Museum delays exhibition to review Native American story

ONE of America’s most visited art museums has announced it is delaying an eagerly-anticipated exhibition, out of concern that the Native American story within it was not being properly told.

The Art Institute of Chicago, one of the largest and oldest art museums in the country, which last year had over 1.5 million visitors, had been due to launch an exhibition of 1,000-year-old pottery from the south-west US in May.

The show, entitled Worlds Within: Mimbres Pottery of the Ancient Southwest, has been controversial from the start as many of the pieces were removed from graves.

A “scholars’ day” was organised by the museum in December for Native American researchers and community representatives to discuss the show, but it ended with many of the experts unhappy at the exhibition’s content.

Kati Murphy, executive director of public affairs, said that “we were given feedback that we needed to change the way we were presenting the materials”.

James Rondeau, the Art Institute’s president and director, said that as the show approached it became increasingly clear that more work needed to be done to represent Native American voices in the project.

He said the 70 pieces of pottery needed explaining “in multiple voices, not just our voice”.

Critics have welcomed the decision, described by the museum’s managers as “unprecedented”.

“This is amazing,” said Heather Miller, executive director of Chicago’s American Indian Center. “Members of the [scholars’ day group] were very adamant that this was not a good idea for them to move forward with.

“Now I feel great that our concerns and our issues were actually addressed by this institution.”