Oak Native American Gallery History, Present, & Future
The Oak Native American Gallery is dedicated to a collection of Indigenous ancestral belongings collected by Jim and Vanita Oelschlager. The Gallery closed to visitors in January 2024 when changes to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) came into effect. These changes require museums to work in community with and obtain consent from Indigenous Nations, Tribes, and communities before exhibiting their belongings. The Institute for Human Science and Culture (IHSC), with the support of The University of Akron (UA) and the Oelschlager family, is committed to establishing these relationships, building trust, and working collaboratively with Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and cultural experts before reopening the gallery space to the public.
The following timeline explains this process to date and will be updated as the project moves forward.
2010
Jim and Vanita Oelschlager loan their collection of Indigenous ancestral belongings, customary art, and contemporary art to The University of Akron. The collection is housed in a storage space in the Administrative Services Building.
Dr. Lynn R. Metzger, UA professor of cultural anthropology, assumes stewardship of the collection. Working with UA students (including Francisca Ugalde), they organize, catalog, and research the collection.
2012 - 2013
Dr. Metzger and her students curate two exhibitions of the collection.
- April 2012: Connecting Objects to Their People: From the Arctic to Arizona opens in the lobby of the Center for the History of Psychology.
- September 2013: Drums, Tomahawks and the Horse opens in the lobby of the Center for the History of Psychology.
2017
April: Jim and Vanita Oelschlager provide significant funding to The University of Akron to build the Institute for Human Science & Culture. Construction begins on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Cummings Center.
May: Francisca Ugalde is named curator of IHSC and collection manager of the Oak Collection.
2019
March: Dr. Jodi Kearns is named Director of IHSC ahead of its opening.
August: The collection is relocated to its new home on campus, IHSC.
September: The Oak Native American Gallery opens to the public.
2020
March: Campus closes to all but essential business during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Cummings Center and IHSC.
2021
April: The Cummings Center and IHSC reopen to the public.
October: IHSC launches a Featured Indigenous Artist exhibition in Lynn R. Metzger Galleries adjacent to the Oak Gallery.
- 2021: Claire Heldman, Lakota Wiá
- 2022: Valerie Evans, Delaware Girl
- 2023: Peter B. Jones, O.bit.u.ary
2024
January: Changes to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)* lead the IHSC to close the Oak Native American Gallery.
- *Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA is Federal Law that protects Indigenous human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. Revised regulations went into effect in January 2024.
June:
- IHSC establishes an Advisory Council of Indigenous cultural advisors.
- Dr. Meranda Roberts, an expert in museums and Native American history, assesses the collection and drafts a plan of action.
August: IHSC purchases first artwork to develop a contemporary collection of Indigenous art: a stoneware clay pot by Peter B. Jones.
September:
- With its Advisory Council, IHSC implements a plan of action to address collection needs and build relationships with Indigenous communities.
- IHSC establishes a Speaker Series featuring Indigenous experts and scholars to discuss the historical collecting practices that brought ancestral belongings into museums and private collections, efforts to reconnect these items to their communities of origin, and the reparative work of reclaiming communities’ cultural objects.
2025
January: Ancestral belongings previously on display in the Oak Gallery are rehomed in IHSC’s storage facility, where they remain off-view to visitors without cultural ties and specialized training.
May:
- IHSC begins working with Indigenous-owned Balanced Horizons Consultation Services, a business run by Dr. Joe Stahlman, to research the collection with the goal of reconnecting each belonging to its descendent community.
- The Oak Gallery is partially reopened to host St. Clair’s Defeat Revisited: A New View of the Conflict, a travelling exhibition created by Ball State University.
June: The IHSC staff and Advisory Council initiate plans for new educational opportunities, programing, and exhibitions to activate the Oak Native American Gallery, including a new certificate program in ethical stewardship, and opportunities for The University and the City of Akron communities to learn about Indigenous cultures from Indigenous teachers.