New York has a beautiful new reason to visit the Brooklyn Museum. Hopi Kachina Dolls: Blessings for a Balanced World, on view from October 2, 2026, through April 18, 2027, in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, is the first exhibition to examine the Hopi kachina doll tradition from the perspective of the people who receive the dolls: Hopi girls and women. Admission to the exhibition is included with general museum admission, Happy City News readers will be glad to know.
Kachina dolls, known as tithu, represent the Katsinam, spirits who bring much-needed moisture and help keep the world in balance for the Hopi, an Indigenous people of arid northeastern Arizona. Carved from cottonwood and distinctively painted, the dolls are treasured gifts given exclusively to Hopi girls and women, and each one carries a lesson, a blessing and a story.
Fifty-three dolls, drawn from the museum’s far-reaching Indigenous art collection, are among more than 120 works on view. Together they trace the phases of a Hopi woman’s life, from infancy, when a baby girl first receives a simple flat doll, to adulthood, when the figures grow more complex. Exquisitely crafted baskets, jewelry and ceramics, along with new video interviews with featured artists, celebrate how Hopi women have long sustained their society and shared their culture with creativity and resilience.
The exhibition is organized by guest curator Colleen Lucero, of the Hopi community, with Nancy Rosoff and Dare Turner, in close collaboration with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, and a fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the show. It is a warm, thoughtful invitation to slow down, look closely and learn directly from Hopi voices.
Photo: Brooklyn Museum
