Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor: Part II

September 4, 2010 - January 16, 2011
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 II includes works by Michael Belmore (Ojibway) and photographers Arthur Renwick (Haisla), KC Adams (M‚tis), Terrance Houle (Blood), Rosalie Favell (Cree M‚tis), and Sarah Sense (Chitimacha/Choctaw).

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.