Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now

August 29, 2019 – January 12, 2020

The Nasher Museum presents Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now, the first exhibition to chart the development of contemporary Indigenous art in the United States and Canada. For generations, Native North American artists have exhibited work mostly outside of mainstream art institutions. Native Voices begins to remedy that division, presenting approximately 60 works of art in a wide variety of media by Native American artists from many nations and regions. The exhibition examines the practices and perspectives of the most influential Native artists and their important contributions to American art, thus reassessing the place of Indigenous art within the art historical cannon.

"This rich and groundbreaking exhibition presents work by some of the most important Native American artists over the past 70 years," said Sarah Schroth, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. "We are proud to bring these powerful works to North Carolina for the first time. In keeping with the mission of the Nasher Museum, Native Voices challenges the way the mainstream art world thinks about contemporary American art and society."

Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now was organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.

The exhibition was co-curated by independent curator Candice Hopkins (Tlingit, citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation in the Canadian territory, Yukon), Mindy Besaw, curator of American art at Crystal Bridges, and Manuela Well-Off-Man, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

More information: nasher.duke.edu/voices

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RELATED EVENTS
Thursday, August 29 – EXHIBITION OPENS
Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now
5:30 PM Cash bar
6 PM Gallery Talk: Meet Mindy Besaw, Curator, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and one of three curators who co-curated Art for a New Understanding.

Tuesday, September 10 – K-12 TEACHER WORKSHOP
4–6 PM Educators, join us in the Nasher lecture hall to hear from keynote speaker Nancy Strickland Fields, M.A. (Lumbee), director/curator of the Museum of the Southeast American Indian at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Participating teachers will receive 0.3 continuing education credits. Early registration is encouraged.

Sunday, September 15 – GALLERY TALK
2 PM Join us within Art for a New Understanding for a talk by Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote (Kiowa), associate professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is author of Crafting an Indigenous Nation: Kiowa Expressive Culture in the Progressive Era (UNC-Press, 2019).

Thursday, October 3 – ANNUAL SEMANS LECTURE: CANDICE HOPKINS
5:30 PM Cash bar
6:30 PM Lecture hall doors open
7 PM Lecture
Candice Hopkins, an independent curator, writer and researcher, will deliver the Annual Semans Lecture about her work. Hopkins is one of the three co-curators of Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now. She is Tlingit and a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

Sunday, October 13 – FREE FAMILY DAY
Noon–4 PM Celebrate Art for a New Understanding and the Nasher Museum’s new outdoor arts space. Explore the contemporary arts and culture of Native Americans with storytelling, dance and musical performances throughout the building and outside led by members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Create kid-friendly artwork inspired by the exhibition and explore the galleries with family friendly gallery hunt.

Thursday, October 24 – HIP-HOP CONCERT
7 PM Frank Waln, Tanaya Winder, & the Sampson Bros. Performance of poetry, spoken word, music and storytelling. Frank Waln is a Lakota Hip Hop artist, producer and audio engineer from the Rosebud Rez in South Dakota. The Sampson Brothers, Lumhe and Samsoche Sampson, (Seneca and Muscogee Creek) are master hoop dancers. Tanaya Winder is a poet, writer, artist and educator who is an enrolled member of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe.

NOV 3, 17, 20 and 22 – FILM SERIES: Native Voices
3 PM This film series complements the exhibition Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now.

Saturday, November 16 – NASHER TEEN MEETUP: Art & Healing
2–4 PM In conjunction with Art for A New Understanding, teens are invited to learn about and reflect creatively on our shared history of the land we inhabit. Vivette Jeffries Logan, local community leader and member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, will facilitate an "Indigenous/American Indian 101 session." She will hold space for teens to process thoughts and feelings through a variety of creative arts practices, including visual arts, writing and storytelling.

This program is free but space is limited and advanced online registration is required.

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Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now was organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.

The exhibition was co-curated by independent curator Candice Hopkins (Tlingit, citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation in the Canadian territory, Yukon), Mindy Besaw, curator of American art at Crystal Bridges, and Manuela Well-Off-Man, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Support for this exhibition and its national tour is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sotheby’s Prize.

At the Nasher Museum, this exhibition is was made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, with additional support from The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Fund for Exhibitions.

Dana Claxton, Cultural Belongings (detail), 2015. LED firebox with transmounted Lightjet Duratrans, 72 x 96 inches (182.88 x 243.84 cm). Collection of Eira Thomas. © Dana Claxton.

Anna Tsouhlarakis, Let’s Dance! (still), 2004. Video (color, sound), 15:30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist. © Anna Tsouhlarakis.

Jeffrey Gibson, Radiant Tushka, 2018. Repurposed quilt, assorted glass, plastic and stone beads, printed chiffon, nylon ribbon, canvas, acrylic paint, nylon fringe, copper and artificial sinew; 95 1/2 x 64 x 2 1/2 inches (242.6 x 162.6 x 6.4 cm). Photo courtesy of Kavi Gupta. Courtesy of artist and Kavi Gupta.

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