Tradition and Innovation: A New Spin on an Ancient Practice

Image: Nora Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo). Figures, mudheads, 2000. SAR.2000-5-8A-C. Photograph by Addison Doty. Copyright 2020 School for Advanced Research.

Nora Naranjo Morse (Santa Clara), Margarita Paz Pedro (Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo, Santa Clara)

This event is part of the series Cultural Currents: The Role of Mentorship in Native Arts.

Mentorship in the arts has long played an important role in the continuation and growth of cultural knowledge and practice in Native communities. This year’s Native Arts Speaker Series explores the relationship between artists and their mentors and the ways in which mentorship both preserves Native Arts and provides new paths for advancement.

Join us and our esteemed speakers for conversations about the mentor-mentee relationship, the continued importance of passing on cultural knowledge, skills, and artistic practices to the next generation, and the ways mentorship continues to shape the future of both traditional and contemporary Native Arts.

All events are free to the public and take place at the School for Advanced Research. The events can also be viewed live on SAR’s YouTube channel.

Lenora Naranjo-Morse
Kha’P’o Tewa [Santa Clara Pueblo]

Nora Naranjo-Morse was born and raised in Northern New Mexico. Nora is a contemporary artist who energizes Pueblo ancestral sensibility into her art using earth based materials to create large Public Art installations. One of Nora’s public art piece is at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. Naranjo Morse. Nora also works in a number of media. Nora is a hands on learner and educator. Her public art piece at the National Museum of the American Indian, Always Becoming, in many ways exemplifies Nora’s leadership. Always Becoming is interactive, collaborative, and needs yearly, collective tending. Nora widens the circle of collaboration by sharing her art process and cultural information with others in her community and beyond.Naranjo Morse lives on Kha’P’o tribal land in an adobe house she helped to build.

Margarita Paz-Pedro
Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo & Santa Clara Pueblo

Born in Albuquerque, NM, raised in Las Cruces, NM and with family in Laguna Pueblo, Margarita has ties across NM. Her background is core to her artmaking. She is a ceramic artist, teacher, organizer, and muralist. She received her BFA with an emphasis in Ceramics in 2003 from the University of Colorado-Boulder, an MA in Art Education in 2008 at the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Studio Arts-Integrated Practice from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2023. She has been able to travel, participate in Artist Residencies and study under some fierce female artists. Since 2009, she has worked as a lead artist with the ALMA Summer Institute of ALMA, creating large-scale public art mosaic murals across New Mexico. She is currently an adjunct professor in Ceramics, where she can reciprocate the knowledge that has been given and shared with her, to others. She is a partner to a fellow artist and together they have a rowdy 11 year old.

Host or Publisher School for Advanced Research