Dave Warren
Dr. Dave Warren is being recognized for his leadership and scholarship contributing to creating awareness of the role of arts in the development of cultural institutions.
Dave Warren
Santa Clara Pueblo
2014 Recipient, Major Contributor to the Arts
Dr. Dave Warren has been named a major contributor to the arts. Dr. Dave Warren, Pueblo Scholar and Historian, is being recognized for being one of the first American Indians to obtain a PhD, and for his leadership and scholarship contributing to creating awareness of the role of arts in the development of cultural institutions. Warren was at the forefront of a movement to change policies aimed at destroying Native culture to preserving and protecting the oldest cultures of the Southwest.
As an advocate of Native arts and self-determination, Dr. Warren has had a profound impact on advancing Indian arts and culture and the perceptions that the public has of Native people. Warren received his doctorate in 1955 from the University of New Mexico in history. He is an enrolled member of the Santa Clara Pueblo and is an historian of North American Indians and Latin American Indigenous people. He has taught at the University of Nebraska, Oklahoma State University, and Albuquerque Public Schools.
Dr. Warren was deeply involved with the Institute of American Indian Arts for more than three decades, where he served as Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Director of the Cultural Research and Resources Center, and was Acting President in 1978-79. In 1975-76, he served as the acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Education. Warren served twice as Special Assistant for Applied Community Research in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Service at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Warren is the founding deputy director of the National Museum of the American Indian. Warren wrote the philosophy and design considerations for the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC). His perspectives, thoughts, and instructions have served as guiding principles for the MIAC and continue to influence programming, exhibits and community engagement.
Dr. Warren's public service appointments are commendable: President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities; Member of the Board for the National Endowment for the Humanities; National Park Service Advisory Board; and Buffalo Trust Board Member. Dr. Warren has been recognized with numerous awards including: New Mexico Foundation for the Humanities; the Povi'ka Lifetime Service Award from the Southwest Association of Indian Arts; Honorary Doctorate from Tulane University; and the Santa Fe Living Treasures Award in 2013. Additionally he was recognized by the Santa Clara Pueblo for his efforts toward the recovery of Popii Khanu, the Santa Clara headwaters.