Members' Program: Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum

Dare Turner (Yurok Tribe), Curator of Indigenous Art at the Brooklyn Museum and former BMA Assistant Curator of Indigenous Art of the Americas; 

Leila Grothe, BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art; 

and Elise Boulanger (Citizen of the Osage Nation), BMA Curatorial Research Assistant

Thursday, June 6, 2024

1:30 - 3:30 pm

Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, an initiative including a series of nine distinct solo and thematic exhibitions, centers the work, experiences, and voices of Native artists. Preoccupied explores the vital cultural contributions of Native people through the presentation of historical objects and works created by a breadth of contemporary makers. Unfolding over the course of ten months, the initiative features focus solo presentations from Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota), Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French), Nicholas Galanin (Lingít and Unangax̂), Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache), and Dana Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations); a film series curated by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation and a descendant of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians); and thematic explorations titled Enduring Buffalo, Illustrating Agency, and Finding Home. 

Developed with guidance from the Native community and cultural leaders in and around Baltimore, the initiative also includes interpretative interventions in the display and labeling of certain objects across the museum's collection galleries, a publication designed with guidance from Native methodologies, and a broad array of public programs. Preoccupied significantly increases the presence of Native artists in the BMA's galleries and actively subverts the colonialist tendencies and hierarchies upon which museums have been built. The initiative will continue through January 2025. 

Members-only; no fee, registration required.

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