The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will reopen its transformed Arts of Indigenous America galleries at the de Young Museum on August 26, 2025. The new installation highlights a broad range of Native American art, featuring works from over a thousand years and multiple media. The opening will be marked by a free community event on September 13 that includes a symposium, talks, performances, and music by contemporary Indigenous artists.
The project was developed through collaboration with a group of co-curators who are predominantly Native. This approach emphasized Indigenous values and perspectives throughout the planning process. “Rather than soliciting feedback on an already developed exhibition, the Fine Arts Museums engaged Indigenous scholars as co-curators and advisers from the project’s conception, shifting the power of representation away from an anonymous museum voice of authority,” according to the museum. Communities of origin were also consulted about which artworks would be displayed.
The galleries explore the theme “Relationship to Place.” Two new galleries focus specifically on Native American art. Gallery 1, titled Rooted in Place: California Native Art, presents connections between art, ceremony, and land among communities such as the Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa, Wiyot, and Yurok in northwestern California. The display features both historic pieces like Elizabeth Hickox’s basketry and new commissions such as Shoshoni Gensaw-Hostler’s dentalium-shell cape.
Gallery 4—Home and Away: Native American Art—features works by Indigenous artists from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It presents both contemporary pieces by artists including Melissa S. Cody and Cannupa Hanska Luger alongside historic objects to highlight ongoing traditions across generations.
Two additional galleries have been updated: one dedicated to Ancestral Maya ceramics and carvings (Of Courts and Cosmos: Ancestral Maya Art), featuring newly donated pottery; another displays mural fragments from Teotihuacan with archaeological context developed in partnership with Mexican authorities.
The reopening coincides with Rose B. Simpson: LEXICON—a contemporary Native American exhibition—opening August 30 in Wilsey Court.
The reinstallation represents significant collaboration with various co-curators such as Joseph Aguilar (San Ildefonso Pueblo), Meyokeeskow Marrufo (Robinson Rancheria/Eastern Pomo), Hillary C. Olcott (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), Will Riding In (Pawnee/Santa Ana Pueblo), and Sherrie Smith-Ferri (Dry Creek Pomo/Bodega Miwok). Advisers include Alme Allen (Karuk/Yurok), Bruce Bernstein, Jonathan Cordero (Ramaytush Ohlone et al.), Christina Hellmich (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), Pimm Tripp-Allen (Karuk/Yurok), and Brian Vallo (Pueblo of Acoma).
Financial support for this initiative comes from organizations including the Henry Luce Foundation—the largest grant funding for any permanent-collection reinstallation at these museums—the Thomas W. Weisel Family, Terra Foundation for American Art, San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums, Leslie and George Hume; programmatic support is provided by CORA Foundation.
Native American art has been part of the museum’s collection since its founding after the California Midwinter International Exposition in 1894. Over time—and especially during the mid-20th century—donations expanded holdings notably in baskets from California/Pacific Northwest regions. Significant gifts have included collections from Thomas W. Weisel family in 2013; Paul E. & Barbara H. Weiss; and nearly 400 Alaska Native/Canadian Inuit works collected by Thomas G. Fowler’s estate in 2007.
The Fine Arts Museums operate two locations: de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park—which opened its current building designed by Herzog & de Meuron in 2005—and Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park [https://www.famsf.org/about](https://www.famsf.org/about). The institution acknowledges that it is located on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land—part of ancestral territories also belonging to other Ohlone groups as well as Miwok, Yokuts, Patwin peoples—and expresses commitment to working with Indigenous communities regarding regional history and ongoing impacts related to colonization [https://americanindian2day.org/history-of-san-francisco-indigenous-peoples/](https://americanindian2day.org/history-of-san-francisco-indigenous-peoples/).
Funding partners for this project include lead sponsor Thomas W. Weisel Family along with major support from others such as The San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums.
