Contemporary Indigenous Artists Focus Of Framingham Danforth Show

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham State University's Danforth Museum on Saturday opened a new exhibition focused on the work of contemporary Native American artists, a group long overlooked by large art institutions in the U.S.

The exhibition "Contemporary Voices in Indigenous Art" will be one of the few shows in New England focused on Native Americans, and is being partially sponsored by the National Endowment for the Art's Big Read program.

Danforth Collections Manager Rachel Passannante said the show is partly a chance for the museum to show off its own collection of contemporary indigenous art. That includes work by FSU alum Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (1976), a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana.

With the exhibit, the Danforth hopes to shift expectations about Native American artists, who are often represented by historical artifacts rather than work being created today, Passannante said.

"We hope this exhibition opens people's eyes to see that there are contemporary indigenous arts who are producing art of all varieties," Passannante said.

Apart from the Danforth, the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard has a permanent Native American Museum, which features a rotating collection of historical and contemporary indigenous art. The Abbe Museum outside Acadia National Park also features contemporary work. Mass MoCA in North Adams has an exhibition through May featuring Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star.

The exhibit will also feature work by painter and Rhode Island School of Design professor Duane Slick, a member of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa; and Puebloan pottery artists Mary Lewis Garcia, Elva Nampeyo, Katherine Collateta and M. Ascencio.

The exhibit runs through March 6 at the Danforth, and coincides with the Saturday opening of two other exhibits: Ann Lambert in the Weinberg Family Gallery and Dan Dowd in the Litowitz Family Gallery.