Dennos Museum opens three summer exhibitions with free Juneteenth admission
Dennos Museum Center marked Juneteenth with free admission and three new exhibits, including works on Indigenous identity, bird movement and local storytelling.
Free Juneteenth admission made the Dennos Museum Center one of Traverse City’s most accessible cultural stops Friday, as three summer exhibitions opened on the Northwestern Michigan College campus. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., visitors did not need tickets to see a lineup that tied together Indigenous identity, environmental observation and public history.
Caroline Monnet’s This Old House is All We Have runs through Sept. 6 and centers on a monumental photographic group portrait of eight Indigenous women and a child. Monnet, an Anishinaabe and French-Canadian artist from Outaouais, Quebec, uses the work to examine colonialism’s impact while placing nature at the center of the image, not as scenery but as an active presence. For Grand Traverse County audiences, the show lands in a season when questions of land, development and cultural visibility are already part of local conversation.
Xavi Bou’s Echoes of Flight adds a different lens. Bou, born in Barcelona in 1979, uses digital chronophotography to study animal movement, building on an interest in birds and the environment that began in childhood during walks in the Llobregat Delta with his grandfather. The Dennos says the exhibition bridges art, science and environmental awareness, offering a visual study that can pull in families, students and visitors looking for something beyond the usual summer museum stop.
The third exhibition, Americans, comes from Smithsonian Museum on Main Street and is adapted from an original show developed by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. It focuses on Thanksgiving, the life of Pocahontas, the Trail of Tears and the Battle of Little Bighorn, using those touchpoints to explore how Indigenous identity appears in American culture and history. The Dennos says the exhibition invites visitors to explore that complicated history and share local stories about Native American history and culture.
That invitation matters in Traverse City, where the museum sits at 1410 College Drive and serves a mix of year-round residents, Northwestern Michigan College students and summer visitors moving through downtown. Regular admission is listed at $10 for adults, $5 for children ages 5 to 17 and free for children 4 and under, with standard hours Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The summer exhibitions also run through Sept. 6, giving the county a longer window to see how the Dennos is using art to build community, spark conversation and inspire change.
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