Description

In June 2024, Fruitlands Museum (FM) will open “Across Boundaries, Across Barriers,” a long-term installation of historic and contemporary Native American art that is part of a new centering of the Native American collections on the FM campus. Collected by FM’s founder, Clara Endicott Sears, they were first presented in the ‘Indian museum” she opened at the site in 1928. FM envisions this project as an opportunity to reckon with the colonialism and mythmaking that informed Sears’s efforts and to reinterpret these belongings from the perspectives of their living communities of origin. Organized by associate curator Tess Lukey (Aquinnah Wampanoag), “Across Boundaries” with feature 45 objects across three galleries spaces organized according to Natïve knowledge systems (including directional orientations, and the medicine wheel), and subthemes (including Flora and Fauna, Water, Minerals and Fire, and the Physical Body.) Connections to place with offer a unifying thread. The exhibition is also part of a comprehensive FM effort to prioritize ethical stewardship of the collection, year-round community access, and educational opportunities. FM highlights several goals for this work: building relationships with Indigenous communities; facilitating reciprocal knowledge sharing; advancing community relationships with their cultural belongings; and welcoming non-native audiences to engage with histories that are not their own.