The circle, considered the perfect form by the Plains Indians, has no beginning or end. By tracing the four circles that symbolized the lives of native American -- the family, the tribe, humanity, and the unknown -- this exhibition guides us through and important part of our country's heritage.

While the Denver Art Museum's Native American holdings represent virtually every tribal group form Mesoamerica to the Arctic, the museum's Plains Indian collection is particularly noteworthy for its quality and depth. Circles of the World focuses on this segment of the collection, an impressive array of clothing, jewelry, military and ceremonial regalia, household objects, and horse equipment made by nomadic tribes who roamed the Great Plains from the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains. This exhibition is the first to bring a significant and unique part of the Denver Art Museum's collection to a wide audience; others are planned for the near future. By sharing the greatest strengths of our collection -- areas of art considered nontraditional by most western standards -- we have a special opportunity to bring to the world new perceptions of art and the cultures which produced it.