Indigenous Art Symposium showcases leading North American voices in Arkansas expansion

Leading Indigenous artists and scholars gathered at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, for a two-day Indigenous Art Symposium held on 16 and 17 October 2026. According to reporting by ICT, the event served as a major platform for North American Indigenous voices, featuring workshops, panels, and a unique keynote beading demonstration by acclaimed artist Jeffrey Gibson, who is of Choctaw and Cherokee descent. The symposium was organized by Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa), the museum’s curator of Indigenous art and NAGPRA officer. The event follows the opening of a new 114,000-square-foot expansion at Crystal Bridges, which has increased the museum’s space by more than 50 percent. Poorman Cocker told ICT that the museum is actively expanding its collection to better center Indigenous art and craft, moving away from traditional chronological timelines to reflect how relationships in art exist outside of simple history. Prominent figures in attendance included filmmaker Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee Creek) and Osage actor Yancey Red Corn. The symposium featured works by Nicholas Galanin and Raven Halfmoon, integrated alongside mainstream American art to provide a broader narrative of the nation's creative landscape. Poorman Cocker highlighted that the museum sits on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Caddo, and Quapaw peoples, making the focus on "sense of place" essential to the institution's mission. Participants also included Navajo weavers Lola and Melissa Cody, and Kiowa artist Teri Greeves, alongside representatives from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The event highlighted the museum’s commitment to providing a permanent and visible space for Indigenous histories within the wider context of American art history.