How to Explore Native Art at the Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) stands as one of the most significant cultural institutions in the American West, housing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Indigenous art in North America. With over 18,000 objects spanning more than 2,000 years, the museums Native American art collection offers an unparalleled window into the creativity, spirituality, and resilience of Native peoples across the continent. For visitors seeking to engage meaningfully with this rich heritage, exploring Native art at the Denver Art Museum is not merely an observational experienceit is an act of cultural listening, learning, and respect.

Unlike traditional art museums that often isolate artifacts behind glass with minimal context, DAM has pioneered a narrative-driven approach that centers Indigenous voices, histories, and contemporary expressions. Whether youre a first-time visitor or a seasoned art enthusiast, understanding how to navigate this collection with intention transforms a casual visit into a profound educational journey. This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step roadmap to help you explore Native art at the Denver Art Museum with depth, sensitivity, and scholarly insight.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Plan Your Visit Around Native Art Exhibitions

Before arriving at the Denver Art Museum, begin by researching current and upcoming exhibitions. The museum rotates its Native art displays regularly to ensure fresh perspectives and to honor the living nature of Indigenous cultures. Visit the official DAM website and navigate to the Exhibitions section. Filter for Native American Art or Indigenous Art to identify active shows.

Notable permanent galleries include the Leonard and Elaine Silverstein Galleries of Native American Art, which feature over 1,000 objects from North American tribes, and the Hamilton Buildings Indigenous Art Wing, which showcases contemporary Native artists. These spaces are intentionally designed to reflect regional diversityfrom the Southwests Pueblo pottery to the Arctics Inuit carvings and the Plains beadwork traditions.

Check the museum calendar for special events such as artist talks, cultural demonstrations, or guided tours led by Indigenous curators. These programs often provide deeper context than written labels alone and are invaluable for understanding the cultural significance behind each piece.

2. Download the Official DAM App and Enable Accessibility Features

The Denver Art Museums mobile app is a powerful tool for enhancing your visit. Available for iOS and Android, the app offers interactive maps, audio guides, and object-specific commentary. For Native art exhibits, the app includes curated audio narratives from tribal historians, artists, and eldersmany of whom are affiliated with the communities represented in the collection.

Enable accessibility features such as text-to-speech, high-contrast mode, and closed captions on video installations. These tools ensure that your experience is inclusive and immersive, regardless of physical or cognitive needs. The museum also offers tactile tours for visitors with visual impairments; contact the museum in advance to schedule one.

3. Begin at the Indigenous Art Wing in the Hamilton Building

Start your journey in the Hamilton Building, the museums striking, angular structure designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. This wing houses the most dynamic and contemporary expressions of Native art. Unlike the more historically focused Silverstein Galleries, the Hamilton Building emphasizes living traditions and the ongoing evolution of Indigenous identity.

Look for installations by artists such as Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish/Kootenai), whose mixed-media works fuse political commentary with traditional iconography, and Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Southern Cheyenne), known for his text-based public art that challenges colonial narratives.

Take time to read the wall textsnot just for dates and materials, but for the cultural philosophies embedded in the descriptions. DAMs curators often quote directly from artists or tribal communities, offering first-person perspectives that resist external interpretation.

4. Move to the Leonard and Elaine Silverstein Galleries for Historical Context

After engaging with contemporary works, proceed to the Silverstein Galleries on the third floor of the North Building. This space presents a chronological journey through Native American art from ancient times to the early 20th century. Highlights include:

• Navajo weaving from the 1800s, showcasing intricate geometric patterns that encode clan identity and spiritual beliefs
• Apache basketry with coiled designs that reflect ecological knowledge passed down through generations
• Plains beadwork on buckskin garments, where each bead placement tells a story of personal achievement or ceremonial significance
• Northwest Coast totem poles and carved masks, representing ancestral spirits and community lineage

Pay close attention to the provenance labels. DAM has made significant efforts to reclaim and repatriate culturally sensitive objects, and many pieces now include detailed histories of how they were acquired, often acknowledging problematic colonial practices. This transparency is rare among major institutions and underscores the museums commitment to ethical stewardship.

5. Engage with Interactive Displays and Digital Storytelling

Several exhibits incorporate digital technology to deepen understanding. In the Voices of the Land interactive station, visitors can listen to oral histories from Hopi, Zuni, and Lakota elders describing the spiritual significance of specific materialssuch as turquoise, abalone shell, or eagle feathersthat are used in ceremonial objects.

Another highlight is the Weaving Time touchscreen display, which allows users to explore the evolution of Navajo textile patterns over a 150-year period. By swiping through decades, you can see how trade, migration, and government policies influenced design choices, revealing art as a form of cultural adaptation rather than static tradition.

These tools are not gimmicksthey are carefully designed to counteract the decontextualization common in museum settings. Use them to ask: Who made this? Why? For whom? What does it mean today?

6. Attend a Curator-Led or Indigenous Guide Tour

One of the most impactful ways to explore Native art is through guided experiences led by Indigenous educators or museum curators with tribal affiliations. DAM offers weekly guided tours specifically focused on Native collections. These are not standard audio toursthey are dialogues.

During these tours, guides often share personal stories, explain taboos around certain objects, and clarify misconceptions. For example, they may explain why some ceremonial items are not photographed or why certain designs are only visible during specific seasons or rituals.

Reservations are required. Book your tour at least 48 hours in advance through the museums website. Arrive 15 minutes early to meet your guide and ask questions about their communitys connection to the artworks on display.

7. Visit the Native American Art Library and Research Center

For those seeking deeper scholarly engagement, the museums Native American Art Research Center (located on the fourth floor) is open by appointment to the public. This archive contains rare books, oral history transcripts, exhibition catalogs, and artist correspondence dating back to the 1930s.

While most visitors wont need to access the archive, even a brief consultation with a research librarian can yield invaluable insights. Librarians can recommend primary sources, such as early 20th-century ethnographic photographs paired with contemporary tribal interpretations, helping you understand how perceptions of Native art have shifted over time.

8. Reflect and Record Your Experience

Before leaving, take 1015 minutes to sit in the museums contemplative spacessuch as the courtyard near the Native Art Wingwhere natural light filters through geometric patterns inspired by Pueblo architecture. Use this quiet time to reflect on what moved you, what surprised you, and what you still wonder about.

Consider keeping a journal or digital note. Write down questions you didnt have time to ask, names of artists you want to research further, or connections you noticed between different cultures. This practice transforms passive viewing into active learning and helps solidify your understanding long after your visit ends.

9. Support Native Artists and Communities Beyond the Museum

Exploring Native art isnt confined to the museum walls. Use your visit as a springboard to engage with Indigenous communities beyond the institution. Visit the museum gift shop and purchase items directly from Native artistslook for labels that state Authentic Native-Made and include the artists name and tribe.

Many of these pieces are not mass-produced souvenirs but limited-edition works created using traditional methods. Proceeds often go directly to the artist or their community. Avoid items labeled Native-inspired or tribal style, as these are typically cultural appropriations with no connection to Indigenous creators.

Consider donating to organizations such as the Native American Rights Fund, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, or tribal-run cultural centers. Your support helps preserve languages, protect sacred sites, and fund arts education for future generations.

10. Share Your Experience Responsibly

When sharing your visit on social media or with friends, be mindful of how you represent what youve seen. Avoid reducing complex cultural expressions to aesthetic trends. Instead, highlight the stories behind the art.

Tag the artists and institutions correctly. If you photographed an object, check the museums policy on photographysome sacred items are protected from imaging. When posting, include context: This Navajo rug was woven by Mary Yazzie of Ganado, Arizona, in 1972. The diamond pattern represents the four sacred mountains.

By sharing with accuracy and reverence, you become part of a broader movement to shift public perception from exoticization to appreciation.

Best Practices

Respect Cultural Protocols

Many Native artworks carry spiritual weight that may not be immediately apparent. Some objects are considered sacred, ceremonial, or restricted to certain genders or clans. Never assume that everything on display is meant for public viewing or interpretation. If a label indicates that photography is prohibited, or if a guide asks you not to touch or point at an object, honor that request without question.

Even if an item appears decorative, it may have been created for ritual use. Treat all objects with the same level of reverence you would afford a religious artifact in another tradition.

Center Indigenous Voices

When interpreting art, prioritize the words of Native artists and community members over academic or colonial narratives. DAMs labels and audio guides often quote directly from tribal sources. When you encounter conflicting interpretations elsewhere, defer to the Indigenous perspective.

For example, a 19th-century Plains shirt may be labeled war trophy in older texts. Contemporary tribal historians may describe it as a garment of honor, worn by a warrior who protected his people. The latter framing respects agency and dignity.

Understand the Difference Between Native Art and Ethnographic Art

Historically, Native objects were classified as ethnographic artifactsitems studied for their anthropological value rather than their aesthetic merit. This framing often stripped them of cultural meaning and reduced them to curiosities.

DAM has consciously moved away from this terminology. Today, the museum uses the term Native American Art to affirm these works as artistic expressions created by skilled individuals within vibrant, continuing culturesnot relics of a vanished past.

When you speak about these works, use the same language. Say artist, not craftsperson. Say ceremony, not ritual. Say community, not tribe unless the specific tribal name is known and appropriate.

Recognize Diversity Among Nations

There are over 570 federally recognized tribes in the United States alone, each with distinct languages, aesthetics, and cosmologies. Avoid generalizations like Native American art as a monolith. Instead, note specific nations: This is a Hopi kachina doll, This is a Tlingit button blanket, This is a Seminole patchwork dress.

Use the museums signage and audio guides to learn the correct names of tribes and regions. This specificity honors the diversity and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples.

Be Aware of Appropriation vs. Appreciation

Appreciation involves learning, respecting boundaries, and supporting Indigenous creators. Appropriation involves taking symbols, styles, or sacred imagery out of context for commercial or aesthetic gainoften by non-Native people.

At the museum, youll see examples of both. For instance, a Navajo-inspired rug made by a Navajo weaver using traditional techniques is appreciation. A mass-produced Native pattern throw pillow sold by a non-Native company is appropriation.

Use your visit to learn how to distinguish between the two, and carry that awareness into your everyday choices as a consumer and cultural participant.

Practice Active Listening

Many visitors approach Native art with a checklist mentality: Whats the oldest? Whats the most expensive? Whats the rarest? But the true value lies in listeningto the stories embedded in the patterns, the silence between the beads, the spaces left intentionally empty in a painting.

Allow yourself to sit with discomfort. Some works confront historical trauma, land theft, or forced assimilation. You are not expected to have all the answers. Your presence, curiosity, and willingness to learn are enough.

Tools and Resources

Official Museum Resources

• DAM Website: denverartmuseum.org Exhibition schedules, tour bookings, and digital collections
• DAM Mobile App Audio guides, interactive maps, and artist interviews
• Native American Art Research Center By-appointment access to archival materials
• Online Collection Database Search over 18,000 objects with high-resolution images and detailed descriptions

External Educational Platforms

• Native Land Digital Interactive map showing Indigenous territories, languages, and treaties: native-land.ca
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Online exhibitions and educational resources: americanindian.si.edu
• First Peoples Fund Supports Native artists and cultural entrepreneurs: firstpeoplesfund.org
• Art of the Native American Podcast series featuring interviews with Indigenous curators and artists

Recommended Reading

• Native American Art in the Twentieth Century by W. Jackson Rushing
• Indigenous Visions: Rediscovering the World of Franz Boas edited by Ned Blackhawk and Isaiah Wilner
• When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through by Joy Harjo (Poet Laureate of the United States, Muscogee Nation)
• Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
• Native American Art: A Visual History by Robert L. Hall

Online Archives and Databases

• Denver Art Museum Online Collection Searchable database with filters by tribe, medium, and date
• Library of Congress Native American Collections Historical photographs and oral histories
• University of Oklahomas Western History Collections Digitized ethnographic records from the Southern Plains
• Artstor Academic image library with high-res Native art images (access via library membership)

Real Examples

Example 1: The Weavers Hands Navajo Textile, c. 1910

One of the most frequently viewed pieces in the Silverstein Galleries is a large Navajo rug with a central diamond motif surrounded by zigzag lines. On the label, the museum notes: Woven by a woman from the Ganado region, this rug was made for trade with Anglo settlers but retained ceremonial symbolism. The diamond represents the four sacred mountains; the zigzags are lightning, a symbol of fertility.

Visitors often assume the design is purely decorative. However, a curator-led tour revealed that the weavers daughter later recalled her mother saying, I wove this while I was mourning my husband. The colors came from the sky after the storm. This personal narrative, shared in a 2018 oral history interview, was added to the digital companion guide.

By engaging with both the physical object and the layered stories behind it, visitors move beyond aesthetics to understand weaving as an act of memory, grief, and resilience.

Example 2: The Earth Remembers Contemporary Installation by Teri Greeves (Kiowa)

In the Hamilton Building, Teri Greeves installation features beaded moccasins suspended from the ceiling, each pair representing a different Native child removed from their family during the Indian Child Welfare Act era. The beads are arranged to spell out names, dates, and locations of removals.

Unlike traditional museum displays, this piece invites visitors to walk beneath it, creating a physical experience of being enveloped by loss. Audio recordings of elders speaking in Kiowa echo softly, and visitors are encouraged to leave a bead of their own in a nearby basket as an act of solidarity.

This installation doesnt just show historyit asks viewers to participate in its healing. It exemplifies how Native artists are redefining museum spaces as sites of truth-telling and communal reflection.

Example 3: Tribal Identity in the Digital Age Video Series by Dakota Mako

A recent digital exhibit features a series of short films by Dakota Mako (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), who uses stop-motion animation to depict traditional stories using contemporary materials: LED lights, recycled plastic, and smartphone footage.

One film, The Seven Sisters, reimagines a Lakota star myth using projections of social media feeds scrolling across a dome ceiling. Viewers see hashtags like

WaterIsLife and #LandBack appear alongside ancient star patterns.

This piece challenges the notion that Native art must be traditional to be authentic. It demonstrates how Indigenous artists are using modern tools to preserve, reinterpret, and amplify cultural knowledge for new audiences.

FAQs

Can I take photographs of the Native art exhibits?

Photography is permitted in most areas of the museum, but not all. Some objectsparticularly those with spiritual or ceremonial significanceare protected from imaging. Look for signs indicating No Photography or ask a staff member if unsure. Never use flash near sensitive materials, and avoid photographing sacred items even if allowed.

Are there guided tours specifically for Native art?

Yes. The Denver Art Museum offers weekly guided tours focused on Native American art, led by Indigenous educators or trained curators. These tours are free with museum admission but require advance booking. Check the events calendar for Native Art Tours or Indigenous Perspectives sessions.

How does the museum ensure ethical representation of Native cultures?

DAM works directly with tribal communities through its Native Advisory Council, which includes representatives from over 30 nations. This council reviews all exhibitions, labels, and acquisitions to ensure accuracy, respect, and cultural sensitivity. The museum also participates in repatriation efforts under NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act).

Is this collection suitable for children?

Absolutely. DAM offers family-friendly guides, activity sheets, and interactive stations designed for younger visitors. The Art Explorer program includes scavenger hunts focused on patterns, colors, and stories in Native art. Many children are fascinated by beadwork, weaving, and animal motifs.

What if I want to learn more about a specific tribe or artist?

The museums online collection database allows you to search by tribe, artist, or medium. You can also request a research consultation at the Native American Art Research Center. Librarians can help you locate academic papers, tribal publications, or contact information for cultural organizations.

Can I buy authentic Native art at the museum?

Yes. The DAM Gift Shop partners exclusively with Native artists and artisans. All items are labeled with the artists name, tribe, and a brief description of the making process. Proceeds support the artists directly. Look for the Native Made seal on products.

Is there a fee to access the Native art galleries?

Admission to the Denver Art Museum includes access to all permanent and rotating exhibitions, including the Native American Art galleries. Members receive free admission. Discounts are available for students, seniors, and military personnel.

Conclusion

Exploring Native art at the Denver Art Museum is more than a cultural outingit is an act of reconnection, reclamation, and responsibility. The collection you encounter is not a static archive of the past, but a living testament to the enduring creativity, resistance, and innovation of Indigenous peoples across North America.

By following the steps outlined in this guideplanning thoughtfully, listening deeply, respecting protocols, and extending your engagement beyond the museumyou become part of a broader movement to honor Native voices and correct historical erasures. The artworks you see were made by hands that have carried knowledge for millennia. They are not relics. They are revelations.

As you leave the museum, carry with you not just memories of color and pattern, but questions: Who made this? What does it mean to them? How can I support their future?

The Denver Art Museum offers a rare and powerful opportunity to engage with Native art on its own terms. Seize it with humility. Learn with curiosity. Share with integrity. And remember: the most important thing you can take away is not a photograph or a souvenirbut a changed perspective.