Before his death in 1955, Rochester Museum Director Arthur C. Parker created the Indian Arts Project to help his Seneca relatives and friends with federal funds from the Works Progress Administration. The program employed people of Tonawanda and Cattaraugus Reservations to recreate the objects of their everyday lives, building a collection for the Museum.
The display, which will be shown through the end of March, includes work from Freeman C. Johnson, a former member of the Tonawanda Band of Senecas and Wahbee tribe. He was involved in numerous community activities before he was killed in an automobile accident in 1969, and frequently gave speeches and wrote letters about legislation concerning the Native American. Johnson was instrumental in preserving Gannagaro, an historic sixteenth century Seneca Village, located in what is now Victor, New York.
The Medina Campus Center is located at 11470 Maple Ridge Road. For more information contact the Medina Campus Center at (585) 798-1688.
