Pojoaque to sponsor
Santa Fe Indian Market

David Collins
The Santa Fe New Mexican

SANTA FE — It’s a new day for American Indian art in Santa Fe. For the first time in the 87 year history of the annual Indian Market, a local pueblo will be the major sponsor.

The Pueblo of Pojoaque, Hilton Hotels and the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts announced Wednesday that the pueblo’s Buffalo Thunder Resort has agreed to sponsor the Indian Market for the next three years.

“For a long time, the dominant culture’s vision was to take care of American Indian people. It was a paternalistic vision. Rarely do Indian people have a say in how their ideas are presented,” said Bruce Bernstein, SWAIA’s executive director.

With Pojoaque’s sponsorship of the city’s world-renowned venue for American Indian art, local American Indians now have a financial stake in the direction of their art market, Bernstein said.

Bernstein and Pojoaque Gov. George Rivera declined to say exactly how much the sponsorship will cost the pueblo’s resort in terms of dollars, but Rivera said the cost of the named sponsorship would double by the third year. “It wasn’t cheap,” Rivera said.

For Pojoaque, which has for years sponsored sports teams and youth programs in its neighborhood and has opened its Poeh Cultural Center studios at no cost to all American Indians, the new three-year affiliation with SWAIA is its largest commercial sponsorship to date.

“I’m not sure what Bruce (Bernstein) is doing to help us,” Rivera quipped, suggesting the sponsorship was more a benefit to the local art market than to the pueblo’s $245 million resort.

“We are doing the right thing,” Rivera added later. “We are helping Native American artists.”

Bernstein said he was surprised when Rivera responded to SWAIA’s approach for sponsorship with an offer to buy in as a named sponsor of what will be called the Southwest Association of Indian Arts Santa Fe Indian Market presented by Buffalo Thunder Resort. At the time the pueblo was approached, Bernstein said, he expected the sponsorship to net $10,000 or $15,000.

The Indian Market has operated at a loss for the past seven years, Bernstein said, and only in recent months have SWAIA officials set a course toward financial stability.

Pojoaque’s contribution is the first big step out of financial doldrums for the annual event, he said.

The production, which this year will open Aug. 23., costs just under $1 million a year, he said, but artists’ booth rentals pay only about 25 percent of those costs.

With Pojoaque’s sponsorship to help pay set-up and tent-rental costs, SWAIA will have more money to support educational efforts throughout the year, including teaching artists about the business aspects of their profession, Bernstein said.

Rivera said the pueblo and hotel officials moved the opening date of Buffalo Thunder, now set for Aug. 12, ahead by three months to coincide with the opening of Indian Market.

Buffalo Thunder general manager Tim Booth said guests are already booking rooms with intentions of visiting Indian Market, but it’s not yet a major group attraction for the hotel, which built a business plan around attracting conventions and other groups to the 390-room resort.

Timing the opening of the hotel with the annual Indian Market was a deliberate effort by hotel planners to understand the appeal and dynamic of American Indian art in the tourism business, Booth said.

So far, the hotel’s bookings during its opening weeks include more art enthusiasts looking for accommodations during Indian Market than artists looking for lodging. Booth said Hilton plans to open with room rates just below typical market rates and is not planning special rates for presenting artists during this year’s event.

Bernstein recounted Rivera’s long-term effort to bring American Indian artists into closer contact with their buyers. Rivera approached him some 20 years ago about promoting an art display in a rough building in what was then a dusty, rural pueblo. Rivera later promoted development of the Poeh Center, Bernstein said.

Rivera worked primarily as an artist until he was elected governor in 2004 following the death of his uncle, Gov. Jake Villarreal. Rivera’s art adorns the highway bridge in front of the hotel and will appear along with the works of other artists inside the hotel.

Rivera has said he only reluctantly moved into government work as he recognized the symbiotic relationship between art and leadership in his community. “Sustainability of the culture and arts in the modern time is the financial aspect of it,” Rivera said.

Booth said Hilton officials are especially excited about the opening of Buffalo Thunder, the company’s first American Indian partnership, which he said has been driven largely by the Pueblo’s designs and visions.

Bernstein said the two-day Indian Market attracts 100,000 visitors to Santa Fe, who circulate an estimated $130 million in the local economy.

He noted several other significant sponsors have signed on for the event, but only one will get their name included in the event name. SWAIA was selective in who it would share name space with, and would not likely allow the privilege to just any highest bidder, at any price, Bernstein said.