2024 Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show Ceremony, Hosted by Executive Director of SWAIA, Jamie Schulze - Epi. 308

So for anyone who's never gone to Santa Fe Indian Market, I'll just give you the lowdown on what happens on the Friday beforehand. You have this event around noon-ish where they announce all of the winners for that year. Now, it's mainly for the artists and the press, but we were fortunate enough to have sponsored the grand prize, which is the Best of Show award and as a result we got to attend the ceremony. I asked SWAIA if we could film the event and release it as an episode of my podcast, got the all-clear, and now this episode is the recording of that incredible event.

I mean, it's just like you're in the room. I would recommend watching this on YouTube so you can actually see their faces and the emotion in the room. The speeches which often have segments in the artists' Native languages are so compelling. I think it's so important to see what this world of Santa Fe indian Market means to the artists. 

Some of these people have worked for 50 years to get where they are such as the winner of the weaving category Isabel Gonzalez. It's such an amazing thing to see. The same goes for artist Dan Vallo, who won the Best of Show award. To see and hear the emotion, time, effort and energy it takes to do these  pieces... it was remarkable.

Again, this podcast is the entire ceremony with all of the different Best of Classification awards. So I hope you take the time to listen (even better - watch on the YouTube) because you'll really get an insight into what it was like for those artists at that moment in time, and often winning these awards is genuinely life changing.

The 2024 Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show Award Ceremony was an incredible experience and I'm so glad to have sponsored the award for the last two years. We look forward to platforming and celebrating the incredible Native American artists for years to come.