Joan Caballero

Tribal Arts

Updated: 7.17.09

As a 30-year resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Joan Caballero has spent most of her time working in the field of Native American Arts. For the last 12 years she has worked actively as an appraiser of Native American Arts (antique and contemporary), New Mexican Hispanic Arts, Southwest Regional Fine Arts (Taos and Santa Fe schools and living artists), general American antiquities and depreciable goods. Her services include providing professional, comprehensive appraisals and consultations for insurance, charitable donation, equitable distribution, and estate purposes.

Throughout the 1980s Ms. Caballero was director of Indian Arts for Dewey Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the most prominent Native American art galleries in the country. Her specialty knowledge is self-taught and acquired first-hand through many years of working with Native American artists, gallery owners, museums, auctions, collectors, dealers, and attending appraisal and conservation seminars.

Ms. Caballero's interest in Native American art has extended into the nonprofit arena in which she served six years as a member of the board of directors for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, the organization that produces the renowned annual Santa Fe Indian Market. She was president of the SWAIA Board in 1993 and 1994. Many Native American arts organizations have called upon Ms. Caballero's expertise to judge in their annual artistic competitions: The Santa Fe Indian Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico; The Gallup Intertribal Ceremonials, Gallup, New Mexico; The Navajo Nation Fair, Window Rock, Arizona; the Eight Northern Pueblos Show in Northern New Mexico and the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona. Ms. Caballero is also an accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers.