Thursday, November 6, 2014
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
4525 Oak Street
Kansas City, MO
Join us for a tour of the Plains Indians exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art!
This groundbreaking exhibition will unite the Plains Indian masterworks found in European and North American collections, from pre-contact to contemporary, ranging from a 2,000-year-old Human Effigy stone pipe to 18th-century painted robes to a 2011 beaded adaptation of designer shoes.
The distinct Plains aesthetic—singular, ephemeral and materially rich—will be revealed through an array of forms and media: painting and drawing; sculptural works in stone, wood, antler and shell; porcupine quill and glass bead embroidery; feather work; painted robes depicting figures and geometric shapes; richly ornamented clothing; composite works; and ceremonial objects.
Together the 140 works will reveal the accomplishments of Plains Indian artists, not only as the makers of objects that sustain tradition and embody change, but as the bearers of individual creative expression and innovation. Many nations are represented—Osage, Quapaw, Omaha, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota, Blackfeet, Pawnee, Kiowa, Comanche, Mesquakie, Kansa and others. Objects will travel from France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada and the United States.
This tour is FREE and open for all ages.
Parking in the underground garage is $8/vehicle (free for museum members), or there is free parking on Oak Street.
Registration is due by October 1.
And after the tour, feel free to explore the related exhibit “Across the Indian Country: Photographs by Alexander Gardner, 1867–68” in the Bloch building, Gallery L11.
By the 1860s, the Plains Indians found themselves sandwiched in the middle of the country with white advancement on both sides. Rail lines cut directly through their hunting grounds–scattering the game necessary for survival. This exhibition highlights two rare bodies of work created by Alexander Gardner at this pivotal time: Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1867-68 and Scenes in the Indian Country in 1868.
The Across the Continent series was photographed first on the existing railroad line across Kansas (resulting in some of the earliest images of that state) and then along the proposed route to the Pacific Ocean. Gardner’s photographs stress the benefits of railroad construction–once railroads were built, towns would follow–and suggest the possibility of successful Indian and settler coexistence.
In 1868, in an attempt to end conflict, an unprecedented gathering of tribal leaders from the Northern Plains assembled at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. For his Scenes in the Indian Country series, Gardner photographed the treaty negotiations between the government-led Indian Peace Commission and the tribes who agreed to give up land and move to reservations.
Bookings
Issues with booking? Email events@jocohomeschool.orgBookings are closed for this event.