Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape juxtaposes an Indigenous approach to the articulation of land with the American landscape paintings of Thomas Cole. The exhibition presents 19th-century paintings by Thomas Cole featuring Native figures, in context with Indigenous works of historic and cultural value, and artworks by contemporary Indigenous artists: Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa), Brandon Lazore (Onondaga, Snipe Clan), Truman T. Lowe (Ho-Chunk), Alan Michelson (Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River) and Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee).

Native Prospects is curated by Scott Manning Stevens, PhD / Karoniaktatsie (Akwesasne Mohawk), Associate Professor of Native American Studies and English at Syracuse University, where he is also Director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and Founding Director of the Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with original essays by the curator and Gabrielle Tayac, PhD, (Piscataway) and Joseph Mizhakiiyaasige Zordan (Bad River Ojibwe). Additionally, the publication will feature writing and plates by featured artists Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa), Brandon Lazore (Onondaga, Snipe Clan), and Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), as well as texts on Alan Michelson (Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River), by Clémence White, and Truman T. Lowe (Ho-Chunk), by Patricia Marroquin Norby, PhD, (Purépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After its debut at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, the exhibition will travel to the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT (November 16, 2024-February 9, 2025) and Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME (March 7-July 6, 2025). The exhibition, its tour and the accompanying publication are organized by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. The publication is produced in partnership with the Florence Griswold Museum.

Press Release

Exhibition Publication

#nativeprospects

“The Haudenosaunee belief is that our relationship with the earth is one of responsibilities”—Scott Manning Stevens in Hyperallergic

“Perfect Pitch”—Albany Times Union 

“Bold and Graceful”—Upstate Diary

“The show Scott Manning Stevens organized at the Thomas Cole Site aims to shift the role of Indigenous people in American art from background decoration to the creators themselves”—Steven Weinberg for Hyperallergic

“A starting point for many more conversations”—The Berkshire Eagle

“Art show to see”—Hyperallergic

“This work matters in this place because place holds meaning, and those meanings spiral through time”—4Columns

Listen to the curator on NPR WAMC The Roundtable or wherever you get your podcasts

Listen to executive director Betsy Jacks on the WGXC Afternoon Show

Hear directly from artists and curators on selected works from the exhibition.

CURATOR’S TALK 

The Curator’s Talk with Dr. Scott Manning Stevens, PhD / Karoniaktatsie (Akwesasne Mohawk) that took place on May 4 was recorded and now available for free streaming.