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The Jurors

Invited Jurors

Gerald Dawavendewa

Gerald Dawavendewa (Hopi / Cherokee) is a member of the Sun Clan of the Hopi Tribe. He received a B.A. in fine arts from the University of Arizona, Tucson. He currently works at Bahti Indian Arts and is a freelance graphic designer and museum consultant. Previously, he completed an internship at the National Museum of the American Indian and has worked at the Arizona State Museum as well as other institutions around the country. The Butterfly Dance is a children's book written and illustrated by Gerald, and he also created the current logo for ASM’s Paths of Life exhibit. Dawavendewa masterfully created the logo while he was a student working at the museum. He has won many awards all around the country for his beautiful artwork.

Ryan Huna Smith inspects an entry

Ryan Huna Smith (Chemehuevi / Navajo) is an artist and an enrolled member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes in Parker, Arizona. Ryan attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, focusing on two-dimensional art and received his bachelor's degree in fine arts at the University of Arizona, majoring in illustration. Ryan is currently the program manager of the Upward Bound Program at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. He is a member of PCC’s adjunct faculty where he teaches watercolor. Ryan also works as a freelance artist and illustrator and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Smith has won many awards and recently co-created a mobile app comic book tilted, It's Up 2 You! with ASM's Director of Education Lisa Falk. The comic highlights the choices youths might make to affect their health and happiness. It includes a "healthy challenge" game and audio in English, Spanish and Tohono O'odham. The mobile app was developed to complement an exhibit hosted at the museum entitled, Through the Eyes of the Eagle.

White Swann

White Swann (Hopi), also known as Dollie Navasie, is an acclaimed Hopi potter of the Water Clan who grew up in the Antelope Mesa area of the Hopi Reservation. She learned the art of pottery making at an early age by watching her mother, Fawn Navasie. Her clay is hand dug and processed. The pottery is coiled the traditional way and fired outdoors with sheep dung. She uses yucca to make her paint brushes for painting her intricate designs. She shows at all the major venues throughout the Southwest and consistently does well. Some of her recent shows include Santa Fe Indian Market, Heard Museum Show, and a "One Man" show at the Hopi Artisans Guild at Second Mesa. She was recently distinguished as the recipient of the SWAIA's prestigious fellowship award and has been featured in nearly every major publication dealing with Indian Art. She also won a prestigious blue ribbon at the Museum of Northern Arizona's Hopi Show in Flagstaff

Youth Award Juror

Dawn Cromwell

Dawn Cromwell was the founding program coordinator of the Southwest Indian Art Fair.

The program as we know it today is largely due to her initial vision. In addition to her twenty-four years of experience developing multicultural education programs in the public programs division of Arizona State Museum, Dawn holds two degrees in fine art from The University of Arizona and has a broad background in the studio arts. She has been a leader and mentor for local, state, and regional education programs as well. She has served as a past juror for the Youth Awards category at SWIAF and is a patron of all the arts including music, creative writing, studio arts, theater, architecture, and interior design.

Dawn has had a long commitment to youth arts and embraces the philosophy, “If we believe the creative process is an essential component for living, then we must nurture this in our youth today.”

Acquisition Award Jurors

Diane Dittemore

Diane Dittemore, acting head of collections and curator of ethnological collections at ASM, has extensive knowledge of ASM's broad contemporary and historic collections.

Andrew Higgins (left) comments on an entry; ASM staffer Frank Finkenberg holds the recorder.

Andrew Higgins, assistant curator of ethnological collections at ASM, has extensive knowledge of American Indian arts and crafts, particularly pre-1940 and cutting edge contemporary work.

Friends of the ASM Collections jurors Susan Smith, Kay Hendricks, and Paddy Schwartz (left to right) surround the award-winning basket held by Tohono O'odham Community Action representative Terrol Dew Johnson
Photo by Lana Tupponce.

Kay Hendricks, Paddy Schwartz, and Susan Smith, who constitute this year's Friends of the ASM Collections acquisition award committee, are avid students as well as collectors of Southwest Indian art.

Photos by Jannelle Weakly except as noted.