Each summer, the Santa Fe Indian Market brings exceptional Indigenous artists together around the Santa Fe Plaza to showcase their work at the largest juried Native art show in the world. This year’s 2025 market will celebrate the artistic and cultural community the market has fostered since its inception in 1922, as well as the tribal communities it reflects. “It’s really vital in this day and age to remember how the arts connect us back not only to ourselves, but also to our community members,” says Executive Director Jamie Schulze (Northern Cheyenne/Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate).
Dive Into Santa Fe Indian Market 2025, August 16 – 17
With over 1,000 artists from 252 different tribal nations across North America, the variety of art at the market is vast. Jewelry, pottery, paintings, drawings, graphics, pueblo wood carvings, sculpture, textiles, beadwork, quillwork and basketry span 12 blocks on and around the Santa Fe Plaza. All of these art forms, Schulze says, highlight “how art not only heals, but has been a technique for keeping different traditional pathways alive.”
Board President Dawn Houle (Chippewa Cree) calls this variety one of her favorite things about the market. She was introduced to the vast breadth of Indigenous North American artwork while pursuing a degree in forestry from the University of Montana, which required her to visit different tribes across the country each summer. She would always make a point of stopping into a gallery or gift shop and choosing a small memento, like an ornament or a piece of beadwork. “Every tribe has such a different use of the forest or the environment around them,” Houle says.
The Next Generation of Artists
Young artists are a key part of the market, too. “We’re really excited that our youth component has grown,” Houle says. “It’s a lifeline that truly builds that next generation of artists doing beautiful work.” Artist Services Coordinator Mona Perea (San Ildefonso Pueblo) loves scoping out new talent and showing them they have what it takes to be a part of the market, often getting up at 5 am to road trip to different pueblos and reservations doing outreach. “The youth, they grab my heart,” she says. “They always tell me they feel intimidated, and then they start showing me pictures of their work on their phone and my jaw drops.”
Perea strives for perfection down to the last detail. “It’s always sleepless nights prior to market,” she laughs. “We create opportunity, and we’re their advocates — but at the end of the day, the artists are the superstars, they’re the ones creating this beautiful world’s finest art, and it’s just a wonderful feeling to see that all happen in one weekend.”
What to See at the Santa Fe Indian Market
One must-see market event is the Best of Show awards. The winners are announced on Friday, August 15, and their art is on view at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center throughout the day before artists come to collect their work to showcase at their booths for the rest of the weekend. It’s a unique opportunity to see the best of what the market has to offer in one place.
For Schulze, it all comes back to community, visiting with artists, elders and culture-bearers who may not be exhibiting but come to the market to see old friends and make new ones. But what really brings visitors back year after year? “The artists themselves,” Schulze says. “This has been evolving for 103 years, so it’s an amazing opportunity to come see what our Native voices are bringing forward in art.”
Story by Annabella Farmer
Photos by Gabriella Marks
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