged into the field, the landscape was very different.