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Admission: The museum is free and open every day except December 25.

Become a fan of NMAI on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. HERE
 

About the museum: The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, features year-round exhibitions, dance and music performances, children’s workshops, family and school programs, film festivals and video screenings that present the diversity of the Native peoples of the Americas and the strength of their cultures from the earliest times to the present.

Located in one of the most splendid Beaux-Arts buildings in the city, the New York museum is one of three locations of the National Museum of the American Indian, which also includes the Cultural Resources Center in Maryland and the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

 

Current Exhibition: A Song for the Horse Nation

Through July 2011

This exhibition narrates the enduring relationship between Native people and the horse through songs, personal accounts, historic and contemporary images as well as 98 objects. Starting with the return of horses to the Americas by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in the 15th century, the exhibition traces how, once horses were captured, they would change the lives of Native peoples. Horses would affect the way Native peoples traveled, hunted and defended themselves. Horse trade between the southern plains tribe, the Comanche, and their northern relatives, the Shoshone, would be conduit for horses arriving on the Plains and Plateau regions. Horses would inspire new artworks—particularly in form of pictograph paintings, first illustrated on clothing and buffalo robes and later, muslin cloth and ledger books.  The exhibition will include many examples of elaborate horse trappings, such as a horse crupper adorned with exceptionally fine quillwork (Red River Metis, ca. 1850), and clothing adorned with images of the horse, including a colorful Lakota baby bonnet (South Dakota or North Dakota, ca. 1900).  Also featured will be new works such as a porcupine quilled horse mask trimmed with brass buttons and feathers created by Juanita Growing Thunder (Assiniboine/Sioux) and two beaded flat cases decorated with horse imagery created by Jackie Bread (Blackfeet).  Continuing Native horse traditions will also be discussed, including the annual Crow Fair parade in Montana, the horse breeding programs of the Nez Perce in Idaho and the Future Generations Youth Ride in South Dakota.
 

Current exhibition:

Beauty Surrounds Us

Open through March 2010

This exhibition of 77 works from the museum's collection details the profound artistry found in everyday Native life.

See the online exhibition here.


 

Current exhibition:

Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses

Partial installation on view through Feb 2010

This exhibition of 55 dresses from the Plains, Plateau, and Great Basins regions examines the different and changing roles of Native women.

See the online exhibition here.