Young dance at the Indian Market on the square in Santa Fe
We went to the Indian Market in Santa Fe. It is an amazing amount of pottery, art, jewelry and clothing in booths filling the town square and the surrounding streets. What is not so obvious is how these spaces have been allocated. There is something called an application and jurying process for being selected to participate in the market.
Artists that wish to apply for the upcoming Indian Market must fill out an application. The application includes sections on contact info, proof of tribal enrollment in a Federally American/Canadian recognized tribe/band/corporation, images of the artists' work and descriptions, certification statements, and an application fee. Upon submission, the application and images are reviewed by a panel of jurors who then give a score based on 4 criteria. The score is then totaled with a possible high of 300 points. Artists are selected based upon that score, with a percentage of placed artists dependent upon the number of applicants in each classification.
So the chosen are the ones that appear in the square and the immediate surrounding blocks. But then there are the "Free" market Indian artists. These are the people were not selected by the jurying process. The wares are on display in booths farther out from the square. It is not that they have not been doing this for years or that their work is somehow inferior to the the selected. But it is true that because they don't have the overhead of lobbying for the jury selection, their prices are lower.
We found the "free" market booths on the second day. Many of them were in a park surrounding a local church. Just as an example of the difference. I was looking at a pot/vase in the town square. The artist wanted $650. In the "free" market a similar style vase was $175 and I suspect even that was negotiable. Buyer beware as they say. Believe me though plenty of people were willing to pay both prices.
There were lots of street performers. These gentlemen are playing drums. The man with the feathers was dancing but I missed getting a video.
These women were dancing. I also have a video.
Beautiful plants all around the square.
Video
I took a lot of pictures in Santa Fe that are not related to the Indian Market. I will share them in another post about the area.
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