Ticketed

Knowing the West

May 2, 2026 – Aug 9, 2026

Overview

Members Free
Adults $20
Students (ages 7-22) $12
Seniors age 65 and older $17
Children 6 and under Free

Knowing the West embraces preexisting impressions of the American West and presents a wide variety of artwork from diverse makers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, showcasing essential and often overlooked stories of the region.

Conociendo el Oeste abarca las impresiones preexistentes del Oeste estadounidense y presenta una amplia variedad de obras de arte de diferentes artistas desde el siglo XIX hasta principios del siglo XX, donde se exhiben historias significativas, y muchas veces olvidadas, de la región.

Tickets Become a Member

How do you know the American West?

Organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Knowing the West seeks to reframe the West not as a fixed place but as a shifting narrative. The interplay of works by artists from various cultures, including white, Black, Hispanic, Asian American, and a wide range of distinct Native nations, compels reconsideration of what the West has meant, and continues to mean, to communities across generations.

Highlights

The exhibition’s dazzling array of objects and artwork—including paintings, basketry, textiles, pottery, sculpture, beadwork, saddles, and prints—encourages dialogue across media, uplifting historically marginalized perspectives and questioning long-standing hierarchies.

Suitcase

Nellie Two Bear Gates (Iháƞktȟuƞwaƞna Dakhóta, Standing Rock Reservation), 1880–1910, beads, hide, metal, oilcloth, and thread, H. 12 1/2 × W. 17 11/16 × D. 10 1/4 in., Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Robert J. Ulrich Works of Art Purchase Fund, 2010.19; Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art

A landscape painting of trees surrounding a lake with sunlit mountains covered in clouds in the distance

Albert Bierstadt

Sierra Nevada Morning, 1870, oil on canvas, 55 1/4 × 85 1/2 in., Gilcrease Museum, Gift of the Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, 01.2305; Photo: © Gilcrease Museum

A painted, bust-length portrait of an American Indian wrapped in a patterned blanket within a landscape of colorful buttes.

Louise Crow

Yen-see-do, before 1919, oil on canvas, 26 × 20 in., Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art, Gift of Louise Crow, before 1919 (1183.23P)

Exhibition Sponsors

Knowing the West is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, and co-curated by Mindy N. Besaw and Jami C. Powell with influence and input from a curatorial advisory council.

In Raleigh additional support is made possible, in part, by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Inc.; Green Front Raleigh; Nancy and Ron McFarlane; Two Dots Studio; and the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment for Educational Exhibitions. Research for this exhibition was made possible by Ann and Jim Goodnight/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Curatorial and Conservation Research and Travel.