The UNM-Gallup Ingham Chapman Gallery & The Creation/Preservation of Culture

By John Zimmerman Associate Professor & Director, Ingham Chapman Gallery

At UNM-Gallup, we serve a diverse student demographic, and the Ingham Chapman Gallery serves those students and the greater Gallup community by sponsoring a robust Visiting Artist Program.

This program includes: exhibitions, public lectures, artist workshops, and artist/student collaborations. Through these venues students are able to learn from and interact with leaders in the field and in turn utilize these skills and knowledge after they graduate.

Additionally, the Ingham Chapman Gallery is responsive to the cultural diversity of the region. It is crucial that students experience artists that look like them and see cultural reflections created by artists who come from similar backgrounds. There is only so much cultural perspective that I, an outsider, can provide. The most powerful, meaningful, and lasting experiences come from our diverse roster of visiting artists. Artists, using all media and coming from all cultural backgrounds, are included in upcoming plans.

Recently, the Ingham Chapman Gallery has focused on sponsoring primarily Native artists, including but not limited to: Demian Dine Yazhi (Navajo), Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Lakota, Arikara), Melissa Cody (Navajo), Lola Cody (Navajo), Martha Gorman Schultz (Navajo), Raven Chacon (Navajo), Douglas Miles (San Carlos Apache), Nanibah Chacon

(Navajo), and Clarence Cruz (Tewa/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo).

As Indigenous art has become increasingly valued by the larger art market, the Ingham Chapman Gallery is committed to representing a variety of both traditional and non-traditional voices. This includes younger artists just finding their way, plus more established artists who have been active and practicing for quite some time. This representative view is crucial as UNMGallup is able to provide space, support, and resources to artists who continue to create and preserve culture.

As our most recent visiting artist, Douglas Miles (San Carlos Apache), stated, “Native people have always made things. When I make things, I am creating culture.”

We, at UNM-Gallup and the Ingham Chapman Gallery, try to do our small part in ensuring that the diverse cultures of our region are celebrated and supported.

All photos provided by John Van’t Land