Denver Art Museum appoints Royce K. Young Wolf as associate curator of Native arts

The Denver Art Museum has named Royce K. Young Wolf as its new associate curator of Native arts, bringing an artist, scholar, and advocate with deep ties to Indigenous communities into a key leadership role. She began the position in early April.

Museum director Christoph Heinrich said the appointment reflects the institution’s long-standing emphasis on Indigenous art and its future direction. With one of the country’s most significant collections in the field, he noted, the museum is looking to expand how it presents and engages with Native arts in the years ahead.

Young Wolf, who is Eastern Shoshone, Hidatsa, and Mandan, comes to the role with a background that spans curatorial work, academic research, and cultural advocacy. Her work has often focused on language revitalization, Indigenous identity, and the role of art in preserving and expressing community knowledge. She has also drawn on her experience as a fourth-generation survivor of Indian boarding schools, which has shaped her approach to cultural preservation.

Before joining the Denver museum, Young Wolf held positions at Yale University Art Gallery and Yale University, where she worked as an assistant curator and postdoctoral fellow. Her earlier projects include collaborating with tribal elders on exhibitions at the MHA Nation Interpretive Center, focusing on the histories of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people.

At the Denver Art Museum, she will help guide acquisitions, develop exhibitions, and build relationships with Indigenous artists, knowledge keepers, and communities. The role also includes shaping how the museum interprets and presents Indigenous art to a broader public.

John P. Lukavic, who leads the museum’s Native arts department, said Young Wolf’s experience working closely with communities and artists will help deepen the museum’s approach to storytelling and representation.

In a statement, Young Wolf emphasized the cultural importance of Indigenous artworks, describing them as vessels that carry memory, knowledge, and identity. She said her curatorial approach centers on collaboration and ensuring that artists’ legacies are represented with care and accuracy.