We Must Grow Our Own Artists: Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton

Discover art educator Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton’s contributions to the progressive education movement and the American Indian arts and crafts movement. Artist, author, ethnographer, educator, and curator, these were but a few of the talents of Colton, co-founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona and early art advocate on the Colorado Plateau. Colton labored to increase public awareness of the importance of art education and to revive Native American arts on the Colorado Plateau. Her work contributed to a better understanding of the culture of the peoples of the Colorado Plateau and to the preservation of Navajo and Hopi traditions.
W. James Burns, Executive Director at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, holds a B.A. in history from the University of Arizona, an M.A. in public history from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in educational policy studies from Georgia State University. Burns is a graduate of the Museum Management Institute at the Getty and has worked in museums since 1990. His research interests include the social and environmental history of the American West. Burns has served on several state and regional museum association boards and currently is an Accreditation reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums.