Harrison Eiteljorg's collection became the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the downtown Indianapolis museum you are facing. Step closer and you’ll feel how this place gathers two great stories: the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). Inside, the museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.
Wander through the Gund Gallery and you’ll recognize paintings and bronzes by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell, alongside works by George Winter, Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt, Charles King, and Olaf Seltzer. In another room a large collection of New Mexico–associated painters greets you: Joseph Henry Sharp, William Victor Higgins, Ernest L. Blumenschein with “Penitentes,” John French Sloan, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Taos Pueblo. The museum sits within White River State Park, sharing this green, cultural stretch with the neighboring Indiana State Museum and Military Park.
Practical note: visitors are offered free parking in the park’s underground parking garage. Notice White River State Park framing the museum, with the Indiana State Museum and Military Park stretching toward downtown Indianapolis.