The National Endowment for the Arts has announced that two New Mexico artists have won 2022 National Heritage Fellowships.
Flamenco artist Eva Encinias of Albuquerque and Shiprock Navajo/Diné weaver TahNibaa Naataanii have each been awarded the nation’s highest honors in the folk and traditional arts.
“In their artistic practice, the NEA National Heritage Fellows tell their own stories on their own terms. They pass on their skills and knowledge to others through mentorship and teaching,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, president of the National Endowment for the Arts. “These honorary members not only support the cultural history of their art form and of their community, they also enrich our nation as a whole.”
The two New Mexico recipients were part of a group of 10 artists recognized across the country.
Born into a family of flamenco dancers and performers, Encinias carries on the tradition through her teaching and performance, and through the National Institute of Flamenco, which she founded in 1982. She continues to lead the artistic programming.
Encinias, a retired dance professor at the University of New Mexico, learned to dance within her own family and at her mother’s dance academy.
Inspired by her grandmother’s wool and carding tools, Naataanii’s curiosity inspired a lifelong love of weaving. Naataanii is also recognized as a gifted and prolific mentor and teacher of holistic Diné weaving practices – from sheep rearing to wool harvesting and dyeing, and through the complex techniques of developing and weaving textiles on a loom.
Naataanii is the 2022 recipient of the Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship, awarded in recognition of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.
Her work is a series of intricately woven garments and artworks that vary in color, shape, pattern and design. Some of her weaves follow “traditional” patterns—shoulder blankets and ponchos—while others incorporate abstract and contemporary designs. Her weaves have won multiple awards at art markets and judged art shows. Naataanii is committed to reviving traditional Navajo textile weaving with pupils and students in the Diné community, as well as educating the public about Navajo weaving culture and traditions.
Each grant includes a $25,000 prize and all recipients will be featured in a film premiering on arts.gov in November 2022. Through the film, viewers will have the opportunity to tour the homes and communities where the fellows live and work, providing a connection to the different art forms and traditions these artists practice.
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