INDIAN MARKET 2021
WHEN THE SOUTHWESTERN ASSOCIATION FOR INDIAN ARTS (SWAIA) ANNOUNCED THAT this summer’s Santa Fe Indian Market would once again be in person, we could almost smell the fry bread and NDN tacos.
“After last year’s pivot and presentation of a virtual Indian Market, we are excited to welcome visitors and artists back to our beloved 99-year-old event,” says Kim Peone, executive director of SWAIA, the nonprofit organization that produces the annual event.
SWAIA’s 2021Indian Market — Saturday-Sunday, August 21-22 — will be a COVID-conscious hybrid that combines both the new online marketplace and a smaller curated, in-person market at 75 percent capacity of the 2019 event. This year’s event will be ticketed; visitors will be able to purchase a limited number of tickets to shop the market over the two-day event.
We talked with some exhibiting artists about their art, their Indigenous heritage, and what they love about Indian Market.
TERI CAJERO JEMEZ PUEBLO
Clay art has been practiced by the Hemish people for hundreds of years and has been passed on from generation to generation through oral and hands-on teaching. Growing up in a family of artists, I learned at a very young age. My mother first introduced me to clay by simply putting a ball of clay in front of me as she watched to see what I would do with it. That was the beginning of a lifetime of learning and taking on the responsibility of becoming a teacher who will pass on this form of art to the next generation. As I progressed in my
