To cultivate appreciation for Native American Fine Art
and support Native Artists, Families and Commmunities in a good way

Our philosphy is that we serve Native communities and families by in a good way by supporting Native artists and cultivating an appreciation for fine Native American Art. We hold ourselves to high standards of ethics and professionalism, and we expect the same from those we do business with. We set high standards for the quality of art we feature. We provide value to each artist we feature. Each artist, in turn, supports all the other artists on the web site, and us, a Native-owned business trying to do good things for Native people.

We, the owners, Paul Kabotie and Lesley Yellowtail Jackson, grew up amidst the arts our entire lives, and we started the web site to support Native Artists in our communities in an ethical, professional, culturally appropriate way. Our goals are to give Native Artists a professional and affordable marketing presence on the web, to cultivate an appreciation for Native American Fine Art, and to educate and inform visitors about the culture, people and art of the tribes we represent.

We have developed a unique business model in which we strive to provide as much service and value as we can to the artist, provide a professional internet presence for each artist, advertise and market the website on behalf of the artists, and charge an affordable price. We make no profit on the annual fees we charge artists. Artist fees go directly toward technology and marketing the web site. Our profit comes from advertising, sponsorships and broker service fees.

An affordable marketing presence on the web

For Native artists who recognize the need to have a web presence, often the costs of developing, hosting, and marketing a web site is out of the range of what the artist can afford. Some artists don't have internet access and may feel they can not have a web presence. Native Art Network addresses these issues in the following ways:

• By pooling the resources of many artists, we can provide each member artist with a professional internet profile at a low price.
• We reinvest the artist fees into technology and marketing, so that we bring additional exposure to the artists on our web site in addition to their individual marketing efforts.
• We have made accomodations to feature artists without internet access, so even those artists can have a presence on the web.

Cultivating an Appreciation for Native American Fine Art

Traditional and contemporary Native American Art is truly fine art. Artists who earn their living producing art are not served by misconceptions about Native art being trinkets and baubles, or by having their valuable time and creativity being undervalued by art buyers and collectors. Artists are able to produce only so many pieces a year, and they must make a living wage doing it. In order to build appreciation and clarify to buyers the value of our artists work:

• We qualify each artist on the web site to ensure authenticity and a high standard of quality work.
• We ask artists to feature only the finest examples of their work on the web site.
• We cover all visual mediums, both traditional and contemporary. We ask the artists' Native culture be reflected in their artwork.
• Our artists set fair market prices for their work reflecting the time, energy, materials and business overhead that go into each piece.

Informing and Educating Visitors about Culture, People and Art

Native Art, in all its forms, is rich, beautiful and enduring. It is traditional, contemporary, utilitarian, decorative, ceremonial, functional, and it permeates our life, culture and understanding of the world. Educating web site visitors enriches potential collectors and afficionados, promotes empathy and understanding, and helps cultivate appreciation of the art. We do the following in order to help our visitors be well informed:

• Artists are featured individually and artwork is always featured in conjunction with the individual artist that produced it.
• We encourage artists to describe the process of developing their artwork as well as the meaning behind it.
• We provide information about individual tribes including the culture, history, and traditional and contemporary art forms.