Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, Part II at the BMA 12/19/2024

Leila Grothe, BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art

Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum—an initiative including a series of exhibitions throughout the museum—centers the work, experiences, and voices of Native artists. Preoccupied explores the vital cultural contributions of Native people through the presentation of historical objects as well as works created by a breadth of contemporary makers. 

ASG toured through the first half of the initiative in June, this moment marks an opportunity to view the remaining exhibitions with one of the project's curators. Leila Grothe, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, will bring the group through the following solo exhibitions: Laura Ortman: Wood that Sings; Nicholas Galanin: Exist in the Width of a Knife's Edge; and Dana Claxton: Spark. These powerful solo exhibitions insist on the vibrancy of Indigenous artists making work throughout this continent while refusing assumptions that non-Natives often make about Native existence and cultural production. 

Developed with guidance from the Native community and cultural leaders in and around Baltimore, the Preoccupied initiative also includes interpretative interventions in the display and labeling of certain objects across the museum’s collection galleries, a publication designed with guidance from Native methodologies, and a broad array of public programs. Preoccupied significantly increases the presence of Native artists in the BMA’s galleries and actively subverts the colonialist tendencies and hierarchies upon which museums have been built. The initiative will continue through February 2025. 

Image: 
Installation view, Dana Claxton: Spark, Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo: Mitro Hood

 Members-only, registration required (limited to 35 people) no fee. Register online here: https://www.artseminargroup.org/online-payment/registration