Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Receives Five-Million-Dollar Donation from MacKenzie Scott

SANTA FE, N.M: December 15, 2020 - The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is thrilled to announce that MacKenzie Scott has made an unrestricted donation of Five Million Dollars to IAIA.

This past Summer, Scott, a noted philanthropist, "asked a team of advisors to help me accelerate my 2020 giving through immediate support to people suffering the economic effects of the (COVID-19) crisis. They took a data-driven approach to identifying organizations with strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital."

IAIA is one of 384 organizations that Scott's team identified as part of this initiative.

This generous donation could not have come at a better, and more vital, time.

IAIA will put the donation to very good use, starting immediately. This will include increasing financial and technical assistance to our students who are struggling to continue their studies during this pandemic that has had such disastrous impacts on Indian Country.

We are also looking at funding endowed scholarships, getting our IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts off the ground, and building capacity to offer exciting graduate programs in Studio Arts and Museum Studies.

IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee) remarked that "This generous gift will be truly transformational for the college, which will unquestionably strengthen IAIA's ability to serve our students and other stakeholders. Most importantly, it will help to ensure that we achieve our vision to continue expanding our mission to offer culturally-based undergraduate and graduate programs that benefit Indigenous peoples in the arts.

Loren Kieve (Cherokee), Chair of the IAIA Board of Trustees, commented: "We are so grateful to MacKenzie Scott, not only for her very generous donation, but her recognition of IAIA as an institution with a result-oriented leadership team. We will use the funds to continue to further IAIA's mission of empowering creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning, and outreach."

For more information please contact Eric Davis at 505.424.2351, or eric.davis@iaia.edu.