Special Exhibits & Yearly Events

New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art 

The mission of New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is to provide a not-for-profit (non-commercial) exhibition space for current Midwestern artists and to promote discourse about and access to contemporary art in the southern Indiana region. Since its inception in 1975, New Harmony Gallery has provided an exhibition space for young and mid-career artists to show their work in a professional setting; and further, to provide a venue for contemporary art to the general public. The cornerstone of the Gallery’s mission is education and access through a carefully planned series of eight exhibitions per year. The exhibition series, which explores contemporary art concepts, is intended to provide increased opportunity for artists and the public to engage in discourse on and about the arts and culture.

• eight exhibitions annually
• educational programming for school children
• co-sponsorship of a visiting artist program with
  the University of Southern Indiana Art Department
• specialized art tours of the gallery and Historic New Harmony
• consignment space featuring works by more than 100 regional artists
  
  

Maximilian-Bodmer Exhibition
Located in the Lichtenberger Building

In 1832 naturalist Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian (1782-1867), ruler of the small state of Neuwied, Prussia [now in Germany], conducted one of the earliest expeditions to the American West to record the natural history of the region. Accompanying him were Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer, who produced numerous drawings illustrating their travels, and David Dreidoppel, Maximilian's servant and a skilled hunter-taxidermist. Although Maximilian and Bodmer were not the first to explore the American West and record their observations, they were the first team combining a trained, dedicated scientist with an especially skilled illustrator, whose collaboration resulted in a work of unique historical, scientific and aesthetic importance. 

This exhibition includes a French edition of Maximilian's narrative of the two-year expedition (which included significant time in New Harmony), Travels in the Interior of North America 1832 to 1834. His account was published in Paris by subscription from 1839-41 and includes 81 etchings by Bodmer.  Today, there are fewer than twenty known editions of Maximilian's work in the United States. 

The Maximilian-Bodmer Exhibition is available on our 1 p.m. tours. 

Please note that tribal and individual names used in the titles and gallery texts are synthesized from Maximilian’s published travel journals and modern orthography, with some minor deviations.