Presentation: Knowing the West

Join us the evening of June 12 for this presentation in our occasional Peter Hassrick Public Program series. Mindy Besaw, a former curator of our Whitney Western Art Museum, presents Knowing the West, based on a traveling exhibition co-curated by Besaw and Jami Powell that premiered at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Besaw has worked since 2014.

Mindy Besaw shares insights about the exhibition Knowing the West, the first major traveling exhibition to embrace the American West as more inclusive, complex, and reflective of the diverse peoples who contributed to art and life there. Americans often feel they “know the West,” whether informed by direct experience or popular culture. The exhibition of more than 120 historic works by Native American and non-Native American artists brings together textiles, baskets, paintings, pottery, sculpture, beadwork, saddles, and prints to encourage deeper exploration of a familiar topic. This lecture highlights the remarkable artworks and stories about the artists, and reveals behind-the-scenes insight into the deeply collaborative process used to organize and realize the exhibition.

Knowing the West premiered at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (September 2024–January 2025). It travels to the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida (March–August 2025) and North Carolina Museum of Art (March–May 2026). The exhibition is accompanied by a multi-author, full-color catalogue, published by Rizzoli.

You may also like the following events from Buffalo Bill Center of the West:

• Next Monday, 5th May, 05:30 pm, Wyoming Tour: Piatigorsky in Cody
• Next Tuesday, 6th May, 05:30 pm, A Watershed Moment: the American West in the Age of Limits in Cody
• This month, 14th May, 11:45 am, Spring Buffalo Gals Luncheon: The Inspiring West in Cody

Also check out other Arts events in Cody, Exhibitions in Cody, Literary Art events in Cody.