Press

ALBANY, NY – The thriving cultural life of New York’s Native Americans will be highlighted starting July 28 when the New York State Museum opens a new installation of the Governor’s Collection of Contemporary Native American Art.

The centerpieces of the long-term exhibition are objects representative of a traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Longhouse wedding ceremony, including beaded man’s and woman’s bridal outfits the Museum commissioned from Samuel Thomas (Cayuga, Wolf Clan) and Rosemary Hill (Tuscarora, Beaver Clan).

The new installation will also include contemporary baskets, woodwork, pottery, carved stone and antler, beadwork, and silverwork made in the past two decades. The artists all are affiliated with groups whose traditional homelands were within what is now New York State. The exhibition will be located next to the Longhouse in the Native Peoples of New York Gallery on the first floor.

This exhibition precedes the opening at the State Museum in November of Ska-Ni-Kwat: The Power of the Good Mind, a traveling exhibition that also includes work by Thomas and his mother, Lorna Thomas-Hill. The Thomases, whose bead work appears in museums around the world, involved hundreds of people from 25 countries in making two traditional Iroquois outfits that are part of the Ska-ni-Kwat exhibition.

Through the work in these exhibitions, the Museum is telling the story of not only the history of New York’s native peoples but also the important cultural contributions they continue to make.

“This is what’s happening now. We want to get it out in front of people,’’ said Penelope Drooker, curator of anthropology. “Some of these artists might be very traditional, but there is always something new. Many New York residents have no idea that New York has among the largest populations of Native Americans east of the Mississippi.’’

The Museum has collected the art and functional objects of New York Native Americans since soon after its founding 170 years ago. But acquisitions had waned during the mid-20th century until 1996,

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when the Governor’s Collection of Contemporary Native American Art was inaugurated. The private- and state- funded project has allowed the Museum to work with Native American artists to collect examples of beadwork, basketry, sculpture, silverwork, clothing, carving and pottery by artists recognized as masters by their peers. Contemporary art represents from five to 10 percent of the full Native American collection, which numbers more than 3,000 objects.

The new installation includes such award winning artists as Peter B. Jones (Onondaga, Beaver Clan), Larry “Many Hats’’ Jacobs (Stockbridge-Munsee) and Stanley R. Hill (Mohawk, Turtle Clan), in addition to beadworkers Rosemary Hill and Samuel Thomas.

In creating the groom’s outfit, Thomas incorporated a hummingbird and strawberry design. The pattern is not traditional but, he said, represents the duality Iroquois believe in, with strawberries representing goodness and the hummingbird, mystery or magic.

“If you only copy the old items over and over, it remains a craft,’’ said Thomas, 41, who lives in Niagara Falls, Ontario, but spent part of his childhood in western New York. “The important thing to know is our work flourishes today just as it did in the 1800s. People think it was all done in the 1800s and then all the Indians died.’’

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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