Prairie as Pattern | The Joslyn

June 9, 2026–May 21, 2028
Joslyn Building
Gallery J8

Prairie as Pattern presents Native American beadwork as a living expression of connection among communities, materials, and lands. From moccasins and vests to handbags and cradleboards, a wide-ranging selection of works from the permanent collection, including a recent gift of works from the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, illuminates how generations of artists have integrated beading into daily life, ceremony, and celebration.

Created in the wake of forced removal to reservations, the works on view remain grounded in material knowledge and artistic practices that predate colonization. Porcupine quills, elk teeth, and marine shells patterned across garments of every kind reflect deep relationships with the environment as well as Indigenous trade routes that linked the prairies to distant coasts. Artists indigenized the glass beads and metal embellishments introduced by European trade, transforming these new materials into bold expressions of identity and personal style.

The exhibition was developed in conversation with knowledge bearers and beadwork artists during collection visits in the Museum’s Margre H. Durham Center for Western Studies. Collaborators experienced the soft chime of tin cone fringe and the sparkle of faceted beads, reminders that beadwork is made to be worn, danced in, and heard. While many makers and wearers are not named in museum records, the artworks, understood by many as ancestors, continue to speak.

Pictured: Ancestor Artist (Očhéti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) or Umóⁿhoⁿ (Omaha)), Child’s Vest, c. 1880, deerhide, cotton calico, glass and metal seed beads, silk ribbon, and thread, 10 1/2 × 14 1/4 × 5/8 in. (26.7 × 36.2 × 1.6 cm), Gift of the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, 2025.4.49, Photograph courtesy Jon Hustead