The opportunity for Southwest Georgians to see Contemporary works by Native American artists is nearing its end. July 29-Aug 3 is the final week for Shared Ideologies from the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary, which features Native American artworks created since the 1970s.

“These artworks tell important stories that have been overlooked, and offer our visitors new perspectives on history and Native American culture,” AMA Executive Director Andrew J. Wulf, Ph.D., said. “Along with the many visitors from the region and state, travelers passing through our community have discovered our museum and this impressive exhibition. Shared Ideologies also has offered us a unique opportunity to incorporate Native American art in our summer art camps and tours.”

An example is TV Indians, an archival pigment print by Cara Romero, an American (Chemehuevi) artist. With the rise of television in the 1940s-1960s, images of Native Americans were brought into the homes of U.S. residents, who were provided a monolithic view of Native Americans that was filtered and restricted through the pictures and words of others. Romero’s work contrasts Native American people today in her community against a backdrop of TVs displaying stereotypical images from the airwaves of the past

In Tourist Season, an acrylic and pastel work on paper, American (Salish/Kootenai) artist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith utilizes abstract elements and representational imagery to illustrate her connection with past and future generations. Julie Buffalohead, an American (Ponca) artist, uses animal imagery in her lithograph Unravel to focus on cultural encounters of Native American and Euro-American cultures.

“The longer you view these artworks, the more they speak to you,” Director of Curatorial Affairs Katie Dillard said.

Dr. Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, curator of Native American art at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary, curated Shared Ideologies. Several works from the museum’s Native American collection were publicly shown for the first time in that original exhibition in 2021-22.

Also in their last week on exhibition are Tradition & Legacy: Depictions of the American West in the East Gallery; Mixed Metals, Jewelry from the AMA African Art Collection in the McCormack Gallery, and the second iteration of the year-long Old Master Drawings from the Shaffer Collection in the Hodges Gallery.

“Tradition & Legacy complements Shared Ideologies,” Dillard said. “The works are by non-Native artists, but they are artists who respect the subjects they show. We have loaned paintings by African-American artists Charles Lilly and Ezra Tucker from the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, three works by Frederic Remington on long-term loan to the AMA from the family of Walter G. Thompson, and, from our permanent collection, Indian Encampment by Joseph Henry Sharp.”

In Mixed Metals, the AMA provides an overview of the jewelry from Sub-Saharan Africa in the museum’s permanent collection. Most pieces are from Ethiopia and Ghana, while others are from Mali.

The second part of the Old Master Drawings exhibition will also close. It will reopen on Thursday, Aug 29, for its third and final segment of the year-long exhibition of the old master drawings that Randolph Shaffer, Jr. collected while serving in Europe during World War II. 

The third part of the exhibition will include a different set of drawings from among the 150 that Shaffer gave to the AMA, including a newly framed drawing that has never before been exhibited.

The AMA is open 10 am-5 pm Tuesday through Friday. Admission is free for everyone.