Alaska Native artist. Engraved Whale Tooth, late 19th century. Sperm whale tooth, black ash or graphite, oil, 61/2 × 3 × 2 in. (16.5 × 7.6 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Robert B. Woodward, 20.895. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Alaska Native artist. Engraved Whale Tooth, late 19th century. Sperm whale tooth, black ash or graphite, oil, 61/2 × 3 × 2 in. (16.5 × 7.6 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Robert B. Woodward, 20.895. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Coclé artist. Plaque with Crocodile Deity, 700–900. Gold, 81/2 × 9 in. (21.6 × 22.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Museum Expedition 1931, Museum Collection Fund, 33.448.12. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Aztec artist. Reclining Jaguar, 1400–1521. Volcanic stone, 5 × 11 × 53/4 in. (12.7 × 27.9 × 14.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Carll H. de Silver Fund, 38.45. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Teri Greeves (Kiowa, born 1970). 21st Century Traditional: Beaded Tipi, 2010. Brain-tanned deer hide, charlotte-cut glass beads, seed beads, bugle beads, glass beads, sterling silver beads, pearls, shell, raw diamonds, hand-stamped sterling silver disks, hand-stamped copper disk, cotton cloth, nylon “sinew” rope, wood (pine, poplar, bubinga), 46 × 29 × 321/2 in. (116.8 × 73.7 × 82.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2008.28. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Preston Singletary (Tlingit, born 1963). Guardian of the Sea, 2004. Glass, 18 × 6 × 18 in. (45.7 × 15.2 × 45.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Fairfield-Maxwell, Ltd., by exchange, 2004.2. © Preston Singletary. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Nasca artist. Double-Spouted Vessel, 325–440. Ceramic, pigment, 6 × 7 × 7 in. (15.2 × 17.8 × 17.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.224.15. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Maya artist. Tetrapod Bowl with Lid, 350–450. Ceramic, pigment, 13 × 111/4 × 111/4 in. (33 × 28.6 × 28.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 64.217a–b. Creative Commons-BY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas
February 14, 2020–November 19, 2023
Climate change is having a severe impact on Indigenous communities across the Americas, but the situation has an even longer history rooted in the legacies of European colonialism. With more than sixty works spanning 2,800 years and cultures across North, Central, and South America, this installation draws upon the strength of our Arts of the Americas collection to highlight the complex worldviews of Indigenous peoples and explore how their beliefs, practices, and ways of living have been impacted by the ongoing threat of environmental destruction.
The works in Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas connect to the environment in one of two ways: many objects reveal Indigenous understandings of the natural world, while others more directly address the threat climate change poses to Indigenous livelihoods and survival. From the northern Arctic to the southern Amazon, Climate in Crisis follows the effects of glacial melt, droughts, wildfires, overexploitation of resources, displacement, and extreme violence, as well as the work being done by Indigenous communities and activists to counter the climate crisis and protect the planet.
Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas is curated by Nancy Rosoff, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, Arts of the Americas, with Joseph Shaikewitz and Shea Spiller, Curatorial Assistants, Arts of the Americas and Europe.
Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Joan and Jeffrey Barist.
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