Denver Art Museum is throwing open its doors for free Saturday as it hosts its annual Friendship Powwow, drawing music, dance, and art from the local and regional Indigenous community to the museum plaza at 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy. The day's centerpiece is the debut of a new dance regalia set — a beaded yoke dress and accompanying pieces — created by three generations of Assiniboine/Nakoda women artists, with a family member expected to wear the dress for its public unveiling.
According to Axios, the Denver Art Museum commissioned the regalia set from the GrowingThunder Collective, a three-generation group of Assiniboine/Nakoda women whose work reflects their tribal nation's aesthetics. The collective's matriarch, Joyce Growing Thunder, is the only artist to win Best of Show three times at the Santa Fe Indian Market, creating Northern Plains beadwork alongside her daughter Juanita and granddaughter Jessa Rae, according to Wikipedia. The family's traditional beadwork is another part of the event's focus.
Free Admission and a Grand Entry
The museum's regular hours of 10am to 5pm apply Saturday, and general admission is free for the day. That is a notable break from standard pricing, since adult tickets at the Denver Art Museum in 2026 typically run $22 to $25 for Colorado residents and $27 to $30 for non-residents, per the museum's own visitor information. The Grand Entry begins at 11am at the Sie Welcome Center and Sturm Grand Pavilion, kicking off a day that the seed report notes will include hands-on activities, food, and vendors selling jewelry, arts, and crafts.
Saturday's art, craft, and food vendors will be part of the event, according to ZAPP Event Management. The museum is also waiving its standard $50 booth fees for Native-serving non-profits, a move that lowers the barrier for community organizations to take part alongside individual artisans.
Nearly Four Decades of Tradition
The Friendship Powwow traces back to 1989, when the Denver Art Museum created it as its inaugural public event funded by Colorado's then-newly established Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, according to the Denver Gazette. That same tax mechanism underwrites Saturday's free admission: the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District is a voter-approved 0.1% sales tax, or one cent on every $10 purchase, collected across seven metro counties and distributed to nearly 300 organizations totaling more than $60 million annually, according to the museum.
The gathering draws dancers and drum groups from Native communities, with performers coming from several states, per 9News. That intertribal scale sits alongside the museum's own holdings: its Indigenous Arts of North America collection includes over 18,000 objects representing over 250 Indigenous nations across 20,000 square feet of gallery space, according to the museum.
A Century of Collecting, Reframed
By 1925, the museum was recognizing Native objects as fine aesthetic art rather than treating them solely as anthropological artifacts. The museum's approach includes collaboration with Native communities, and it provides a department resource on the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
For Saturday's visitors, the Friendship Powwow offers a rare chance to see that living relationship between the museum and Indigenous communities play out in real time — a newly commissioned regalia set, generations of beadwork expertise, and a plaza full of dancers, drummers, and craftspeople, all on a day when the museum's doors are open to everyone at no cost.
