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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has reinstalled contemporary Native art in a project led by Indigenous art curator Jordan Poorman Cocker and Ashley Holland. The accompanying symposium brought artists, curators and scholars together, while Cocker said Indigenous art accounts for about 3% of the museum’s permanent collection. The interview describes the rehang’s goals, but does not provide a full accounting of the works or future plans.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has reinstalled contemporary Native art in a project led by its first full-time curator of Indigenous art, Jordan Poorman Cocker, alongside Ashley Holland of the Cherokee Nation. The rehang coincided with a two-day symposium on contemporary Native art, bringing artists, curators and scholars to Bentonville, Arkansas, to discuss Native art, museum collections and the conditions artists need to sustain their work.
The museum’s reinstallation was intended to recenter its Indigenous art and craft collections, Cocker told Hyperallergic. She said the displays seek to represent a range of styles and media, living Native artists, and artists connected to tribes whose ancestral lands include Arkansas. The gathering included a keynote by Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson, a discussion between Diné weaver Melissa Cody and her mother, Lola Cody, and a workshop by Lehuauakea based on traditional kapa practice.
Cocker said Indigenous and Native art makes up about 3% of Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection. She described artist commissions and acquisitions as ways for the museum to contribute to a wider art ecosystem, including support for apprenticeships, community classes and art education. Her comments frame the rehang as part of a longer institutional effort, not as evidence that representation gaps have been resolved.
Cocker joined Crystal Bridges in 2023 as its Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act officer and first full-time curator of Indigenous art. She is a Kiowa and Tongan citizen, an artist working in beadwork and textiles, and a museum-studies graduate of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. The interview presents her curatorial outlook as shaped by both those backgrounds and connections among Indigenous peoples beyond colonial national borders.
Representation Beyond the Rehang
The reinstallation matters because it puts living Native artists and Indigenous art forms into a prominent American art museum’s collection displays while raising questions about what institutional support means in practice. Cocker’s emphasis on commissions, apprenticeships and community education extends the discussion beyond which works appear on gallery walls: it also concerns whether museums help artists and communities maintain the knowledge and practices behind those works.
The reported 3% share of the permanent collection offers a specific measure of the gap Cocker identified. A rehang can change what visitors see, but the source does not establish that it changes the collection’s overall proportions or the museum’s long-term funding commitments. The distinction matters when evaluating the project’s reach.
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A Curatorial Role Since 2023
Crystal Bridges sits on the ancestral homelands of the Osage, Quapaw and Caddo nations, whose people were forcibly relocated in the 19th century, according to the report. Cocker opened the symposium with a land acknowledgment. The event also included Kiowa artists and matriarchs, among them beadwork artist Terri Greeves, whose remarks echoed the importance of the 2019 exhibition Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
The museum’s 114,000-square-foot expansion was raised in the interview as a question about capacity for collaboration. The source does not give a specific answer connecting the expansion to particular future programs. It does report that Cocker has pursued acquisitions from galleries and annual markets, with an emphasis on commissions, and that the reinstallation was organized with Holland.
“Native American and Indigenous art are foundational to every American art collection.”
— Jordan Poorman Cocker, in an email interview with Hyperallergic
What the Source Does Not Detail
The report does not specify the year of the October 16–17 symposium, list every work included in the reinstallation, or give the total number of artists represented. It also does not describe how the museum will measure whether the rehang changes visitor engagement or Indigenous representation over time.
Although the interview discusses the museum’s expansion and asks how it could enable ongoing collaboration, it provides no detailed timetable or funding figures for future commissions, apprenticeships or education programs. Cocker’s stated aims should not be read as confirmation that those activities have been funded or scheduled.
Future Support Remains Open
The source reports no announced next milestone, program schedule or follow-up exhibition. The immediate development is the completed reinstallation and the symposium held alongside it. Cocker’s comments point to potential areas for continued museum work, including artist commissions, apprenticeships and community education, but the museum’s next steps and the resources allocated to them remain unspecified.
Further updates would be needed to establish whether the project leads to new acquisitions, repeat collaborations with featured artists or measurable changes in the collection. For now, the rehang offers a view into Cocker’s curatorial priorities and the gap she says remains in the museum’s permanent holdings.
Key Questions
What changed at Crystal Bridges?
The museum reinstalled contemporary Native art in a project led by Jordan Poorman Cocker and Ashley Holland of the Cherokee Nation. The project coincided with a two-day symposium.
Who is Jordan Poorman Cocker?
Cocker is a Kiowa and Tongan citizen who joined Crystal Bridges in 2023 as its first full-time curator of Indigenous art and as a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act officer. She is also a beadwork and textile artist.
What did Cocker say about Indigenous art in the collection?
She said Indigenous and Native art accounts for about 3% of Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection. The source does not provide a separate calculation or collection-wide breakdown.
What did the symposium include?
The program included a keynote by Jeffrey Gibson, a conversation between Diné weaver Melissa Cody and her mother, Lola Cody, and a workshop by Lehuauakea on traditional kapa practice.
Has the museum announced what comes next?
The source does not report a future schedule or specific funding commitments. Cocker discussed commissions, apprenticeships and community education as areas where the museum could support artists and their communities.
Source: hyperallergic.com
