Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). The museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.
Also recorded as Eiteljorg · Eiteljorg Museum
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

User:Sailko · File:Indianapolis,_eiteljorg_museum,_esterno_00.jpg · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
- Founded
- 1989.
- Headquarters
- Indianapolis.
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Documentary summary
The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is an art museum in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The Eiteljorg houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). The museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art • Location — White River State Park, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. • Type — Art museum • Visitors — 114,488 (2019) • Director — Kathryn Haigh • Curator — Elisa Phelps • Public Transit — Local Transit • Illustration — IndyGo 8
Museum
Museum
The museum is located in Indianapolis's White River State Park, which is also home to the neighboring Indiana State Museum and Military Park, among other attractions. The museum offers free parking to its visitors in the park's underground parking garage. The Gund Gallery has an appreciable collection of paintings and bronzes by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. It also has paintings by: George Winter, Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt, Charles King, and Olaf Seltzer. In another room, there is a large collection of paintings by New Mexico-associated painters, such as: Joseph Henry Sharp, William Victor Higgins, Ernest L. Blumenschein ("Penitentes"), John French Sloan, and Georgia O'Keeffe (“Taos Pueblo”). In June 2005, the museum opened an extensive expansion that doubled the public space of the museum by adding three new galleries, the Sky City Café, an education center, outdoor gardens, and event space. The new galleries include two galleries dedicated to the museum's extensive contemporary art collection. The collection includes works by T. C. Cannon, Kay WalkingStick, Andy Warhol, and many more. The other gallery added in the expansion is the Gund Gallery of Western Art. This gallery is dedicated to the 57-piece collection of traditional Western art donated to the museum by the George Gund Family. In 2021, a six-person panel of American Institute of Architects (AIA) Indianapolis members identified the museum among the ten most "architecturally significant" buildings completed in the city since World War II.
Fellowship
Fellowship
The museum offers the prestigious Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship (formerly called the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art) biennially to recognize some of the most innovative and influential contemporary Native artists active today. Eiteljorg fellows include: • Sonny Assu (Ligwilda’xw Kwakwaka’wakw) installation artist, painter (2021) • Natalie Ball (Klamath Tribes/Modoc textile and installation artist (2023) • Rick Bartow (Wiyot, 1946–2016), painter and mixed media artist (2001) • Catherine Blackburn, English River Dene fashion designer, installation artist, mixed media artist (2021) • Julie Buffalohead, Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, painter (2013) • Sean Chandler (Aaniiih), drawing artist (2023) • Corky Clairmont, Salish-Kootenai printmaker and installation artist (2003) • Gerald Clarke, Cahuilla Band sculptor (2007) • Hannah Claus, Mohawk interdisciplinary artist (2019) • Dana Claxton, Hunkpapa Lakota performance and installation artist (2007) • Lorenzo Clayton, Navajo printmaker (1999) • Ruth Cuthand, Plains Cree printmaker, painter, photographer (2023) • Jim Denomie (Lac Court Oreilles Ojibwe, 1955–2022), painter (2009) • Bonnie Devine, Serpent River First Nation Ojibwa installation artist, performance artist, sculptor (2011) • Demian DinéYazhi´, Diné, photographer (2019) • Mercedes Dorame (self-identified Tongva-descent), photographer, installation artist (2023) • Joe Feddersen, Colville Confederated Tribes (Okanagan/Sinixt) printmaker, glass artist, basket weaver (2001) • Anita Fields, Osage/Muscogee ceramic artist, textile artist (2021) • Harry Fonseca (Shingle Springs Maidu/Nisenan, 1946–2006), painter (2005) • Skawennati Fragnito, Mohawk New Media artist (2011) • Nicholas Galanin, Tlingit/Unangax installation artist (2013) • Jeffrey Gibson, Mississippi Band Choctaw/Cherokee painter and installation artist (2009) • Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band Cherokee, 1957–2018), basketweaver, mixed media, photographer (2013) • Raven Halfmoon (Caddo/Choctaw/Delaware (2023) • Faye Heavyshield, Kainai installation artist (2009) • Luzene Hill, Eastern Band Cherokee installation artist (2015) • John Hoover (Aleut, 1919–2011), sculptor (2005) • Robert Houle, Saulteaux painter (2003) • Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache, 1914–1994) sculptor (2001) • Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Iñupiaq/Athabascan painter and sculptor (2007) • Matthew Kirk, Diné mixed-media artist (2019) • Athena LaTocha, Hunkpapa Lakota/Ojibwe-descent painter (2021) • James Lavadour, Walla Walla painter (2005) • Rita Letendre (Abenaki-descent, 1928–2021), painter (2019) • Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk, 1944–2019) conceptual artist and curator (1999) • James Luna (Puyukitchum, Ipai, and Mexican-American, 1950–2018), performance artist (2007) • Brenda Mallory, Cherokee Nation sculptor (2015) • Teresa Marshall, Mi'kmaq conceptual artist (2001) • Mario Martinez, Pascua Yaqui painter • Meryl McMaster, Plains Cree photographer (2013) • Larry McNeil, Tlingit/Nisga'a photographer (2007) • Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Tlingit/Nisga'a sculptor, installation artist, photographer • Alan Michelson, Mohawk (2011) • George Morrison, Grand Portage Ojibwe (1919–2000) abstract expressionist painter and sculptor (1999) • Nadia Myre, Algonquin multidisciplinary artist (2003) • Nora Naranjo Morse, Santa Clara Pueblo ceramicist (2003) • Marianne Nicolson, PhD, Kwakw a k a ’wakw photographer and painter (1999) • Shelley Niro, Six Nations of the Grand River Mohawk photographer, beader, filmmaker, installation artist (2001) • Edward Poitras, Gordon First Nation painter (2009) • Wendy Red Star, Crow installation artist (2009) • Rick Rivet, Sahtu/Métis mixed media painter (1999) • Tanis Maria S'eiltin, Tlingit sculptor and installation artist (2005) • Susie Silook, Siberian Yupik/Iñupiaq carver and sculptor (2001) • Duane Slick, Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa painter (2011) • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Salish-Kootenai, Métis, Shoshone-Bannock printmaker, collage, mixed media artist (1999) • C. Maxx Stevens, Seminole Nation sculptor and installation artist (2005) • Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Navajo/Seminole/Muscogee photographer (2003) • Anna Tsouhlarakis, Navajo/Muscogee sculptor, video artist, photographer (2011) • Kay WalkingStick, Cherokee Nation painter (2003) • Marie Watt, Seneca Nation installation artist and printmaker (2005) • Dyani White Hawk, Sicangu Lakota painter (2019) • Holly Wilson, Delaware Nation/Cherokee sculptor (2015) • Will Wilson, Navajo photographer (2007) • Steven J. Yazzie, Navajo/Laguna Pueblo painter, video artist (2021) • Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (Coast Salish/Okanagan, painter (2013)
Foundation
Foundation
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is described in the collections that hold this material as It is associated with United States. The record gives 1989 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Its recorded seat is Indianapolis. It is recorded in the collection of Indianapolis.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
The full dated record · 2 entries
1989
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art established.
1989
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art was established or created on 1 January 1989.
Context
Primary material
Context
The circumstances in which Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art stands. Established or created on 1 January 1989. Art has its headquarters at Indianapolis. Situated in United States. Art lies within Indiana.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- Internet Archive holdings naming Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
General reference · Internet Archive
reference work
- “Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5350016: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
General reference · Wikidata
Literature
Further cited scholarship
3 scholarly and reference publications are cited here, each one identified by title and by the publication, publisher or institution that carried it, with its year where the register states one. The cited literature runs from 2013 to 2019, which is a measure of how long Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art has been a subject of scholarship rather than of how much has been written. The Encyclopedia cites this literature and does not summarise the arguments of works it has not read in full. Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship 2015 (catalogue).
Toward a Shared Native American/Western Heritage: A Case Study of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2019
Jennifer ComploMcNutt and AshleyHolland (Cherokee Nation), eds
Eiteljorg Museum, 2015
136<scp>pp</scp>, Museum Anthropology, 2017
The Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship 2011
Jennifer ComploMcNutt and AshleyHolland, eds. Indianapolis: eiteljorg museum of american indians and western art, 2011
103<scp>pp</scp>, Museum Anthropology, 2013
Authority records
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Indianapolis Business Journal. Most Popular Indianapolis-Area Attractions.
- 2.Lindquist, Dave. New IndyFringe leader wants to add to energy on Mass Ave. Indianapolis Business Journal. March 16, 2023.
- 3.Boggs, Johnny D. Eiteljorg Museum – Art of the West. HistoryNet. 31 March 2011.
- 4.Roach, Keith. The Eiteljorg Museum Adds to Its Contemporary Collection. Indianapolis Monthly. 9 November 2015.
- 5.Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Is Recipient of $15 Million Gund Collection of Western Art. 19 August 2004.
- 6.Shuey, Mickey. Indy's Top 10 architecturally wondrous buildings. Indianapolis Business Journal. IBJ Media. December 3, 2021.
- 7."The Fellows: 2001." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. (retrieved 9 March 2010)
- 8."The Fellows: 2003." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. (retrieved 9 March 2010)
- 9."The Fellows: 2007." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. (retrieved 9 March 2010)
- 10."The Fellows: 1999." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. (retrieved 9 March 2010)
- 11.2023 Artists chosen for Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Eiteljorg Museum.
- 12."The Fellows: 2009." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. (retrieved 9 March 2010)
- 13."Five artists named 2011 Eiteljorg Fellows." Eiteljorg Museum. 2010 (retrieved 11 August 2010)
- 14.Artists chosen for Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. 10 February 2021.
- 15."The Fellows: 2005." Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. (retrieved 9 March 2010)
- 16."Eiteljorg to Award $25,000 and an Exhibit to Five Contemporary Native Artists." NBC4i. 30 Oct 2013. Retrieved 1 Nov 2013.
- 17.Perry-Smitherman, DeShong. Meet the Eiteljorg's 2015 Contemporary Art Fellows. Eiteljorg Museum. 9 Jan 2015.
- 18.Eiteljorg Fellowship 1999–Present. Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
institutional register
Internet Archive holdings naming Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western ArtInternet Archive
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
Wikidata, structured authority record Q5350016: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western ArtWikidata
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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