Mission

American Indian Artists Inc. works to empower Native Americans, break down barriers, and foster intercultural understanding and appreciation for Native culture. Through a variety of arts programs and services to artists, AMERINDA supports Native artists who embody the traditional practices and values that define Indian culture. We also promote the indigenous perspective in the arts to a wide audience through the creation of new work in contemporary art forms - visual, performing, literary and media arts.

History

(Click HERE to read the text of the public service announcement.) Founded in 1987, American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA) is the only Native arts service organization in New York State. AMERINDA was started as a group of Native artists' direct response to the missing or negative images of Native Americans in the mainstream media.

Beginning with few financial resources, within one year, AMERINDA became a non-profit organization with community outreach and produced AMERINDA's most visible project, a public service announcement entitled YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE CONSTITUTION, that was broadcast nationally on 3 networks and cablecast on two networks to over 150,000,000 people for more than a year. A print ad of the same published in People Magazine reached a readership of 1,500,000 people.

In addition to presenting public programming in visual, performing, literary and media arts, AMERINDA also began providing services to individual Native artists in 1997.