The museum’s first exhibit in its 100th-year celebration is called “SUSTAINED! The Persistent Genius of Indigenous Art.” The new exhibit opened on December 22.
The museum consulted with seven Indigenous members to develop the exhibit. It showcases historical and contemporary works, focusing on themes of beauty, family, and spirituality.
Dakota Hoska is the Associate Curator of Native art at the Denver Art Museum. She is Oglala Lakota. She said that a hundred years ago, museums didn’t focus on Indigenous works as ‘art.’
“Plenty of other kinds of museums were collecting Native art, like especially anthropological museums, but this was the first museum to start collecting Native American art as artwork, talking about the aesthetic qualities of the things in the collection,” said Hoska.
Hoksa says we need to understand that period in the broader context of what was happening to Native Americans across the country.
“At that time, we were still under very strict policies of genocide boarding schools," added Hoska. You know, in 1925, boarding schools were in full swing. We didn't get the opportunity to practice our religions and dances until the 1970s. At the time when the Denver Art Museum was collecting Native art, it was still a really hard time for Indigenous people.”
According to Hoska, the museum wanted to acknowledge its place in history in planning the exhibits.
“100 years — that's important for a Western institution, but it's not really important for Native people who have been on this continent for millennia. So how do we get those two very disparate things to speak to each other?” said Hoska.
Tthe museum will host a community feast on January 16 to celebrate the anniversary. The “SUSTAINED!” exhibit will be open for two years at the Denver Art Museum.
