Indigenous Artists in the ACC Archives

Past Awardees

Explore the files of award-winning Indigenous artists in the ACC Archives from years past. 

Charles Loloma

Charles Loloma (Hopi, 1921–1991) was known for his distinctive jewelry. While he lived most of his life steeped in the traditions of his native community of Hotevilla, Arizona, his jewelry was contemporary and bold, imbuing traditional Hopi design elements with a dynamic, modern aesthetic.

Loloma began his artistic career as a teenager when he worked with Fred Kabotie and Olaf Nordmark as a muralist for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Exposition of 1939. He and his wife, Otellie, studied at the School for American Craftsmen at Alfred University from 1947 to 1949 and developed their own line of pottery. They opened the Loloma Ceramics Shop in the Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale, and shortly after, Charles began producing cast jewelry. In the late 1950s he taught pottery courses at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. He became the Plastic Arts Chairman at the Institute of American Indian Arts from 1961 to 1965, and then moved back to his birth home of Hotevilla where he operated his studio for the rest of his career. His work was included in the OBJECTS: USA exhibition, which premiered at the Smithsonian National Collection of Fine Arts in 1969, and was also featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in 1974. He was inducted into the ACC College of Fellows in 1976. More information about his work and career can be found in this 1974 article in Craft Horizons.

Lloyd Kiva New 

Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916–2002) was a highly regarded fashion designer as well as co-founder and long-time president of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). He was born in Fairland, Oklahoma, and received his bachelor’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938. After serving in the navy during World War II, he established the Kiva Craft Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, a collective of shops and studios of local Native American artists. His own design business thrived; during the 1950s, New was selling his Cherokee-inspired fabric designs to major retailers such as Neiman Marcus. But his dismay at the lack of recognition of Native creativity as art rather than artifact compelled New to leave the field of fashion for arts education. In 1962, he moved to Santa Fe and co-founded the IAIA along with Dr. George Boyce of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. New began as the arts director and later served as director and president of IAIA from 1967 to 1978. In 1986, he successfully lobbied Congress in favor of a congressional charter for the school, divesting the IAIA from the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also served as an advisor on the development of the National Museum of the American Indian.

New is largely credited with building a new generation of Indigenous artists by encouraging students to reflect on their individual heritage and culture without stifling their individual creativity. He was named an Honorary Fellow of the ACC in 1976. New wrote a book review of Lucy M. Lewis, American Indian Potter by Susan Peterson for the February/March 1985 issue of American Craft.