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Winners of this year’s Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market & Juried Show gather onstage to display their winning pieces and ribbons on Sunday, Aug. 9. Contestants competed in multiple categories from textiles to beadwork, and more this year’s show brought many talented artists to Ignacio. The Best in Show award went to Fernando Towne for his piece titled ‘Storyteller Rock Art’. The award for Most Traditional went to Charlene Laughing for her piece titled ‘Monument Valley Rug’.
Thirteen models were selected to wear Shiny Moon Creations pieces for the inaugural fashion show held during the Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market & Juried Show. All garments were created by designer Jennifer Benally.
Logan Gasdia wears a custom dress shirt during the Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market & Juried Show: Fashion Show on Saturday, Aug. 8. Native models from our community were hand selected for the events inaugural fashion show.
Southern Ute tribal member, Leandra Litz hits the stage on Saturday afternoon during the first ever fashion show hosted during the Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market & Juried Show event. Litz is modeling a ribbon skirt created by Jennifer Benally, owner of Shiny Moon Creations.
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
Photo Credit: Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum
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Art Market and Juried Show fills event center

Friday - August 21, 2026 by Divine Windy Boy | The Southern Ute Drum

The Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum (SUCCM) hosted the Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market and Juried Show at the Sky Ute Casino Resort Event Center, from Friday, Aug. 7 through Sunday, Aug. 9. The show is committed to promoting and advancing Indigenous artists throughout Indian Country – throughout the weekend a wide variety of hand-crafted art was made available for viewing and purchase. This year, the event also featured its inaugural Fashion Show featuring designs from Shiny Moon Creations by Jennifer Benally.  

The Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market and Juried Show has been taking place since 2021; the creation of the market was a way for the SUCCM to begin promoting and uplifting artists. Fabian Martinez is the Director of SUCCM and he shared “To my understanding, the first art market was led kind of as a program to essentially become a market within Southwest Colorado because there are not many art markets that actually existed here, especially those that are Indigenous,” Martinez said. “The market began as a way for the [SUCCM] to help promote Southern Ute and other Indigenous artists – giving them a space to cultivate and show their craft.” 

“Waynoka Whiteskunk, Russell Box Sr., Orland Joe Sr., and Norman Lansing were all so instrumental in making this event a possibility, and without or current and previous staff we couldn’t have been able to make this a success,” Martinez said. “Although we host a relatively smaller market, we still have room for growth – our market is held indoors, temperature-controlled space, we offer a free meal, and sometimes kickback from the Sky Ute Casino such as free bowling. We do our best to offer various amenities for our artists; we also give payout and large prize ribbons to winners of our Juried Show portion.” 

SUCCM Director, Fabian Martinez, looks forward to the next few years of the Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market and Juried Show – as it continues to grow, he hopes to see more artists join.  

Samantha Maez is the SUCCM Business Manager, this year she led the organization of the Fashion Show for the Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market & Juried Show – selecting Indigenous people from within our community, to model for Shiny Moon Creations. Following a conversation with artist Jennifer Benally, the idea of hosting a Fashion Show during the event grew. “The fashion show was a pleasant surprise, last year Jennifer Benally was a vendor at the event and during her time she had approached the team to bring up the idea of doing a fashion show,” Maez said. “When [the SUCCM staff] got into conversations about demonstrations for the event, the fashion show was named but we were not sure whether or not we would be able to pull it off – following one of our meetings for the Art Market, I got a call from Jennifer Benally and she said ‘hey, want to do a fashion show?’ so from that point myself and Jennifer got the ball rolling.”  

“[Benally] asked me to find models for the show and she would begin crafting pieces for the line – I began going through my contact list to find models who would fit multiple age groups and sizes we eventually had 13 models; seven women, three men, three youth including one boy and two girls,” Maez said. “From the morning of the show, you can tell that there was some excitement and nerves, but watching everybody get ready made it seem like home – like we are all getting ready for a powwow and everyone is excited for contest. Then the fashion came and all the models did really well, Jennifer did an amazing job she was able to create a fashion line in a matter of days she is dedicated to her craft.”  

“I would like to thank Jennifer Benally for her guidance, knowledge, and craftsmanship, she gave us a small taste of what goes into making a fashion show that way next year if we decide to do it again we have an understanding of what we are getting ourselves into,” Maez said. “For me, it was really important to have Native models from our community represented on the stage – I am extremely grateful to each and every model I had reached out to, everyone of them agreed and were excited to be apart of our show. This years [Pino Nuche Indigenous Art Market & Juried Show] was amazing, the artists we had this year are insanely talented and I am incredibly thankful.” 

 

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