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Photo by Ernest Amoroso ©National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center

Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor: Part I

March 6, 2010 - August 1, 2010
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
The featured artists selected for this exhibition draw upon this rich subject in multifaceted ways, using both the material and concept of skin as a metaphor for widespread issues surrounding race, representation, as well as personal, historical and environmental trauma and perseverance. Part I includes a solo installations by Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq/Athabascan) and works by Nadia Myre (Anishinaabe).


Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America

December 11, 2009 - June 27, 2010 (new closing date)
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
This exhibition features rare and archival photographs and film of Native skaters, as well as skatedecks from Native companies and contemporary artists, to celebrate the vibrancy, creativity, and controversy of American Indian skate culture. Skateboarding is one of the most popular sports on Indian reservations and has inspired American Indian and Native Hawaiian communities to host skateboard competitions and build skate parks to encourage their youth. Native entrepreneurs own skateboard companies and sponsor community-based skate teams. Native artists and filmmakers, inspired by their skating experiences, credit the sport with teaching them a successful work ethic.


A Song for the Horse Nation

November 14, 2009 - July 7, 2011
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
This exhibition presents the epic story of the horse's influence on American Indian tribes from the 1600s to the present. It features approximately 100 works from the museum's collection to reveal how horses shaped the social, economic, cultural, and spiritual foundations of American Indian life, particularly on the Great Plains. Highlights include historical ledger drawings, beaded bags, hide robes, and paintings, including new works by contemporary Native artists. Also on view is a Hunkpapa Lakota winter count by Long Soldier (c. 1902) that depicts the horse's first appearance in the community.


Beauty Surrounds Us

September 23, 2006 - Indefinitely (new closing date)
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
In this space especially designed to showcase the integration of art and daily life in Native cultures throughout the hemisphere, the exhibition features 77 extraordinary objects from the museum's permanent collection. Highlights include an elaborate Quechua girl's dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief's staff with carved animal figures and crest designs, Seminole turtle shell dance leggins, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Columbian Mexico, a Navajo saddle blanket, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board.


Orientation Exhibition

- Indefinitely
George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
Informational panels provide a brief history of the Delaware or Lenni Lenape tribe, one of the first inhabitants of Manhattan; the museum's mission; and the architecture of the Custom House.


Museum Information

Hours:

  • 10 to 5
    Thursdays to 8

Metro:

  • 1 to South Ferry
    4, 5 to Bowling Green
    R,W to Whitehall Street
    J, M to Broad Street

Location:

  • One Bowling Green
    New York, NY

Phone/Website:

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