Art, Film and Music Under One Roof — and It’s All Free: Pathways Festival Returns August 14–16
PUEBLO OF POJOAQUE, N.M. — As Santa Fe’s summer Native art season draws collectors and visitors from around the world, the Poeh Cultural Center is offering an alternative to the downtown market experience: the sixth annual Pathways Indigenous Arts Festival, August 14–16, 2026, at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino on Pueblo of Pojoaque land just a few minutes north of the city.
Pathways is built around access: admission is free, parking is free, and the festival spans both a large indoor market hall and outdoor booths, so the experience isn’t at the mercy of weather. Prices for artwork at the more than 350 artist range from affordable, take-home pieces to museum-quality fine art, giving both first-time buyers and serious collectors a reason to attend.
More than a market, Pathways is built to feel like a gathering: artists, families and visitors mingling shoulder to shoulder across the market, food court and main stage, with a relaxed, community-oriented atmosphere that invites people to linger rather than just shop and go.
“Art is an expression of culture and our views of the world,” said Karl Duncan, Executive Director of the Poeh Cultural Center.
What to expect:
• Arts Market — Hundreds of Native artists selling pottery, jewelry, painting, textiles and beadwork directly from their own booths
• Live Entertainment — Continuous performances on the main stage all three days, including Acoma Family Dance Group, Nung Towa Dance Group, Yellow Bird Apache Dancers, Gary Farmer and The Troublemakers, and the Pueblo of Pojoaque Youth Hoop Dancers
•Pathways Film Festival — Three days of features and short films from Native filmmakers screening in the resort’s Caldera and Barranca Rooms, including Jim Thorpe: Lit By Lightning, Free Leonard Pelteir and a Dark Winds Q&A
• Nonprofit & Community Booths — Organizations including First Nations Development Institute, Pueblo Action Alliance, Indigenous Women Rising and the Hopi Foundation.
• Food Court — Native and regional cuisine from food tents, trucks, and snack and drink vendors all weekend long
Notable Artists in This Year’s Market Among the over 300 artists selling directly from their booths this year are several whose work and recognition reach well beyond Indian Country:
Clarence Cruz (Khaayay), an Ohkay Owingeh potter and longtime University of New Mexico art professor, received the Lifetime Achievement Allan Houser Legacy Award from the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts in 2012 and was named a 2020 Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow by First Nations Development Institute and the Henry Luce Foundation. He was designated successor in the art of traditional Pueblo pottery by the late Acoma potter Mary Lewis Garcia, daughter of pottery matriarch Lucy Lewis.
Mallery Quetawki, a Zuni Pueblo artist and Artist-in-Residence with the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, has had work displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Grounded in Clay” exhibition in New York and created the large-scale mural “Morning Prayer,” on permanent display at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Shonie De La Rosa, a Navajo 2-D artist and filmmaker, directed “Mile Post 398,” the first feature film in cinema history written, produced, directed and starring an all-Navajo cast and crew, which won honors at the American Indian Film Festival, Fargo Film Festival and Tulalip Film Festival. His 2024 feature “The Arrangement” is the first film produced primarily in the Diné language.
Lynnette Haozous, a painter and muralist of San Carlos Apache, Chiricahua Apache, Navajo and Taos Pueblo descent, is the great-niece of renowned sculptor Allan Houser. Known for murals that blend art and social advocacy, her work has been exhibited at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe.
About the Poeh Cultural Center The Poeh Cultural Center is a tribally operated institution of the Pueblo of Pojoaque dedicated to sustaining Tewa traditions through being, doing, and sharing.
WHAT: Pathways Indigenous Arts Festival
WHEN: August 14–16, 2026
WHERE: Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino, 20 Buffalo Thunder Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87506
COST: Free admission and free on-site parking
