From April 6 through April 12, the Montgomery Place mansion at Bard College will be the site of “Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition.”
The exhibit is being
hosted by Bard College and Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, a Native American and
Indigenous Studies (NAIS) project. Curated by Rethinking Place
Post-Baccalaureate Fellow Olivia Tencer and Rethinking Place Administrative Coordinator Melina Roise, the groundbreaking exhibition features works by contemporary Indigenous photographers, Kali Spitzer
(Kaska Dena/Jewish), Dana Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations), Cara
Romero (Chemehuevi Indian Tribe), and Wendy Red Star (Apsaalooke [Crow]); a written commission by the Institute of American
Indian Arts’ Bonney
Hartley (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican); and archival records of local land transfers and the United States’ Indian boarding school history. The display centers on the lives of
Indigenous families, particularly women and children, and delves into the experiences of Native peoples facing settler colonialism, with a specific
focus on Indigenous child removal practices and policies.
The show will include pieces from the collection of Indigenous arts and culture organization the Forge Project. An accompanying publication will provide in-depth contextualization of land dispossession in the United States, forced removal of Native peoples in New York State, and the impact of Indian boarding schools. The presentation will fill various rooms of the historic Montgomery Place mansion. and, while the estate is renowned for its ties to the Livingston family, organizers maintain that “Montgomery Place is committed to exploring marginalized histories, including the forced removal of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and the estate’s use of enslaved African American labor.”
“Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition” will be on view at Montgomery Place in Annandale-on-Hudson on April 6 and 7 from 1pm to 5pm and April 10-12 from 1:30pm to 4pm. Admission is free via Eventbrite registration.
