Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories

Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories considers the power of art to construct and dismantle inaccurate Indigenous histories through a dynamic display of contemporary art by Lenape (also called Delaware) artists in dialogue with historic Lenape ceramics, beadwork, and other cultural objects and representations of Penn’s Treaty by European American artists. The exhibition features recent and newly commissioned work by Ahchipaptunhe (Delaware Tribe of Indians and Cherokee), Joe Baker (Delaware Tribe of Indians), Holly Wilson (Delaware Nation and Cherokee), and Nathan Young (Delaware Tribe of Indians, Pawnee, and Kiowa) that express personal and tribal identity and address the Lenape’s violent displacement from Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland which encompasses the region where the Michener Art Museum currently stands. Through a focus on Lenape art and culture and a critical examination of historical visualizations of Native and European American relationships, Never Broken demonstrates the ways in which art can create, challenge, and rewrite history. 

Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories is one in a series of American art exhibitions created through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership formed by the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the Art Bridges Cohort Program.