Lakeside Event at Fenimore Art Museum Celebrates Native America

The event, Celebrate Native America, includes a Haudenosaunee history presentation and performances of traditional social dance.

This year’s theme is “Women’s Vital Role in Native Cultures.”

Celebrate Native America

Saturday, August 10 • 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Lucy B. Hamilton Amphitheater – behind Fenimore Art Museum
Included with regular museum admission. Adults (20-64) $17.50; Seniors (65+) $12.50.  Free for ages 19 and under and museum members.

COOPERSTOWN, NY — Experience a special presentation of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) history and performances of traditional social dance during Celebrate Native America. This family-friendly event takes place on Saturday, August 10 from 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Lucy B. Hamilton Amphitheater, on the lakeshore behind Fenimore Art Museum. Regular museum admission includes access to the event, Fenimore’s popular summer exhibitions, and the museum’s other event that day, Art by the Lake. Young people, ages 19 and under, are free.

Women’s Vital Role in Native Cultures

This year’s theme is “Women’s Vital Role in Native Cultures.” Seneca Nation Archives Manager Rebecca Bowen will give a presentation on Seneca women. There will be performances by the Akwesasne Women Singers and Chris Thomas and His Smoke Dancers. Native crafters will also be present to sell their works.

Fenimore Art Museum’s Otsego: A Meeting Place, featuring a reproduction Seneca log house and Mohawk bark house, will be open during the day for tours. Venture inside Fenimore to see the exhibition As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now, celebrating the vision and creativity of American women artists working across three centuries. The exhibition emphasizes varied experiences and approaches to artmaking, while pushing back against the underrepresentation of women in the arts. The over 60 works on view showcase how women—despite social, economic, and cultural barriers—express their identities and shape their “herstories” through artistic expression.

Admission: Adults (20-64) $17.50; Seniors (65+) $12.50. Admission is free for visitors 19 and under, as well as for members, active military, and retired career military personnel. Free museum admission is also available for those receiving SNAP benefits (up to 4 people).

Fenimore Art Museum is open daily, 10am-5pm and is located at 5798 State Route 80, less than one mile from the center of Cooperstown. For more information visit FenimoreArt.org.

As They Saw It

As They Saw It is one in a series of American art exhibitions organized through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership led by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as part of the Art Bridges Initiative.

The event is sponsored in part by the Community Foundation of Otsego County.

EVENT SCHEDULE (Saturday, August 10):

10:45am: Welcome and Thanksgiving Address
11:00am: Performance by the Akwesasne Women Singers
12:00pm: “Seneca Women: Always a Voice,” a presentation by Rebecca Bowen, Archives Manager at the Onöhsagwë:dé Cultural Center of the Seneca Nation
2:00pm: Participatory Haudenosaunee Dance by Chris Thomas (Onondaga) and His Smoke Dancers
3:00pm: Women’s Wisdom: A Series of True Stories and their Meanings
3:30pm: Expressions of Gratitude and Closing Remarks