"Powerful Images: Portrayals of Native America"
1999-08-07 until 0000-00-00
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Cody, WY, USA United States of America

The NEH-funded traveling exhibition Powerful Images: Portrayals of Native America is attracting large crowds at both urban and rural venues throughout the West and has caused many visitors to rethink their views of American Indians. Nearly a quarter of a million people have attended the show since its launch at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City last year. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming organized the exhibition.

I grew up on an Indian reservation and never understood the particulars of Indian heritage, one non-native visitor wrote in the comment book. This show does a great job of canceling stereotypes and making them understandable.

This exhibition, a collaborative effort of the Museums West consortium, examines ways that Native Americans have been represented both from within their own cultures and by others. The exhibition features important examples of Native art traditions, Euro-American art and popular culture. Through reinterpretation of familiar imagery, the exhibition explores common perceptions of Native American peoples and presents alternative voices.

The exhibition will be displayed at theGlenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from July 3 through Sept. 26, 1999, then travel to the Heard Museum in Phoenix from Nov. 13, 1999 through March 19, 2000. It will be on view at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla., from May 6 through July 16, 2000, and then finish its run at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson from Oct. 8, 2000 through Jan. 2, 2001. To view an on-line tour of the exhibition, please click here. (this site will open in a new browser window)

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Wyoming

Other Important Exhibitions in United States