This Path We Travel Celebrations of Contemporary Native American Creativity

To mark the opening of its George Gustav Heye Center in lower Manhattan, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian organized three exhibitions. One of these presents an installation inspired by a unique collaborative effort of fifteen leading contemporary Native American artists representing a range of cultural backgrounds and artistic media. Published in conjunction with the exhibition, This Path We Travel enables readers to share this creative process. The artists of This Path We Travel came from diverse native cultures to create a unified composition of native thought, belief, and expression - one that brings together their individual viewpoints and experiences into a single multifaceted vision. Participants agreed that the installation, although radically new in form, would be grounded in the traditions of native people and based upon an older native model of cooperation and sharing. Meeting in locations representative of the four cardinal directions (New York in the east; Alberta, Canada, in the north; Hawaii in the west; and Arizona in the south) the artists took part in ceremonies and created artworks on site - later reproduced for the exhibition - designed to articulate the traditions as well as the contemporary sensibilities of indigenous peoples.Smithsonian Institution Staff is the author of 'This Path We Travel Celebrations of Contemporary Native American Creativity', published 1994 under ISBN 9781555912055 and ISBN 1555912052.