Current Exhibitions

Expo 74 Spokane Washington looking northeast v2

It Happened Here: Expo '74 Fifty Years After

May 4, 2024-January 26, 2025

This 50th anniversary exhibition revisits the historical roots of Expo ‘74’s environmental theme and the community spirit it kindled and features familiar, nostalgic, and lesser-known stories from the MAC’s largest archival collection. Highlights include a bejeweled denim costume that Liberace wore for one of his Expo ’74 performances, Sister Paula Turnbull’s model for Spokane’s now-famous Garbage Goat, an original Sky Ride gondola, and films from the MAC's archives.

^{Expo '74 image: NWC 129 – Dormaier, Jacob #164, Spokane Public Library (Jacob Dormaier Expo '74 Collection)}

Exhibition Info

Harold Balazs: Leaving Marks

February 3-June 2, 2024

Harold Balazs: Leaving Marks celebrates Balazs’ regional impact through thirty new additions to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture’s permanent collection. Comprising a focused selection of Balazs’ later works in sculpture, drawing, and enamel, the exhibition’s three sections: “Constructed Realities,” “Making \ Life,” and “Transcend The…” consider how Balazs’ approaches to making as modes of communication informed, and were informed by, his worldview, background, and relationships.

^{Harold Balazs, A Dialogue, 2007, copper. Robert Poe Photography.}

Exhibition Info

1924: Sovereignty, Leadership, and the Indian Citizenship Act

February 17, 2024-February 2, 2025

On June 2, 1924, Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act, granting citizenship to all American Indians born in the United States. Shortly after this act, Spokane announced it would host the first American Indian Congresses in 1925. These were some of the first events where tribal leaders, government officials, and community members from around the United States gathered to formally participate in talks on rights and advocacy. 1924 commemorates this 100-year anniversary, centering on early local tribal leadership as they and their people navigated the sometimes-conflicting nature of being both U.S. citizens and citizens of their own sovereign nations.

^{L-R: Chief William Yallup, Mrs. William Yallup, Tom Yallup - Son of Chief, 1925. Frank Guilbert, Photographer. Photograph from the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture Frank Guilbert Collection (L97-2.3)}

Exhibition Info

Frank S. Matsura: Portraits from the Borderland

Extended through June 9, 2024

Frank S. Matsura: Portraits from the Borderland features studio images by Washington-based Japanese photographer Frank Sakae Matsura (1873-1913) alongside period-specific American Indian regalia from the Columbia Plateau. Exploring Indigenous representation through a multi-dimensional lens, the photographs and objects on view detail some of Matsura’s most culturally significant work against a backdrop of regional transformation.

^{Frank Sakae Matsura (Japanese, 1873-1913), Wapato Smithins Family, c.1903 - c.1913, archival print from gelatin dry plate scan. Okanogan County Historical Society. OCH 6371. Image courtesy of OCHS.}

Exhibition Info

For the Love of Paint: Caren Furbeyre

September 2, 2023-September 29, 2024

When I considered painting a mural in the stairwell at the MAC, the scale of the 12 foot wall seemed the overriding challenge. As the project evolved, the application of paint became a choreographed, physical event. I think of the process in musical terms. The flow of paint and color become symphonic compositional elements in the actual making of the piece. I am less interested in a specific image than a sense of vibrancy and resonance of the colors on the surface. I am also interested in creating a sense of expansion and verticality which is so well suited to the large scale of the wall.

^{Caren Furbeyre, For the Love of Paint, 2023, acrylic. Commissioned by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture}

Exhibition Info