Harrison's Begay'sYouth
Fine Arts Background / Awards and Shows

     In 1934 at the age of 17, Harrison began attending the Santa Fe Indian School. At this point in time, Dorothy Dunn had created an art education program which proved to be a tremendous influence on Native American artists and the beginnings of contemporary American Indian Art. At the Santa Fe Indian School, Harrison studied under Dorothy Dunn, and Geromina Montoya. He graduated in 1939. Later, Begay receieved a scholarship from the Indian Commission and so he attended the Black Mountain College in North Carolina to study
architecture.  Duing the 1950's, Harrison Begay, Childs Barrow and A. Hamilton Mencher started Tewa Enterprises in Santa to make and sell reproductions of their art-work. This enterprise was one of the first ever Indian-owned art reproduction businesses.

Awards and Shows

     Beginning in 1939, Begay served as a muralist in the Works Projects Administration, a program created during the Great Depression to help create public works. The location of many of these murals is not known, but the famous murals at Maisel's Trading Post in Albuquerque, NM are famous examples of a murals that he helped to paint.

The Northern Arizona Museum located in Flagstaff, Arizona, has a permanent collection of Harrison's work from the 1930s. This collection, which Harrison painted in 1935,includes the Navajo sacred mountains, and associated holy people, plants, animals, rocks and colors.

In 1946, Harrison received a purchase award at the first Indian Annual painting competition at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This competetion was one of the first and most prestigious comptetitions exclusive to and for Indian artists, and was very key in promoting fine art of Native artists.