GRAM Opens 'Rivers Run Through Us' — A Survey of Indigenous Art from the Great Lakes Region
The Grand Rapids Art Museum's largest exhibition of Indigenous art to date features 60 works by 28 artists and runs through September 7.
The Grand Rapids Art Museum opens 'Rivers Run Through Us' on June 6, a survey of contemporary Indigenous art from the Great Lakes featuring 60 works by 28 artists from Anishinaabe, Potawatomi, and Haudenosaunee nations. The exhibition runs through September 7 and includes a companion program of artist talks, film screenings, and a beading workshop series.
The Grand Rapids Art Museum opens its most significant exhibition of Indigenous art on June 6: "Rivers Run Through Us," a survey of contemporary Great Lakes Indigenous artists that fills both the museum's main gallery and its newly renovated east wing.
Sixty works by 28 artists from Anishinaabe, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Haudenosaunee nations address water, land, language preservation, and sovereignty through painting, sculpture, textiles, photography, and video installation. Guest curator Dr. Melvina Doerfler, a member of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians and faculty at the University of Michigan's Native American studies program, spent three years developing the show.
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"Grand Rapids sits on land that was Odawa and Potawatomi territory," Doerfler said at Thursday's preview. "This museum has a responsibility to center that history in its programming — not as a historical footnote but as a living, contemporary conversation." Three of the 28 artists are from Michigan, including Bay Mills-based fiber artist Winona LaDuke-Roberts, whose large-scale installation piece anchors the east wing.
GRAM has built an extensive companion program: eight artist talks, a five-week film series at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, and a drop-in beading workshop every Saturday through June. Opening night June 6 is free to all visitors from 5–9 p.m. Regular admission thereafter; members free.
