#bkmarchives

"People hear ‘resistance’ and ‘resilience’ and often think about survival in the face of incredible adversity, active protest against inequity and erasure, and the grit required to carry on in the face of violence, dispossession, and genocide. But resilience and resistance can be seen through more than just basic survival and confrontation. Resistance is not simply reactive. Rejecting the definitions imposed by outsiders, Native communities have long protected the fullness and creativity of their own lifeways, culture, language, and arts as a form of resistance. Resilience can be effectively expressed by actively maintaining and celebrating kinship and community bonds, taking pleasure in daily tasks, maintaining knowledge passed generation to generation, and nurturing innovation among youth. Using archival records alongside materials from the Museum's collections, we offer many examples of these alternate modes of resistance and resilience, focusing on joyful moments where Indigenous people celebrate being makers, telling and maintaining their own histories, and being together with family and friends." - Dr. Christian Ayne Crouch 

In observance of National Native American Heritage Month, this November we’ll be exploring the themes of the exhibition When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, with commentary from both Jeffrey Gibson and historian Dr. Christian Ayne Crouch.

Are you passionate about art and culture here in Brooklyn? Join a dynamic team of mission-driven arts professionals at the Brooklyn Museum. We are currently hiring for several positions around the Museum.

The Resource Room in the exhibition When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks celebrates the daily life and lived experiences of Indigenous people in a way that rejects the colonial gaze, which romanticized westward expansion and depicted Native Americans as part of a vanishing frontier. Presented alongside historic and contemporary artworks, a selection of photographs, maps, vocabulary cards, and other materials from the Brooklyn Museum's archives pull back the lens of white male anthropologists and art collectors, offering insight on collecting practices and allowing Indigenous people's experiences understanding of themselves to take precedence.

In observance of National Native American Heritage Month, this November we’ll be exploring the themes of the exhibition When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, with commentary from both Jeffrey Gibson and historian Dr. Christian Ayne Crouch.

"The image I have picked is a lantern slide of the Brooklyn Museum exterior as the Museum stood in 1898. It is one of the over 11,000 glass lantern slides held in the Libraries and Archives collections. In the Conservation work space, there's a framed print of another historic view of the Museum building—I see it every time I'm at work. I find it to be a haunting picture to see the Museum at this very 'young age' 122 years ago. 

It is now, in our days of COVID-19, made all the more haunting since there is nobody in the picture. The hope I see in the image is that it is home to our amazing collections and the Museum building and collections have grown so much in 122 years and will continue to grow after we are all through this very difficult time we currently live in."

Did you know our official name in the early 1900s was the Central Museum? But, since everyone called us The Brooklyn Museum, we made the switch. Then, from 1997 to 2004, we were the Brooklyn Museum of Art. And now, once again, we’re simply the Brooklyn Museum! The logo featured on this shirt was created in celebration of our 100th birthday in 1997. 

Head to the Brooklyn Museum Shop to see the full @onlyny collection inspired by designs in our archives.

The Astros and Nationals have nothing on the Vandals, Brooklyn Museum's softball team from the 1930s and 40s. In 1941, our Museum's director shared a photo of the players asking for $5 donations to help the team buy equipment. Now renamed the Bombers, our softball team continues to play other NYC cultural institutions. 

Head to our Brooklyn Museum Shop to pick up this limited-edition tee and see the rest of our Only NY line in collaboration with our Libraries and Archives⁠.

Speaking out, showing daring art, and having courageous conversations isn’t new to the Brooklyn Museum. Hear from Molly Seegers, our Museum Archivist, as she guides us through key moments in our visionary past. 

Shop a collection of tees and totes inspired by a 1970s flyer promoting a “new and different” open house. Taking place in November 1978, the event highlighted two exhibitions, Africa in Antiquity: The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan and Haitian Art, and included film screenings and Haitian master drummers playing ceremonial music. Head to our BKM Shop to see the full @onlyny collection inspired by our  designs in our Archives