Words like “variety” and “innovative” will hopefully describe the afterthoughts on Korea’s first-ever exhibition on Native American arts, an associate curator at the Denver Art Museum who helped organize the show said. Dakota Hoska -- who holds dual citizenship from the US and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota -- said visitors to the exhibition “Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People in America” would be able to discover the talent the Indigenous people had, building something from nothing. “We’ve got everything from baskets to these giants and really beautiful huge wooden masks, and so just seeing the variety between like what the material cultures were between tribes is going to be really impressive for the audience,” Hoska said Wednesday, a day after the National Museum of Korea opened the four-month exhibit as part of two museum’s joint efforts to boost ties.
Hoska, on a weeklong trip to Korea ending Friday, added, “You’re going to see some of the artwork, like the use of porcupine quills and the use of seal gut to create something so beautiful,” calling using quills and gut as “one strength, especially of Native artists all throughout time.” The show exploring Native American life and arts through 151 pieces including paintings and clothing offers more, according to Hoska, who singled out how Native Americans could potentially help advance international conversation on matters like environmental sustainability. “I fe.