The Poeh Center was officially established by the Tribal Council of the Pueblo of Pojoaque in 1989. Its mission is 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, its Museum and its educational component, Poeh Arts, are on Pojoaque Tribal land in Santa Fe County, 15 miles north of the Plaza. A unique resource, the Poeh’s facilities and programs are rooted in and driven by the Native American community. Together, they can take a major role in attracting and expanding audiences who might benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of Pueblo arts and cultures from Tribal viewpoints.
In the Tewa language, “Poeh” means pathway. The Poeh Center is a living pathway where tradition travels between the past and the present. It embodies the essence of what it means to be Tewa in a context of cultural continuity. It emphasizes the arts and cultures of all Pueblo People, with special attention to the northern Rio Grande’s six Tewa-speaking Pueblos: Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara and Tesuque. It also highlights the Tiwa-speaking Pueblos of Picuris and Taos. A valuable resource for all Native American artists, it is also a rare venue to present Pueblo cultures of the region -- from Pueblo perspectives -- to the broad public.
For a decade, Poeh Arts, the Center’s educational component, has provided vocational education and trained American Indian artists in traditional and contemporary arts and in entrepreneurial skills. This allows Native artists to create traditional work and modern interpretations and to market their arts locally and soon, worldwide, through e-commerce. Poeh Arts’ Vocational Education Program has provided services to approximately 1,000 adult and youth students since 1993. Its constituencies range from established and emerging artists from nearby Pueblos to Native American students from throughout the U.S. and Canada who attend the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and are seeking more in-depth knowledge of traditional Pueblo art forms. Poeh Arts’ summer program serves children and youth from the Pueblos. Poeh Arts initiated a model school-based elementary arts education program at Santa Clara Day School this past year, which served 30 children, and additional adult classes in Taos and at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Since 1996, Poeh Arts has operated out of new classroom and studio space, built with traditional adobe construction methods, as Phase I of the three-acre Poeh Center complex.
The Poeh Museum opened in 1991 in an adjacent 1,200 square foot facility. It exhibits handcrafted Pueblo and other Native American art and is open to the general public, free of charge, on a daily basis. As the public program of the Poeh Center, it strives to enrich the life of Pueblo communities and to educate all people about the Pueblos’ rich legacies and vibrant present through its collections of art and artifacts, and its exhibitions. These exhibits highlight the works of Poeh Arts’ vocational arts students, and have included invitational retrospectives of two and three-dimensional works of selected master Pueblo artists and artisans, and work created by children and youth who participate in Poeh Arts’ summer programs.
A 12,000 square-foot Phase II Museum and Administrative building was constructed over 1999. All Poeh Staff now work together in the upper level’s new offices. As a team, they are focusing energies on final Museum planning and design and on securing resources to ensure that, within the next two years, they can complete the Museum which will include the installation of the 1,600 square foot permanent exhibition, Nah-Poeh-Me, which is Tewa for On the Continuous Path; a changing gallery, an open collections area; a demonstration space; a reception/orientation area and a gift shop.
Concurrently with this, the Poeh Center is beginning an expanded promotional campaign to ensure the general public becomes aware of the wealth of artistic and educational resources of its Museum and of the outstanding quality of art produced by Poeh Arts students. Funds and sponsorships are now being sought for this expanded advertising, publicity and promotion campaign and to allow the Center to evaluate and identify which means of promotion are most effective in reaching and attracting a broad audience, prior to the Spring 2002 Museum opening.
Once opened, the Museum will offer an enriched program of public and educational activities. These will include orientations to both the Museum and surrounding Pueblos, demonstrations of Pueblo arts every weekend and in conjunction with scheduled tours; integration of video and audio presentations, bringing in the voice, language and stories of Pueblo elders; and increased access to the Museum’s collections for viewing and research. The collections area will always be staffed by a member of a Tewa-speaking Pueblo to assist researchers with content, context and interpretation. The Museum will also create an education component to work with all visitors and school and tour groups and survey visitors to evaluate the quality of their Museum experience.
Among the long-range goals of the Center, as reflected in its mission statement, is a deep concern about promoting public understanding of, and respect for, Pueblo history and culture. The expanded marketing campaign marks the first time the Center has set out a strategic plan for promotion. A mix of activities will be geared to increase public participation of all residents of the greater Santa Fe area, as well as to attract out-of-state visitors. All visitors should find the Museum an excellent orientation to Pueblo arts and to the cultures and traditions of the surrounding Pueblo communities.
The primary audiences for the Center’s programs have, until now, been Native Americans from local Pueblos, other American Indian Tribal members with stated interests in the arts, non-Native area residents with particular interests in Pueblo arts, collectors, and tourists seeking insight into Pueblo cultures. The staff will expand a prototype Museum Education program with the Santa Fe Public School’s Indian Education Program in the 2000- 2001 school year. This effort brings students on-site for both cultural education and to model careers in the arts and museum and arts administration for Native American children. It also creates a community for many of these children who are growing up outside traditional tribal and extended family systems.
The Officers of the Tribal Council of the Pueblo of Pojoaque serve as the Board of the Poeh Center. The Poeh Center Advisory Board is comprised of members of Pojoaque and the other Tewa-speaking tribes who have strong backgrounds in the arts and humanities, as well as non-Native individuals who have museum backgrounds, combined with in-depth knowledge of the cultural and artistic legacies of these Tribes.
Poeh Arts is constantly conducting outreach efforts to recruit American Indians into its educational efforts. It collaborates with a broad spectrum of Tribal and Native American entities and organizations throughout New Mexico; utilizes both print and electronic media in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba Counties and the Center’s website; and recently recruited students through prominently-placed billboards on Routes 84/285 in the Pueblo of Pojoaque. All of this activity attracted a record enrollment for this semester.
