The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Art Bridges Foundation, its museum partnership organization, have recently acquired 90 pieces of contemporary indigenous artwork.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville is home to one of the most expansive collections of contemporary American art, spanning about five centuries. But until recently, the 200,000 square feet of gallery space held just 80 works by Indigenous artists.
“Art made by Native American or Indigenous artists makes up about 3% of the collection at large.”
Jordan Poorman Cocker is curator of Indigenous art at Crystal Bridges and the museum's Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act officer. She says that the percentage is a big gap for a museum dedicated to American art.
“But we have as a museum a long way to go to honor our commitments to Native American and Indigenous artists as a museum. The timeliness is key. I think it's so important now, maybe more than ever before, to remember and celebrate artworks and histories that connect us as human beings, that connect us as Americans. And the gift from the Horseman Collection will help us to realize this goal.”
This summer, the museum and its partner organization, the Art Bridges Foundation, jointly acquired 90 works of contemporary Indigenous art. The pieces all come from the St. Louis-based John and Susan Horseman Collection, which is dedicated to Native and African American art.
“The Horseman Collection is phenomenal. I've seen their works on view in exhibitions across the country and it really comprises some of the most important works of Indigenous art, particularly created by contemporary living artists,” Cocker said.
In a statement, John Horseman said his hope in gifting these pieces to Crystal Bridges is to have them appear alongside non-Native artists. He wrote, “We have always believed that these Indigenous creatives belong in the canon of American art. This is art that should be seen and artists that should be known.”
Cocker agrees that the new artwork represents an important step forward for Crystal Bridges.
“For me, growing this collection is so important right now. Our museum is all about telling American stories and the diversity and complexity of those stories from different perspectives. And the collection of Indigenous art that is being built now really is intentionally reflecting the breadth of those stories.”
Crystal Bridges last received a collection of 35 Indigenous artworks in 2020 from collector Bruce Hartman. But large-scale acquisitions of Native American art like this are still relatively rare. The last comparable one was in 2017, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York received 91 pieces from Charles and Valerie Diker.
Ashley Holland is director of curatorial initiatives for the Art Bridges Foundation, which will get 81 of those pieces, making one-third of Art Bridges’ 250-work collection contemporary Indigenous art.
“You know, I've been doing this for a long time. In my previous life, I was a curator of Indigenous art. And I've always made the argument that Native art is a part of American art. And I think that this is signaling that we truly believe that. And going forward, there's no question, because it's about not just saying that we want to bring an expanded idea of American art, but actually showing that through the works that we are collecting.”
Art Bridges was founded in 2017 by Walmart heiress and Crystal Bridges founder Alice Walton to loan out artwork to other museums or institutions, with the goal of getting more American art out of storage and on display.
“So we're a little different than a museum, in that we do not have a gallery space where we are presenting these works. Instead, we are working with other museums to put the works on view,” Holland said.
While Holland admits the number of works by Native artists on display with Crystal Bridges and Art Bridges is low, she says in comparison to other museums, they've been a leader in the movement to platform more Indigenous artists.
“I would argue in some ways Crystal Bridges was actually doing a lot better than other museums, like 120 doesn't seem like a lot, but I think it was the National Gallery that didn't acquire a work by a Native artist until two years ago. So when you think about that sort of institution that has been around for a very long time, that has always been focused on collecting from a national identity viewpoint, Crystal Bridges is young, and they did include Native art from the beginning. It just wasn't until more recently that they really started to collect more aggressively.”
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., acquired its first major painting by a Native American artist only in 2020. That work was an 11-foot-tall mixed media piece titled I See Red: Target from Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who is also one of the featured artists in Crystal Bridges’ collection.
Cocker says for a long time, museums around the country have left Indigenous artists out or misrepresented Indigenous people and their art as relics of the past.
“There's this erasure that happens when we historicize folks, or historicize their existence. So for me, contemporary art really is critical to understanding not just these art forms better, but also the continuity, the richness and vitality of Indigenous communities.”
She says in some ways this acquisition feels radical because the pieces are allowed to stand alone as works of art in their own right.
“There are some really great artists in the collection, including Cannupa Hanska Luger, who really actively in their artistic practice don't necessarily go through that process of wanting to reteach folks about American history or about history in general, and really sort of in a playful way, using humor and satire, just activate a conversation around the present, the past, but maybe most importantly, the future.
“Another artist that does this really beautifully is Rose Simpson. Her sculptures and her ceramic practice are really beautiful, and they are rooted in ancestral art forms and exist on this continuity of clay works in ceramic production from her community. But at the same time, when she's creating a work, it's very distinct. There's a strong narrative. There's often portraiture or figures of women. So she has her own discourse within this Indigenous art history. And I think for me, those stories are the most important to center, because they're so rarely included.”
Cocker selected the nine works out of the collection that will stay at Crystal Bridges, which also include artists T.C. Cannon, Allan Houser, Susan Hudson, Kent Monkman, and Tyrell Tapaha.
It's Tapaha’s work that Cocker says she was most surprised by and is excited for the public to see.
“Called Chei Nasty, it's a fabulous and playful textile that's been woven. Tapaha works in his community, but also on the land, raising sheep, directly herding sheep. Their process in terms of artistic production really includes material harvesting and material processing at a level that has quite a depth and is durational across multiple seasons. For me, this work being included in the gift was exciting. To really feature this emerging Navajo weaver at Crystal Bridges will be, I think, a highlight for me.”
The public won't have to wait long to see those pieces. Ashley Holland says Art Bridges is already talking with partner organizations about loaning out some of the new works.
“We are seeing museums reaching out, wanting to borrow 10 works at once and do an exhibition from that. So it's an exciting moment for us. It's a lot of art that's moving very quickly.”
Some of the works from Art Bridges will first go on display at the Alice Walton School of Medicine for a show starting Nov. 3, and permanent pieces will go up as part of Crystal Bridges’ expanded galleries in June 2026. In 2027, additional pieces from the Horseman Collection will be included in the exhibition Made in Beauty: A Rumination on the Historical and Contemporary Art of Indigenous Peoples, curated by Cocker.
“I hope when folks encounter these works, they're not just marching through history, they're learning about their community members. They're learning about different places across the country. And in that learning and encounter of these artworks, there's a moment for joy, for connection and for deeper understanding.”
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
