Clearly Indigenous Audio Exhibition
History of Glass Art in Indian Country
Hello, I’m Amy Dehan, the museum’s curator of Decorative Arts and Design. I am the on-site curator for this presentation of Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass and will be sharing the introduction to the “History of Glass Art in Indian Country” section of the exhibition.
These early pieces of glass art were made in the first Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) hot shop, built by artist Dale Chihuly in Santa Fe in 1974 and at Taos Glass Arts and Education, where several Pueblo artists first worked together. The Taos program, which began in 1999 and existed for well over a decade, was supported by Chihuly and taught by Tony Jojola, who first learned glass blowing at IAIA.
Historic photographs of Chihuly and Native artists working at IAIA and Taos—as well as at Pilchuck, a glass program co-founded by Chihuly in Washington State—document the development of Indigenous glass art. Photographs of Chihuly at the Rhode Island School of Design show him creating his first series, which was inspired by Native American art.