1st floor, Nancy Newcomb New Acquisitions Niche
This installation unveils a newly acquired painting by Randee Spruce (Seneca). The painting speaks to the resilience of Haudenosaunee cultural and spiritual practice. Based on a 1980 photograph, it portrays a Haudenosaunee Sing, in which representatives from different nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy gather to share song and medicine. The setting is the new Coldspring Longhouse in Steamburg, New York. The old Coldspring Longhouse, reimagined by Spruce in Ladies in Blue ca. 1960 (2022), sat on ancestral homelands protected by a 1794 treaty but flooded by the US government in 1966 to build the Kinzua Dam. A jacket on the back wall references “Quaker Bridge NY,” a destroyed town where Spruce’s grandmother once lived.
Yet the community persists. The artist’s great-uncle Derlan Spruce at far right wears a ribbon shirt expressive of Native pride. A turtle shell rattle long used by the Seneca in sacred ceremonies hangs on the back wall alongside a corn pounder and cooking paddle referencing life-sustaining crops. And a mandala—a signature motif of the artist—innovates upon historical Haudenosaunee quillwork and ceramic patterns to express both continuity and growth. Curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, vice president and chief curator
Exhibitions at The New York Historical are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.
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