Current Exhibitions
Driving the American Dream: 1970s Car Design
June 15 – September 8, 2024
Highlighting the era of Expo ’74, join us as we wax nostalgic about cars from the 1970s. We’ll consider design trends and changes in the world that ushered in a new age of automaking in the United States. We’ll look with fresh eyes at some of the “funky rides,” classic cars often overlooked but stuck in America’s collective memory. This summer, roll through the 70s with the MAC!
Photo by Cory Komberec.
Driving the American Dream: 1970s Car Design Exhibition Info
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)
It Happened Here: Expo '74 Fifty Years After Exhibition Info
Woman, Artist, Catalyst: Art from the Permanent Collection
June 22, 2024-March 9, 2025
Focusing on locally, nationally, and internationally known woman-identifying artists, this exhibition of work from the MAC's permanent collection showcases the quality and varied focus of leading artists and art movements in the Inland and Pacific Northwest.
Z. Vanessa Helder, Palouse Rhythm, 1939-1941, watercolor on paper. Gift of Ms. Ruth Thompson.
Woman, Artist, Catalyst: Art from the Permanent Collection 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)
1924: Sovereignty, Leadership, and the Indian Citizenship Act 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
For the Love of Paint: Caren Furbeyre Exhibition Info