American Indian Museum opens

Art in America, Nov, 2004

The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian opened on Sept. 21 in Washington D.C. Designed by Douglas Cardinal, the museum is located on the Mall, on a 4.25-acre site between the National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Botanic Gardens. The five-story, 351,000-square-foot, curvilinear structure features a gold-tone limestone facade and a 120-foot-high atrium.

A large prism window faces the rising sun; the surrounding landscape includes 40 boulders known as grandfather rocks. These elements were designed in consultation with Native American spiritual leaders over a four-year period. The $219-million building contains four large exhibition areas, a 322-seat theater, offices, education workshops, a bookstore and a cafe. Supervised by the museum's founding director, W. Richard West Jr., the inaugural offerings include "Our Universes" and "Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories," a pair of shows that examine cultural currents among the many North American tribes. By contrast, "Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities" explores current art by Native Americans. [As we go to press, closing dates for these exhibitions have not been set.] Some 8,000 of the museum's 800,000 objects will be on view in the inaugural exhibitions.