Crystal Bridges Features Indigenous Art, Poorman Cocker Leads Initiative

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, hosted a symposium on contemporary Native art on October 16 and 17. During the event, attended by Indigenous artists, curators, and scholars, Jordan Poorman Cocker, a Kiowa and Tongan citizen, began with a land acknowledgment. The museum, founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, is situated on the ancestral lands of the Osage Nation, Quapaw Nation, and Caddo Nation, who were forcibly relocated during the 19th century.

Poorman Cocker was hired in 2023 as the museum's Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) officer and its inaugural full-time curator of Indigenous art. She commutes from Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation and home to several nations resettled during the removal era. The two-day symposium coincided with the reinstallation of contemporary Native art in the museum, an effort Poorman Cocker led with Ashley Holland (Cherokee Nation). This reinstallation aims to highlight the diverse styles, mediums, and living Native artists across Indian Country, including works by citizens of the ancestral Tribes in Arkansas.

The event included a keynote address by Choctaw and Cherokee multidisciplinary artist Jeffrey Gibson, who later engaged with the audience alongside Poorman Cocker while beading. Diné weaver Melissa Cody discussed her work's lineage in conversation with her mother, Lola Cody, and Lehuauakea conducted a workshop focused on traditional kapa practice. Poorman Cocker's curatorial approach incorporates her museum studies background from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and a global perspective on Indigeneity, which seeks to transcend colonial nation-state boundaries. Like many Native curators, she draws inspiration from the influential 2019 exhibition“Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This sentiment was echoed by Kiowa beadwork artist Terri Greeves, who spoke at the symposium with other Kiowa Tribe members and matriarchs. Poorman Cocker is also a beadwork and textile artist, with her practice grounded in Kiowa and Tongan traditions.

In an email exchange with Hyperallergic, Poorman Cocker elaborated on a recent landmark commission, the goal of presenting a more complete history of Native art, and the significance of integrating Kiowa voices into the museum. When asked about the reinstallation at Crystal Bridges and its 114,000-square-foot expansion, Poorman Cocker stated,“The impetus is to recenter two primary areas: the Indigenous art collection and the craft collection. Native American and Indigenous art are foundational to every American art collection.” She added that she has written acquisition proposals for artworks from gallery systems and annual markets, with a focus on artist commissions. Poorman Cocker noted that Crystal Bridges is better equipped to support the art ecosystem, particularly artists whose work aligns with intergenerational art forms and who require financial aid for apprenticeships, community classes, and other educational initiatives that sustain artist communities and knowledge systems. Currently, Indigenous and Native art comprises approximately 3% of Crystal Bridges's permanent collection, underscoring the broader museum sector's need to improve its presentation of Indigenous artists and narratives.

Source: Hyperallergic

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