The George Gustav Heye Center Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian By John Haworth (Cherokee) Mr. Haworth is the Director of the George Gustav Heye Center. Dedicated to reaffirming and empowering the Native voice, the National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center (GGHC) presents thought-provoking exhibitions like Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art, world-class concerts with artists like John Trudell and Lila Downs, and hosts film premieres and dance performances, such as the recent New York premiere of Chris Eyre’s Skins. Located in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House, one of the most beautiful Beaux-Arts buildings in New York City, the programs, exhibitions and resources of the GGHC explore the diversity of the Native peoples of the Americas and the strength and continuity of their cultures from the earliest times to the present. The GGHC is one of three facilities of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The museum was founded by an Act of Congress in 1989, that appropriated funds for the development of facilities at three sites: the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City opened in 1994; the Cultural Resources Center, six miles southeast of the National Mall in Suitland, Maryland, opened in 1999; and the NMAI on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., under construction and scheduled to open in 2004. Currently, two exhibitions at the GGHC, Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art from the Fomento Cultural Banamex, and The Edge of Enchantment present the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Great Masters, which continues through March 15, 2003, is a dazzling display of over 500 works by Mexico’s master artists who draw from their ancestral artistic traditions to create contemporary folk masterpieces. The Edge of Enchantment, which opens December 15, 2002, is a multimedia presentation of the ceremonial landscapes, histories, lives, and traditions among contemporary Native communities in the Huatulco-Huamelula region of Oaxaca, Mexico. The exhibition, which will continue at the museum through the summer of 2003, will incorporate photographs, music, video and objects to illustrate the complex relationship of these peoples with their environments. Our third exhibition, The New Old World: Antilles--Living Beyond the Myth, a documentation of the contemporary lives of Taino and Carib indigenous peoples of the Caribbean with photographs by Marisol Villanueva and statements from the Native people of the region, will continue at the GGHC, through spring 2003. This winter, I invite you to attend some of our diverse and exciting free public programs. Yeu Matchuc, an indigenous music and dance group from the city of Guasave, Sinaloa, will perform traditional music from Northwest Mexico on December 6, 7, and 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. On Saturday, December 7, the GGHC will show documentary films directed in Mexico on Tepehuano and Huichol dance and ceremonial leaders from 2 to 4 p.m. On Thursday, January 30 at 6:30 p.m., the GGHC will host a discussion between playwright and filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe) and Don Kelly (Ojibwe) in an open dialogue on Indian humor, presented by the Canadian Consulate General. The Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park.   Detailed exhibition and program information is available at our website, www.AmericanIndian.si.edu. The GGHC is free and open everyday, except December 25, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Thursdays until 8 p.m. Call (212) 514-3700 for general information and (212) 514-3888 for a recording about the museum’s public programs.