Arts of the Americas

The Brooklyn Museum possesses an unusually rich collection of Indigenous arts of the Americas that encompasses the Western Hemisphere and stretches from 3000 B.C.E. to the present. For over a century, the Museum has played an important role in not just acquiring these works, but also presenting and interpreting them. The Museum has taken the lead in redefining objects previously categorized as ethnographic or archaeological as works of art through community engagement, special exhibitions, innovative displays, and educational programs.

Highlights

Explore the Arts of the Americas collection

Purview

At the Brooklyn Museum, Arts of the Americas refers to artworks by Indigenous artists from what is now North, Central, and South America. The collection includes artwork from ancient times through the 21st century. Works by 20th- and 21-century artists with Indigenous heritage are also in the Contemporary Art, Photography, and Feminist Art collections. Some artworks by Indigenous artists working in Spanish colonies can be found in the American Art, European Art, and Decorative Arts and Design collections.

History

The Museum’s first objects by artists indigenous to the Americas were purchased by Stewart Culin, who was hired as Curator of Ethnology in 1903. He began making expeditions to Indigenous centers around North America soon thereafter. By 1911, he had collected over 9,000 objects from the Southwest, Northwest Coast, California, and Oklahoma. He began installing his acquisitions in dedicated galleries in 1905. His reports and records survive today in the Brooklyn Museum Archives.

In 1925, The Rainbow House opened to present artwork from the Indigenous Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. This long-term exhibition cemented the Museum’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting non-Western art. The title of the curatorial department changed several times over the years, but artworks from these regions remained largely grouped together for the rest of the 20th century. Arts of the Americas became its own department in 2001.

The Museum began collecting objects created by artists indigenous to Mexico and Central and South America in 1929 with the appointment of Herbert Spinden, a curator and specialist in ancient Maya art. From 1931 until his retirement in 1950, he acquired almost 11,000 works for the Museum and went on at least seven collecting expeditions. Today, the collection of ancient Andean textiles is among the most significant outside Peru.

In 1937, the New-York Historical Society placed thousands of ancient and non-Western objects on long-term loan to the Brooklyn Museum. Included was a unique collection of ancient Huastec sculptures collected by B.M. Norman in 1844, and Northeastern Plains garments, weapons, and other items amassed by U.S. Army doctor Nathan Sturges Jarvis while he was stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in 1833–36. The Brooklyn Museum purchased these important works from the New-York Historical Society in 1950.

Today, curators of Arts of the Americas are dedicated to the respectful care and presentation of Indigenous artworks in the Museum’s possession. They are also committed to fostering positive relationships with living leaders, knowledge keepers, and artists from the cultures represented within the collection.