The Poeh Center was established by the Pueblo of Pojoaque in 1988 to: Support the future of Pueblo People by Teaching the Arts, by Collecting Great Works of Art, and by Promoting Public Understanding of, and Respect for, Pueblo History and Culture. The Center emphasizes the arts and cultures of all Pueblo People, with focus on the Tewa-speaking Pueblos of the northern Rio Grande: Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara and Tesuque; and on the Tiwa Pueblos of Picuris and Taos.
In Tewa, “Poeh” means pathway. The Poeh Center is a living pathway where tradition travels between the past and the present and leads into the future, ensuring further creativity. In keeping with this, The Poeh Center is launching a new e-commerce venture, The Poeh Store, to open new markets for Pueblo and other local Native American artists and to ensure their continued creativity and economic well being.
In 1994, the Center’s educational program, Poeh Arts, became the U.S. Department of Education’s only arts-centered American Indian vocational education grantee. Since 1996, 125 local artists have graduated. Another 200 continue to take classes to improve their artistic, business and marketing skills. This combined training helps artists to increase their income. Yet, Pueblo artists need a large-scale direct market to attain and sustain major cottage industry growth while maintaining traditional lifestyles. The rapidly growing international market for Native American art is now estimated at between $1.5 and $2 billion a year. Both national and international markets can be accessed through The Poeh Store.
Start-up funds for The Poeh Store have been committed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Administration for Native Americans, by Qwest and by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation. The Poeh Store’s interfacing of technology and art will create jobs in both fields. An estimated 25 artists will realize economic gains in the first year and staff will be hired and trained in database, technology systems and website management.
Northern New Mexico is a major center for American Indian art and for cultural tourism. Through links from a broad range of related sites, The Poeh Store will encourage visitors to purchase art, online, once they have been exposed to Native art through cultural tourism and returned home. This will create and increase economic and employment opportunities for accomplished artists and those who are students in the Poeh Arts Program. It will generate new revenues for the Center to help support the creation and operations of its new Museum, set to open in 2002. It will also build a solid foundation for retail growth as, within the next three years, the Center creates a viable on-line Gift Shop to complement The Poeh Store.
The Poeh Store will feature the work of prominent artists whose name recognition will draw buyers to the site, as well as the work of Native artists who participate in Poeh Arts’ vocational education program. The featured work will range from traditional and contemporary pottery and jewelry to stone sculpture, painting and prints. The Poeh Center’s Museum now prepares and mounts three exhibitions a year to promote and market works of these artists. The Poeh Store website will host a virtual gallery that will change with each new Museum show, with other examples of the artists’ work for sale or inspection, and a brief biography. All work will be available for direct sale through a secured site for credit card transactions. The Poeh Center will receive a commission on each sale generated through The Poeh Store, but as a nonprofit corporation, it anticipates that the artists will receive a higher percentage of the sale than they currently receive from private, for-profit galleries.
