With NEH support, faculty at Diné College developed a three-year project devoted to the study and documentation of Navajo art and artists. Art and design play an integral role in social life for the Navajo people. The project helped to increase Diné College students’ appreciation for Navajo art and design and support the tribal college’s position as a center for the preservation of Navajo cultural knowledge, the cultivation of Navajo culture and identity, and the study of Navajo arts.
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The project consisted of three phases. First, the campus virtually convened visiting Navajo artists, asking “What is Diné art today?” These discussions took place in spring of 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted traditional gathering spaces—such as ceremonies, art markets, and family gatherings—in the Navajo Nation. Artists shared their approaches to selling their work, considering the implications of social media as a selling platform, and incorporating and sharing Native traditions and teachings through their respective mediums. Participants considered topics such as contemporary Navajo art curation, art therapy, and photography and placemaking. Diné College students also had the opportunity to present and discuss their work and perspectives.
In addition to the convenings, the project will create an exhibition of the artists’ work at the college museum and develop scholarly publications documenting the exhibition and assessing the evolution of Navajo visual arts from a Native perspective. Uplifting the work of contemporary Navajo artists and creating educational resources for their study and cultivation fills a critical gap in our understanding of Native art history, which so often relegates Native arts to the past rather than supporting their continuous evolution and cultivation. Altogether, the project will greatly advance art history education at Dine College and in other tribal colleges and universities.