Current Exhibitions

Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia

December 12, 2021 - February 19, 2023

Dress helps us fashion identity, history, community, and place. Dress has been harnessed as a metaphor for both progress and stability, the exotic and the utopian, oppression and freedom, belonging and resistance. Dressing with Purpose examines three Scandinavian dress traditions—Swedish folkdräkt, Norwegian bunad, and Sámi gákti—and traces their development during two centuries of social and political change across northern Europe.

Fashioning Identities: A Companion to Dressing with Purpose.

December 12, 2021 - February 19, 2023

Fashioning Identities: A Companion to Dressing with Purpose. This display in Lloyd’s Treasure Chest Gallery serves as a companion to Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia by offering more examples from our permanent collection of Sámi duodji, textile-making tools, and regional clothing from Northern Europe. December 12, 2021 - February 19, 2023. 

#mask: Creative Responses to the Global Pandemic

May 30, 2021 - January 15, 2023

Face masks have become daily attire for people around the world. More than a Personal Protective Device that keeps ourselves and others safe, face masks have become a creative outlet for many. They are representations of self-expression, political stance, fashion, and a symbol of humanity’s hope and care for one another. This exhibition is an ode to the face mask, and to the artists and every day citizens making their way through the COVID-19 crisis.

Yōkai: Ghosts & Demons of Japan

December 8, 2019 - November 27, 2022

Vivid in Japanese art and imagination are creatures that are at once ghastly and comical. Yōkai is a catchall word that generally refers to demons, ghosts, shapeshifters, and “strange” and supernatural beings. Yōkai  are prevalent in Japanese popular and expressive culture; you find them in manga (comics), anime (animation), and character-based games such as Pokémon (“pocket monster”).

Música Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico

In the Hispanic Heritage Wing
October 6, 2019 - September 5, 2022

The exhibition Música Buena: The exhibition will focus on the rich history of traditional Hispano music from the arrival of the Spanish through the present.  Once in New Mexico, historic European traditions took on a new life and feel, blending with Native customs and reflecting the land, time, and place where these folkloric songs and traditions developed.

Multiple Visions: A Common Bond

Permanent Exhibit
On long-term display

Multiple Visions: A Common Bond has been the destination for well over a million first-time and repeat visitors to the Museum of International Folk Art. First, second, third, or countless times around, we find our gaze drawn by different objects, different scenes. With more than 10,000 objects to see, this exhibition continues to enchant museum visitors, staff and patrons. Explore highlights from the GIRARD WING.

Lloyd's Treasure Chest: Folk Art in Focus

On long-term display

Lloyds’s Treasure Chest: Folk Art in Focus is a participatory gallery that encourages the exploration of folk art and contemplation of what is meant by “folk art.” Temporary, thematic displays are drawn from, and highlight the museum’s permanent collection of folk art, which is the museum’s “treasure.” The museum’s collection is too vast to exhibit in its entirety at any one time. When items are not on display, they are carefully stored and cared for in special rooms such as the Neutrogena Vault, which you can view from the Lloyd’s Treasure Chest Gallery.

The gallery is named for Lloyd Cotsen, folk art advocate and collector, and former president and CEO of the Neutrogena Corporation. In 1995, Cotsen and the Neutrogena Corporation donated an important collection of folk art and in 1998, the Neutrogena Wing, which includes Lloyd’s Treasure Chest, the Cotsen Gallery, and the Neutrogena Vault.