Museums - National Museum of the American Indian - George Gustav Heye Center
National Museum of the American Indian - George Gustav Heye Center
1 Bowling Green
New York, NY 10004
U.S.A.
 | Daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Thursday until 8 p.m. Closed Dec. 25. Museum hours are subject to change. Please contact museum before visiting to confirm the information listed is correct. |
Opened in October 1994, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian at the historic Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan serves as the NMAI’s exhibition and education facility in New York City. Permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as a range of public programs—including music and dance performances, films, and symposia—explore the diversity of the Native people of the Americas and the strength and continuity of their cultures from the earliest times to the present. For more information about the collection, see the listing for the NMAI in Washington, DC.
Happenings
Native American art Exhibition
This exhibition of 77 works from the museum's collection will inaugurate the new Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures. Beauty Surrounds Us features an elaborate Quechua girl's dance outfit, a Northwest Coast chief's staff with carved animal figures and crest designs, Seminole turtle shell dance leggings, a conch shell trumpet from pre-Columbian Mexico, a Navajo saddle blanket, and an Inupiak (Eskimo) ivory cribbage board. The exhibition includes two interactive media stations, at which visitors may access in-depth descriptions of each object and, through virtual imaging technology, view and rotate a selection of the objects to examine them more closely.
Native American art Exhibition
Listening to Our Ancestors explores how native peoples along the coast of Washington State, British Columbia, and Alaska continue time-honored practices in an ever-changing modern world. The exhibition features more than 400 ceremonial and everyday objects, including dance blankets, fishing hooks, masks, and spoons, as well as commentary from representatives of 11 contemporary North Pacific Coast nations.