The Department of Film & Digital Arts within the College of Fine Arts at The University of New Mexico has announced the establishment of its first scholarship specifically aimed at supporting Indigenous Native students. Additionally, a new course titled "Indigenous People on Screen" will be introduced.
The course will be taught by Tara Gatewood, the former host of Native America Calling. Gatewood is an award-winning journalist and an enrolled citizen of the Pueblo of Isleta/Diné. She currently serves as the director of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Fund for Indigenous Journalists Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People. She also hosts "Indigenous Foundation," a music and public affairs program broadcasted on Santa Fe New Mexico’s KSFR 101.1 FM. Furthermore, Gatewood is involved as a community curator/co-curator for "Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery," an exhibition curated by Native American communities, sponsored by the Pueblo Pottery Collective. This exhibition was recently showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
This year’s scholarships and the new course were made possible through a generous donation from UNM alumna Katrina Parks. Parks stated, “The Bertha Drabkin Goodwin Leviton Foundation is excited to support this scholarship in honor of its founder, my great aunt Bertha, who was an educator, and my grandmother Gladys, who worked as a nurse on the Navajo Reservation. One of Gladys’ areas of focus was eye health, and so we are extending the idea of vision beyond the physical to support American Indian film and digital art makers’ visions.”
For more information about the UNM College of Fine Arts and its Department of Film and Digital Arts or to contribute tax-deductible gifts to this scholarship fund, interested parties may contact Shelly Smith, Director of Development at shelly.smith@unmfund.org.
