Skip to main content

## Search

My Visit

Donate

Smithsonian Institution

## Site Navigation

- Visit   - Hours and Locations
  - Entry and Guidelines
  - Maps and Floor Plans
  - Dining and Shopping
  - Accessibility
  - Visiting with Kids
  - Group Visits     - Group Sales
- What's On   - Exhibitions     - Current
    - Upcoming
    - Past
  - Today's Events
  - Online Events
  - All Events
  - IMAX & Planetarium
- Explore   - Art & Design
  - History & Culture
  - Science & Nature
  - Collections     - Open Access
  - Research Resources     - Libraries
    - Archives       - Smithsonian Institution Archives
      - Air and Space Museum
      - Anacostia Community Museum
      - American Art Museum
      - Archives of American Art
      - Archives of American Gardens
      - American History Museum
      - American Indian Museum
      - Asian Art Museum Archives
      - Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, African Art
      - Hirshhorn Archive
      - National Anthropological Archives
      - National Portrait Gallery
      - Ralph Rinzler Archives, Folklife
      - Libraries' Special Collections
  - Podcasts
  - Mobile Apps
- Learn   - For Caregivers
  - For Educators     - Art & Design Resources
    - Science & Nature Resources
    - Social Studies & Civics Resources
    - Professional Development
    - Events for Educators
    - Field Trips
  - For Students
  - For Academics
  - For Lifelong Learners
- Get Involved   - Volunteer     - Behind-the-Scenes
    - Digital Volunteers
    - Smithsonian Call Center
    - Visitor Information Specialist
    - Docent Programs
  - Citizen Science
  - Work with Us     - Office of Human Resources       - Working Here
      - Employee Benefits
      - How to Apply
      - Job Opportunities
      - Job Seekers with Disabilities
      - Frequently Asked Questions
      - SI Civil Program
      - Contact Us
    - Affiliations
    - Global Partners
- Support   - About Membership
  - Become a Member
  - Renew Your Membership
  - Make a Gift
- About   - Museums and Zoo
  - Research Centers
  - Cultural Centers
  - Education
  - Our Organization     - Leadership       - Cynthia Chavez Lamar
      - Secretary Bunch
      - Advancement
      - Communications
      - Administration
      - Education
      - Museums and Culture
      - Science and Research
    - Board of Regents       - Members
      - Committees
      - Reading Room
      - Bylaws, Policies and Procedures
      - Contact
      - Schedules and Agendas
      - Meeting Minutes
      - Actions
      - Webcasts
    - General Counsel       - Legal History
      - Internships
      - Records Requests         - Reading Room
      - Tort Claim
      - Subpoenas & Testimonies
      - Events
    - Equal Employment Office       - EEO Complaint Process
      - Individuals with Disabilities
      - Special Emphasis Program
      - Supplier Diversity Program         - Doing Business with Us
        - Policies and Procedures
        - Additional Resources
    - Sponsored Projects       - Policies         - Animal Care and Use
        - Human Research
      - Reports
      - Internships
  - Reports and Plans     - Annual Reports
    - Metrics Dashboard       - Dashboard Home
      - Virtual Smithsonian
      - Public Engagement
      - National Collections
      - Research
      - People & Operations
      - One Smithsonian
    - Strategic Plan
  - Newsdesk     - News Releases
    - Media Contacts
    - Photos and Video
    - Media Kits
    - Fact Sheets
    - Visitor Stats
    - Secretary and Admin Bios
    - Filming Requests

# Cynthia Chavez Lamar

#### Director, National Museum of the American Indian

Cynthia Chavez Lamar is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. She is the first Native woman to head a Smithsonian museum. Chavez Lamar oversees the museum’s three facilities: the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in Lower Manhattan and the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland.

Chavez Lamar is an accomplished curator, author and scholar whose research interests are focused on Southwest Native art and the methodologies and practices involved in collaborating with Indigenous communities.

Since January 2021, Chavez Lamar has served as acting associate director for collections and operations at the museum. She was responsible for overseeing its collections, facilities, safety and information technology departments. She led efforts to ensure effective management of and care for the museum’s collection, which is composed of more than 1 million objects and photographs and more than 500,000 digitized images, films and other media documenting Native communities, events and organizations.

Chavez Lamar has been at the museum most recently since 2014, and earlier in her career was a museum intern (1994) and later an associate curator (2000–2005). From 2014 through 2020, Chavez Lamar served as assistant director for collections at the museum. She guided the overall stewardship of the museum’s collection, which is one of the largest and most extensive collections of Native and Indigenous items in the world. Chavez Lamar led museum efforts to improve collection access and availability by advocating for and encouraging an increase in the number of collections online. She supported the development of a collection-information system module to record access, care and handling instructions provided by tribal, nation and community representatives. Chavez Lamar also established and prioritized partnerships and collaboration with Native nations and tribes and developed a loan program for tribal museum and cultural centers that provides training and technical assistance to enhance collections stewardship and reconnects descendant communities with the museum’s collections.

Chavez Lamar was the director of the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from 2007 to 2014. From 2006 to 2007, she was the director of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From 2000 to 2005, she was an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian and the lead curator for “Our Lives,” one of the inaugural exhibitions in the Washington, D.C., museum when it opened in 2004. She collaborated with eight Native communities on the exhibition.

Chavez Lamar was a presidential appointee to the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development in 2011. She was a governor’s appointee as a commissioner to the New Mexico Arts Commission from 2009 to 2012. She currently sits on the advisory group for Indigenous North America at the Princeton University Art Museum, and she is a member of the advisory board at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.

Chavez Lamar is an enrolled member at San Felipe Pueblo, and her ancestry also includes Hopi, Tewa and Navajo on the maternal side of her family. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado College in studio art, a master’s degree in American Indian studies from UCLA and a doctorate in American studies from the University of New Mexico. She also received an honorary doctorate from Colorado College for her contributions to the museum field.

# # #

SI-32-2022

                - Museums and Zoo
                - Research Centers
                - Cultural Centers
                - Education
                - Our Organization                   - Leadership                     - Cynthia Chavez Lamar
                    - Secretary Bunch
                    - Advancement
                    - Communications
                    - Administration
                    - Education
                    - Museums and Culture
                    - Science and Research
                  - Board of Regents
                  - General Counsel
                  - Equal Employment Office
                  - Sponsored Projects
                - Reports and Plans                   - Annual Reports
                  - Metrics Dashboard
                  - Strategic Plan
                - Newsdesk

##       Footer logo      

Link to homepage

###       Footer navigation      

- Contact Us
- Accessibility
- Job Opportunities
- Inspector General
- Records Requests
- EEO & Supplier Diversity
- Shop Online
- Host Your Event
- Press Room
- Privacy
- Terms of Use

###       Social media links      

- Facebook
- Instagram
- Twitter
- YouTube

###       Email signup form      

(Privacy Policy, Terms of Use)

Back to Top