Free Museum

I think it was around Thanksgiving Day 2005. We were huddled around a TV, watching football, me and a horde of Seattleites. Each of them was wearing the blue, teal, and white of their beloved Seahawks, who I believe were winning that day, and I kept looking over the symbol that was emblazed on the Seahawk jerseys. The picture of a sea hawk that was on the jersey reminded me of a certain house I would drive by as a child. What this symbol reminded me of specifically was the three or four totem poles that stood in the front yard of this house. These totem poles like the Seahawks symbol are done in the artistic style of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. The characteristics of the art have a certain unique look to them.

I then assumed that of course my friends from Seattle would know the name of this artistic style, or at least know the names of a tribe or two of the area. You can imagine my disappointment and frustration when not one of the numerous friends of mine from Seattle could shed any light on the situation. So after asking my friends and going through a few Google searches to ascertain the name of this art, I gave up, thinking there was no name and if there was I would never find it.

Flash forward to this past November. I am riding on the subway and I look up to see a familiar art form. Low and behold that familiar look of the North Pacific Native American art was right across the car from me. I thought to myself, "Finally!" I would now be able to learn the name of this art form I had been searching for, for so long. So I read what the advertisement had to say and I was heartbroken. The sign was from the National Museum of the American Indian, which apparently is part of the Smithsonian Institute, and was an advertisement for an exhibit they had. The exhibit was titled, "Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast." Nowhere on the sign did it name this art, when I arrived home it didn't give any name for the art on the NMAI website. So I decided I would head down and check out the exhibit myself.

The National Museum of the American Indian is located at One Bowling Green, which is way down in the financial district. It is easily accessible by the 1 or A train. Just get on them in the Heights and ride them all the way down. If you have never been to the area, then that is another site to see, and just a block beyond the museum is the ocean. The museum itself is a huge building with loads of sculptures decorating the façade, so if you are an architecture lover you might get some kicks out of that. There are many exhibits at the museum all dealing with different aspects of the culture, art, and history of the Native American people in every locale and time period. I learned at the museum that there isn't a specific name for the art, just Art of the North Pacific Native American, but the exhibit did have some lovely pieces: totem poles, carvings, clothes, blankets, furniture, loads of photographs and even a few video interviews. There is a special section of the exhibit for children, which has some more hands on stuff, but it was pretty interesting to me and certainly a nice breakup of the monotony of looking. The exhibit is in New York until July, so you have some time to get out there and see it. The museum is free, open daily from 10am to 5pm.