Dorothy Dunn

Dorothy Dunn Kramer (December 2, 1903 – July 5, 1992) was an American art instructor who created The Studio School at the Santa Fe Indian School.

Dunn was born on 2 December 1903 in Pottawatomie County, Kansas and educated in Chicago. She first encountered Native American art at the Field Museum in Chicago in 1925. In 1928, Dunn traveled to New Mexico for the first time, where she taught second grade at the Santo Domingo Pueblo Day School, located south of Santa Fe. She learned quickly from her young Pueblo students that many features of their culture were taboo to draw or paint. In 1930, she moved to Shiprock, New Mexico to teach at the San Juan Boarding School at the Northern Navajo Agency. She finally returned to Chicago in 1931 to complete her degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

While completing her degree, Dunn outlined plans to teach art in the Civil Service at the Santa Fe Indian School and submitted her proposal to the superintendent Chester Faris. She was given a position teaching fifth grade with a half-day to teach art to older students. The Studio School thus opened on 9 September 1932. Established Native artists Julian Martinez and Alfonso Roybal painted murals at the school to welcome the young artists.

Among her students were Allan Houser, Ben Quintana, Harrison Begay, Joe Hilario Herrera, Quincy Tahoma, Andrew Tsinajinnie, Pablita Velarde, Eva Mirabal, Pop Chalee, Oscar Howe, Geronima Cruz Montoya, and Narcisco Abeyta.

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