Red Cloud Indian School Names Jose Rivera as Director of The Heritage Center

posted September 18, 2014

This week, Red Cloud Indian School announced the appointment of Mr. Jose Rivera as the new Director of The Heritage Center. As Director, Rivera will serve as the lead officer of The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School, overseeing all aspects of operations and ensuring long-term growth. He will be responsible for the development and execution of The Heritage Center’s vision, strategic planning and programming. In concert with Red Cloud’s President and Executive Vice President, Rivera will also serve as The Heritage Center’s chief spokesperson and advocate, building partnerships and collaborations that strengthen relationships with diverse communities on and off the reservation and elevate the profile of The Heritage Center as well as awareness of the collection.

“I want to give the Heritage Center more national and international exposure,” explains Rivera. “I also see the need for a museum quality storage facility to protect the Heritage Center’s art collection and for a facility to be complementary to the Lakota culture and the environment. There is so much potential at the Heritage Center, and I want to see that potential cultivated and realized.”

Rivera has most recently been working on various exhibits with the Marin Museum of the American Indian in Novato, California, having previously served as their Director of Education. He is a University of California-trained museum curator and holds a Master's in Historical Resources Management from the University of California at Riverside (completing both the Museum Curatorship and Archival Management components). Rivera is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, specializing in Native American Ethno-history, and has invested himself in Lakota culture over the years.

Robert Brave Heart, Sr., executive vice president of Red Cloud Indian School, believes that Rivera’s contribution to, and impact on the world-renowned Native arts collection, gallery and gift shop will be significant.

“Mr. Rivera has established himself as a leader across many disciplines,” says Brave Heart. “Through his impressive career as a museum curator, fundraiser and steward, program manager and academic, Mr. Rivera has continued to celebrate and promote Native art, culture and people. I have no doubt that this passion, coupled with his skill and experience, will benefit our innovative, arts-based educational community programming, here at The Heritage Center and at the school.”

For Rivera, art has and always will be at the heart of Native identity—and that living life, too, is also an art form. He explained that The Heritage Center has and will continue to play a large and important role in helping artists share their message and their art with their community and with the world.

“Art is a way for our Indigenous people to release their inner soul, cultivate the inspiration, express their hopes, make social commentary, share their culture and a way for the artists to support themselves,” said Rivera. “I have dedicated my academic and professional careers to the advancement of Indigenous cultures, and The Heritage Center is the perfect place to put my academic and professional skills into practice.”

Rivera will begin his duties as Director on October 1, 2014.

For more information about The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School call 605-867-8257 or email TheHeritageCenter@redcloudschool.org