Native Art Collection Reinstallation
MAM is currently re-envisioning the presentation of our permanent collection of Indigenous art from North America with collaborative methodologies and innovative approaches to display and interpretation. Beyond a single gallery devoted to Indigenous art, this fresh, contemporary installation will involve multiple long-standing spaces at the Museum, opening in September 2024. The project is renovating our vaulted Roberts Gallery, which was built in 1932 to display this same collection. The reinstallation will feature both historical and new acquisitions in varied media organized in thematic constellations, as well as site-specific interventions to the surrounding architecture.
The reinstallation is organized by Laura J. Allen, MAM’s Curator of Native American
MAM Native American Art Advisory Council (as of September 2023):
- heather ahtone (Choctaw/Chickasaw Nation), Director, Curatorial Affairs, First Americans Museum
- Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo Nation), Curator of Native American Art, Portland Art Museum
- John P. Lukavic, Curator of Native Arts, Denver Art Museum
- Sherrie Smith-Ferri (Dry Creek Pomo/Bodega Miwok), Retired Director, Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House; currently Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Dry Creek Rancheria
- Lucy Fowler Williams, Associate Curator and Senior Keeper of American Collections, Penn Museum
With deep appreciation to former members of the Advisory Council:
- Joe Baker (Delaware Tribe of Indians), Executive Director and Co-Founder, Lenape Center
- Pamela Hearne Jardine, Ph.D., Curator Emerita of Native American Art, Montclair Art Museum (in memoriam)
- Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation), Artist and Professor Emerita, Cornell University
Support for the Native American Art Advisory Council and exhibition planning is generously provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Major support for the reinstallation is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.
