Returning Home: A Contemporary Native Photography Exhibition
Dates: April 6th – April 12th, 2024
Location: Montgomery Place Mansion, Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York – Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck and The Montgomery Place Mansion at Bard College will proudly host Returning Home, an exhibition curated by Rethinking Place Post-Baccalaureate Fellow Olivia Tencer and Rethinking Place Administrative Coordinator Melina Roise, open from April 6th to April 12th, 2024. This groundbreaking exhibition will feature works by four contemporary Indigenous photographers, Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena/Jewish), Dana Claxton (Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations), Cara Romero (Chemehuevi Indian Tribe), and Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke (Crow)), along with a written commission by Bonney Hartley (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican), and archival records of local land transfers and the United States’ Indian boarding school history. The exhibition, centered around narratives of Indigenous families, particularly women and children, will delve into the experiences of Native peoples facing settler colonialism, focusing specifically on Indigenous child removal practices and policies.
Returning Home aims to highlight Indigenous representation, narrative, survivance, futurism, and resilience through contemporary Native art. The show will include pieces from the Forge Project’s collection, as well as a written commission from Institute of American Indian Arts MFA Candidate Bonney Hartley. An accompanying publication will provide in-depth contextualization of land dispossession in the U.S., forced removal of Native peoples in New York State, and the impact of Indian boarding schools.
The exhibition will fill various rooms within the historic Montgomery Place mansion, situated on Bard College’s 380-acre estate. While the estate is renowned for its ties to the Livingston family, Montgomery Place is committed to exploring marginalized histories, including the forced removal of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and the estate’s use of enslaved African American labor.
On the exhibition, Tencer writes: “This will be the first exhibition in the mansion, and the first exhibition on campus that will discuss the forced removal of the Stockbridge-Munsee peoples on current Bard lands or the Livingston’s history as one intertwined with the land dispossession of Native people in the Hudson Valley and other land bases in the East Coast. Positioned as an intervention, Returning Home disrupts preconceived notions of Native people, specifically Native women, and makes visible purposefully erased historical narratives of land and wealth accumulation in New York State.”
Opening events on April 6th, 2024, include a reading by Bonney Hartley and an artist talk by Cara Romero, moderated by Bard College Distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies Suzanne Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta).
On behalf of the curators and Rethinking Place team, we would like to extend gratitude to The Mellon Foundation, Hudson Valley Greenway, Forge Project, and Montgomery Place Historic Estate for making this exhibition possible.
Opening Remarks and Poetry Reading with Bonney Hartley, April 6th, 1:30PM
Artist Talk with Cara Romero in conversation with Kite, April 6th, 4:00PM
Artist Talk with Dana Claxton (virtual), April 7th, 3:00PM
Film Screening, Cara Romero: Following the Light, April 10th, 6:30PM
