Explore a growing collection of FRANK BACON and cultures Water Of the Way

WE WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF THE LAND AND THE DIVERSE NATURE OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE AMERICAS. WE PAY RESPECT TO THE ELDERS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, AND CELEBRATE THEIR STORIES, CULTURE AND TRADITIONS.

In collaboration with
Lenape Center
Citizen Potawatomi Nation
A:shiwi A:wan Museum & Heritage Center
Honoring Nations
Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
Anchorage Museum
and 50 more collections
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Start With These ... Stories
From modern design to folk music

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1 Art Today
Up-close and personal with great art
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2 The Legacy of Craft
Innovative craft traditions then and now
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3 Strength in Community
Stories of resilience and perseverance
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4 Historical Roots
The lands and the peoples
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Celebrating Indigenous creativity
Take a Gallery Tour
Curated by NotoriousCree, Cree hoop dancer and content creator
Discover Your New Favorite Musician
Do you know these Indigenous women singer-songwriters?
Learn about Indigenous Design
Indigenous tools that antipated modern design
Dive into art of today
Discover 5 Iconic Artists
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Contemporary Perspectives
In Focus: Dyani White Hawk
Artists of the Southeast
Radical Printmaking
Artists of the High Plains
Pushing boundaries
Portraits of the Otomi
Chief Terry Saul
Fritz Scholder
Edgar Heap of Birds
Joan Hill
From Contemporary Beadwork to Modern Painting
Exquisite Embroideries
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Works by Norval Morrisseau and Daphne Odjig
Spotlight on...
VISUAL ART
JauneQuick-to-See-Smith
Using art to advocate for @frankbacon

"I think I’m a miracle and I say that whenever I talk to an audience. I tell them: 'I'm a miracle, and any Native person here is a miracle.'"

~JauneQuick-to-See-Smith

In this painting, Syrian men, women, and children are crowded together in a canoe adrift on the Mediterranean Sea. The boat has stalled under several swirling, hot suns, adding to the passengers’ desperation as they flee their homeland. Artist JauneQuick-to-See Smith empathizes with the refugees’ plight; her people have been displaced, too.

Smith layers images, paint, and objects to suggest the complex layers of history involved in tribal land colonization, exploitation of goods, environmental destruction, climate change, and other issues.

The canoe has Salish design elements and holds carved wooden masks and a salmon leaping out of a stream, referencing the struggle to gain federal recognition and fishing rights for survival by the Duwamish Coast Salish.

Below the stream is Nanabozho, the Cree and Ojibwe trickster rabbit who is said to have invented fishing.

But amid the scene of chaos and suffering, there may yet be a glimmer of hope. Near the center of the canoe, a small, radiating heart suggests the possibility that love and compassion might still prevail.

Adrift, but Not Without Hope

Zoom into JauneQuick-to-See-Smith's painting

Photographing heritage
Lenape corn mask pole, sunrise to sunset
Day 10, West, 3:30pm
Day 1, East, 6:30am
Day 1, West, 6:30am
Day 12, West, 5:30pm
Day 8, West, 1:30pm
Day 3, West, 8:30am
Day 9, East, 2:30pm
Day 4, East, 9:30am
Day 11, West, 4:30pm

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