Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

Established	1989; 35 years ago (1989)
Location	Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Type	Art Museum
Visitors	114,488 (2019)
Public transit access	8

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana and houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). The museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.

Museum

The museum is currently part of Indianapolis's White River State Park which also houses the neighboring Indiana State Museum, the Indianapolis Zoo, the White River Gardens, NCAA Hall of Champions, Victory Field and Military Park. The museum offers free parking to its visitors in the White River State Park Garage.

The Gund Gallery has an appreciable collection of paintings and bronzes by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. It also has paintings by: George Winter, Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt, Charles King, and Olaf Seltzer. In another room, there is a large collection of paintings by New Mexico-associated painters, such as: Joseph Henry Sharp, William Victor Higgins, Ernest L. Blumenschein ("Penitentes"), John French Sloan, and Georgia O'Keeffe (“Taos Pueblo”).

In June 2005, the museum opened an extensive expansion that doubled the public space of the museum by adding three new galleries, the Sky City Café, an education center, outdoor gardens, and event space. The new galleries include two galleries dedicated to the museum's extensive contemporary art collection. The collection includes works by T. C. Cannon, Kay WalkingStick, Andy Warhol, and many more. The other gallery added in the expansion is the Gund Gallery of Western Art. This gallery is dedicated to the 57-piece collection of traditional Western art donated to the museum by the George Gund Family.

Fellowship

The museum offers the prestigious Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship (formerly called the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art) biennially to recognize some of the most innovative and influential contemporary Native artists active today. Eiteljorg fellows include: