First American Art Magazine

First American Art Magazine
Title	First American Art Magazine
Category	Indigenous art, Native American studies, visual arts
Firstdate	2013
Country	United States
Language	English

First American Art Magazine is a quarterly publication dedicated to Indigenous visual cultures in North America, focusing on historical and contemporary Native American, Alaska Native, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis art. The magazine covers scholarship, criticism, curatorial projects, exhibition reviews, and artist profiles, engaging readers interested in museum practice, anthropology, and art history.

History

Founded in 2013, the magazine emerged amid conversations at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Peabody Essex Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Brooklyn Museum about representation of Indigenous collections. Early issues featured collaborations with curators and scholars associated with Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of British Columbia, and University of Toronto. The launch coincided with exhibitions like Sovereignty, Manifestations of Sovereignty, and shows at the Walker Art Center, Seattle Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Art Institute of Chicago. The magazine drew attention alongside initiatives at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, National Gallery of Canada, Royal Ontario Museum, Field Museum, and Denver Art Museum.

Contributors linked the periodical to repatriation and cultural property discussions involving the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, debates in front of the Presidential Advisory Council on Native American Affairs, and projects with tribal nations including the Haida Nation, Navajo Nation, Lakota Sioux, Cree, Ojibwe, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Hopi. Coverage tracked changing curatorial practice influenced by figures associated with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, and academic presses such as University of Washington Press and University of Nebraska Press.

Editorial Leadership and Contributors

Editorial leadership has included editors and advisors with ties to institutions like Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and universities including Yale University, University of British Columbia, University of Oklahoma, and Arizona State University. Contributing authors and critics have affiliations with museums and programs at MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, British Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, and academic centers such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Rutgers University, and Cornell University.

Featured artists and scholars have included practitioners and researchers linked to names such as Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Norval Morrisseau, Bill Reid, Shelly Niro, Daphne Odjig, T.C. Cannon, Kay WalkingStick, Rick Bartow, Marcel Dzama (contextual), Jeffrey Gibson, Nadine Nakhid-Schlosser (contextual), and curators associated with Theaster Gates, Yoshiko Shimada (contextual). Peer reviewers and advisory board members have been drawn from programs at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and the National Museum of the American Indian fellowship networks.

Content and Themes

The magazine publishes essays on Indigenous material culture, modernism, contemporary installations, performance art, textile traditions, beadwork, carving, printmaking, and photography. Articles connect case studies at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, British Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with fieldwork in regions including the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains, Arctic, Subarctic, Northeast Woodlands, and Southwest.

Themes include curatorial practice and exhibition histories tied to shows at the Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Philadelphia Museum of Art; conservation and provenance debates involving the Field Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, and Royal BC Museum; and critical writing on decolonization, repatriation, sovereignty, and Indigenous futurisms resonant with scholarship from University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University.

Distribution and Circulation

Distributed in print and digital formats, the magazine reaches subscribers at academic libraries including Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Bodleian Library (contextual), and major university libraries at Harvard University, Yale University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and University of Chicago. Institutional subscriptions extend to museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Canada, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, and Tate Modern. Circulation channels include specialty bookstores and museum shops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Peabody Essex Museum, and regional centers in Alaska, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Mexico.

Reception and Influence

Scholars and curators at institutions like National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, and University of British Columbia have cited the magazine in exhibition catalogues and syllabi. Reviews appeared in outlets associated with the New York Times arts pages, criticism circles around Frieze, Artforum, and academic journals published by University of Chicago Press and Oxford University Press (contextual). The magazine has been referenced in grant proposals to funding bodies including the National Endowment for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, and private foundations connected to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Partnerships and Events

First American Art Magazine partners with museums, universities, and cultural centers for public programs, symposia, and conferences at venues such as the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Walker Art Center, Art Gallery of Ontario, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Banff Centre (contextual), University of British Columbia, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and city festivals in Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, Santa Fe, and New York City. Collaborative projects have included panel series with curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and academic symposia organized with the Association of Art Historians (contextual) and the American Anthropological Association.

Category:Magazines published in the United States