Creating Common Memory

Organized by guest curator Hayden Haynes (Onöndowa’ga:’, Deer Clan, Seneca Nation of Indians, Cattaraugus Territory), with Dr. Erica Nuckles, the Museum’s Director of Learning, Engagement, and Partnerships, this exhibition presents select works from the Museum’s permanent collection through Haynes’s individual perspective as a member of the Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy). An artist and leader of the Seneca-Iroquois Nation Museum in Salamanca, NY, Haynes views this project as a means toward building a shared interpretation and understanding across the many cultures, histories, and belief systems of the peoples that inhabit this land. This exhibition uses the power of art to explore and reveal the complexity of American history in an effort to create a more just and equitable society, and it continues the Museum’s important work of elevating Native perspectives, most recently seen in Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1945–1975 (February 26 to May 28, 2023).

We hope you will share your thoughts, feelings, opinions, etc., about the featured pieces in this exhibition when you visit by participating in the special gallery interactive.

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