Retha Walden Gambaro

Retha Walden Gambaro (December 9, 1917–September 9, 2013) was an American sculptor and gallery owner.

She is known for her own artworks that explore Indigenous American themes and for her curatorial practice that brought attention to contemporary Native American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Gambaro advocated for and helped raise funds to establish the National Museum of the American Indian.

Early and personal life Gambaro was born in Lenna, Oklahoma, to parents she identified as being of Native American descent. She identified her mother as having Muscogee descent and her father was having European and Cherokee descent. She grew up primarily in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, where she and her family moved when she was young. She attended public school through the 8th grade before leaving to support her family. She married Stephen A. Gambaro and worked to support him while he completed high school and college.

Career and legacy Gambaro's career as an artist spanned late mid-life through old age. She first exhibited her sculpture in 1971 in her mid-fifties and continued sculpting until her mid-eighties.

Her work has been exhibited at the U.S. National Arboretum, Folger Shakespeare Library, Discovery Park Museum in Seattle, the Suffolk Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Gilcrease Museum, the Kennedy Center and the Heard Museum. The exhibition was featured at the Kennedy Center in conjunction with a star-studded gala event, Night of the First Americans, to launch the fundraising campaign for the National Museum of the American Indian. After the event, the exhibition moved to the Smithsonian Institution.