Arlo Namingha grew up surrounded by creativity, one branch of a family tree crowded with prolific artists. As a child, he freely explored his father’s studio, where artist Dan Namingha created paintings and sculptures that garnered international attention and praise.

A member of the Hopi Tribe and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Arlo Namingha carried on the legacies of preeminent ceramicists, songwriting grandfathers and relatives who created the regalia and ceremonial objects necessary to maintain their Indigenous traditions.

He helped his mother run the family gallery, Niman Fine Art in Santa Fe, for a decade.

As an artist, Namingha found his niche, becoming another of the family’s sculptors, creating works from stone, bronze and steel — though he dabbles in printmaking and jewelry design, too.

Artistic skill wasn’t the only thing Namingha, 50, learned from his family. Giving back to his community is also a family tradition, he said.

“I think it’s just in our nature,” Namingha said. “I just like seeing people succeed, live out their dreams.”

Because of his commitment to mentoring aspiring artists, maintaining Indigenous traditions and encouraging others to do their best work, Namingha has been named one of The New Mexican’s 10 Who Made a Difference for 2023.

He follows in the footsteps of his father, who was awarded the same honor in 1985.

Since 2019, emerging artists have regularly made the trip to the Namingha Institute, a two-week artist residency and mentorship program on the 200-acre campus of the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

There, the artists participate in master classes taught by

Arlo and Dan Namingha, combining technique with inspiration from the surrounding San Francisco Peaks into creative works of all kinds, said Mary Kershaw, the Museum of Northern Arizona’s executive director.

“The institute is not about teaching artists how to do things, but it really is about helping them to understand their own creativity and to develop that,” she said.

Arlo Namingha and his father were “absolutely instrumental” in getting the institute going, Kershaw said, adding they have offered their time and resources to help emerging artists take their work to the next level.

Arlo Namingha’s artistic talent and his clear communication style help encourage and develop the new artists’ creative practices, she said.

“Arlo, I would say, is inspirational in the artwork that he does but also in the person who he is. [He] has not just a great talent but a great generosity of spirit,” Kershaw said.

Others, too, have felt Namingha’s generosity of spirit.

For many doctors, nurses and other essential personnel at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, Namingha’s generosity struck at just the right time: during the “darkest, deepest, awfullest days of COVID,” said Kathy Armijo Etre, the hospital’s vice president of mission.

At the height of the pandemic, medical personnel serving patients infected with the virus were largely sequestered in the hospital’s COVID-19 wing, covered with personal protective equipment from head to toe, Armijo Etre recalled.

Members of the team who worked in the wing, known as Frost 19, earned 10 Who Made a Difference honors in 2020.

Because Christus St. Vincent was designated as a hub hospital, many of the COVID-19 wing’s patients came from Indigenous communities across the region.

“I can’t even tell you how awful it was — because we were managing so much grief and so much death,” Armijo Etre said.

One bright spot during that time came from Namingha. At the hospital’s request — but at no charge — he fashioned sterling silver stethoscope cuffs and badge charms for the staff in the COVID-19 wing.

Namingha’s chosen design for the silver charms — two parallel lines — was laden with meaning.

Vertically, the lines serve as the Hopi symbol for strength, ceremonially offered to people who display great courage, Namingha explained. Horizontally, the lines create an equal sign, representing equality. Together, the artist said, the two symbols honored the medical professionals’ courage in treating all of their patients with dignity and sympathy.

Dressed in full protective garb, Namingha presented the charms to doctors, nurses and other staff at Christus St. Vincent in 2021. It was a touching event, Armijo Etre recalled.

“It’s quintessential New Mexico at its very best, with these world-renowned artists who do not forget their roots,” she said.

And then there are all the little things Namingha does to push his family and community forward, such as creating ceremonial objects for people participating in ceremonies at Ohkay Owingeh.

“I don’t know where he finds the time to do all of it,” said Chad Burkhardt an art collector and friend of the Namingha family.

But for Arlo Namingha, it’s the natural thing to do. Giving back has always been part of his family’s ethic, he said, something he learned from his father, mother and other relatives.

“Helping others, there’s just no question about it,” Namingha said. “If you can do it — if you’re fortunate enough to be able to do it — then we do it.”