BRIDGING WORLDS: Art in Dialogue

September 13, 2025 - May 16, 2026

From the forests of southwestern New Guinea to the labs, studios, and classrooms at UST, Asmat art is a dynamic force that sparks creativity, scholarly inquiry, and intercultural exchange. The American Museum of Asmat Art has served as a catalyst for intellectual exploration, inspiring students to engage with new ideas that push beyond traditional academic boundaries. These collaborations have opened avenues for understanding complex concepts related to identity, technology, ecology, and global interconnectedness. Through the merging of Asmat art with artificial intelligence, digital storytelling, microbiology, and other fields, the collection has not only expanded the conversation around art but has also provided a powerful platform for reimagining the intersections of culture, ethics, science, and technology.

By bridging worlds, the featured display encourages us to contemplate how we learn, question what we know, and imagine possibilities for future collaborations. We invite you to explore this dynamic interplay between art, culture, and knowledge. May the exhibition deepen your appreciation of the creative connections that shape our shared human experience.

Art has the power to transcend boundaries — connecting people, ideas, and disciplines across time and place. This exhibition celebrates that potential by showcasing innovative projects that merge Asmat art with diverse fields of study at the University of St. Thomas.

Past Exhibitions

  • Not a Blank Canvas was an investigative documentary project by National Geographic photographer, Joshua Irwandi. It focused on the consequences of development within the Asmat region of West Papua (Indonesia). The exhibition featured Irwandi’s photographs paired with objects from the American Museum of Asmat Art (AMAA) collection.

  • From the frigid Arctic to the tropical island of New Guinea, the Department of Art History Gallery and the American Museum of Asmat Art presented a join exhibition, CHANGE, that considered the impact of climate change through an artistic lens.

    Animals in Asmat by illustrator, Sarah Nelson, were featured in this exhibition.

  • July 12, 2022 - May 13, 2023

    This exhibition explores the many ways Asmat people engage with water. It considers how relationships between animals, humans, and the ancestors are formed around this natural resource and encourages museum visitors to consider their own connections with water. 

    Why is water important? Water is a force that shapes many aspects of physical and spiritual life. In the Asmat rainforest, water is omnipresent. It is collected for daily needs and sustains complex rivers systems that are essential for transportation, trade, and recreation. Water is a recurring element in ritual practices and figures prominently in myths that are essential to Asmat cosmology. Many of these practices are currently under threat due to social and environmental changes in the region. Visual culture on display at the American Museum of Asmat Art tells part of this story.Item description

  • July 6, 2021 - May 15, 2022

    This exhibition celebrated the lives and artistic skills of Asmat women. For generations, fiber artists from this region have created works that are intertwined with their rituals and daily lives. This exhibition presented traditional weavings while examining innovative techniques and new materials contemporary artists use to enhance their own styles while fulfilling the demands of a changing art market.

  • September 4, 2019 - May 14, 2021

    Regions and Rituals explored the ways Catholic missionaries have influenced Asmat art as they worked to protect artistic expression in the cultural regions of Bismam, Becembub, Safan, and Unir Sirau.

  • June 2 - December 1st, 2019

    Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

    Thomson Reuters Concourse C Gallery

    This exhibition featured a selection of objects from the American Museum of Asmat Art that demonstrated the common humanity of global peoples through art.

  • September 5, 2018 - July 31, 2019

    The Decorated World explored the ways Asmat artists celebrate everyday life through the adornment of functional objects and portrayal of daily activities.

  • January 29 - July 31, 2018

    This exhibition examined ancestors in Asmat culture and the art forms and ceremonies that help their spirits find sanctuary in safan - the land of the ancestors.

  • September 5 - December 22, 2017

    This AMAA exhibition explored the history of the museum, its collections, and the remarkable individuals who assembled it.

  • January 30 - July 31, 2017

    This exhibit celebrated the diverse sacred arts, rituals, and activities associated with the Asmat yeu (ceremonial house).

  • September 6 - December 21, 2016

    Traveling Distant Waters compared and Contrasted the functional, historical, and spiritual roles of canoes among the Asmat people of New Guinea and in the Upper Midwest.

  • February 1 - July 31, 2016

    This exhibition featured objects that illustrated how artistic elements have evolved or remained consistent in Asmat.

  • September 2 - December 22, 2015

    From birth to death and beyond, Transition and Contemplation examined how Asmat art forms both commemorate and cause individuals and communities to reflect upon the transitional events in their lives.

  • February 2 - July 31, 2015

    This exhibition explored the diverse roles, images, and meanings of animals in Asmat art and culture.

  • April 1 - December 19, 2014

    Museums and Mission examined the influence of Vatican II on American Crosier Missionary work in Asmat.

  • September 4 - December 20

    Among the Asmat examined the collection activities of Tobias Schneebaum, an artist and anthropologist that working in the Asmat region during the 1970s and 1980s.

  • September 4 - December 21, 2012

    This exhibition explores how the American Museum of Asmat Art has grown since it came to campus in 2007.

  • February 15 - June 24, 2012

    This exhibition explored the fluid, multifaceted identity of Asmat culture through carvings, weavings, photographs, and videos.

  • February 14 - June 14, 2009

    This exhibition featured a selection of pieces from the AMAA and focused on the changing visual language in the Asmat region.