In partnership with First Americans Museum, Texas Tech University, The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and the Kiowa Tribe, the Avenir Conservation Center at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science is facilitating a multi-year project to foster deeper connections between the museum’s collection of Southern Plains beadwork and originating communities in Oklahoma.

Beginning with collections visits at DMNS, community representatives from the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe and Kiowa tribe selected 45 objects to travel to Oklahoma for sharing sessions with bead workers and knowledge keepers. The sharing sessions provide opportunities for tribal citizens who cannot travel to Denver to engage with the collection and share insights and information regarding the history, use, and future care of belongings in the collection. In Oklahoma, we hosted beadwork workshops for tribal citizens who want to learn how to bead from prominent artists in their respective communities. Collection items are made available for participants to study and reference. Throughout this process, the project team has conducted interviews with artists, participants, and elders about both the collection and their experience participating in the project, which informs the interpretation and exhibition of the collection, as well as a publication documenting the project. Likewise, the oral history interviews created an archive of traditional knowledge given to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and the Kiowa Tribe.

The culmination of this work is an exhibition of DMNS permanent collection items at First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.

Our goal is to facilitate the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge through the study, conservation, and exhibition of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa cultural belongings in the permanent collection at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Rooted in the cultural protocols determined by our community partners, we seek to provide opportunities for meaningful engagement with the collection for tribal citizens in both Denver and Oklahoma, for whom access to the collection is paramount for developing new ways of understanding the relevance of historical collections to ongoing cultural and artistic practices.