INDIANAPOLIS — The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is hosting Guns, Guitars!, Body Bags and 400 Pounds of Scattered Rice themes in the coming weeks. Listed are a series of dates with information on what will be highlighted:

Saturday, March 30
Antique Arms Collectors Show
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Free with general admission to the museum

Members of the Indiana Antique Arms Collectors Association will present a show of firearms and related artifacts from their personal collections.  Frontier, military, sporting and hunting arms related to the West will be a special feature.

Saturday, April 6
Contemporary Art Installation
Home and Garden, by Edward Poitras (Gordon First Nation, born 1953)
Harvey Gallery

Origami-styled dollar bills, 400 pounds of scattered rice and a symbolic doorway painted on a gallery wall; brought to life from the imagination of contemporary Native artist Edward Poitras. His installation, “Home and Garden,” makes a return to the Eiteljorg beginning April 6. Poitras is a First Nations artist from Canada. He was among five artists who comprised the Eiteljorg’s 2009 Fellowship for Native American Fine Art.

Contemporary Art Installation
Manitoba, by Bonnie Devine (Ojibwa, born 1952)
Hurt Gallery

Sixty-two body bags will hang inside our Harvey gallery. They tell the story of how Canada’s government answered the call for help when the H1N1 flu pandemic swept across a Native community in northern Manitoba in 2009. According to Eiteljorg contemporary art curator, Jennifer McNutt, the act is reminiscent of Native peoples being given blankets that were full of smallpox. She writes, “Governments are clever, but rarely compassionate, especially to the first peoples.”

Saturday, April 13
Film Screening: “The Wrecking Crew”
Guitars! Roundups to Rockers programming
4p.m. – included with general admission to the museum

“The Wrecking Crew” was a nearly-anonymous group of 1960s-era Los Angeles studio musicians known as Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.” They played on hits for the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson and Johnny Rivers.  Guests are welcome to join us for the Midwestern premiere of The Wrecking Crew, and meet producer/director Denny Tedesco, who will introduce this story. Screening is included with general museum admission.

Additional Guitars! programming April 13

Enjoy additional opportunities to live out your rock-star dream. Start with a rock ’nʻ roll airbrush tattoo and then get in line for your own guitar-wielding caricature. You can also get a taste of the Indy music scene when local bands take the stage.

Schedule
12 – 2 p.m.
Play the guitar!
Learn the basics with professional guitar instructor, Benito DiBartoli.

12 – 4 p.m.
Punch a guitar pick; design a poster for your rock band; be a Guitar Hero; test out different instruments at the Fender Guitar Corral and more.

12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Rockin’ tattoos and rock star caricatures with artist, Mike Altman.

1 – 1:45 p.m.
Guitars! Ask an Expert!
Curator Johanna Blume will be on hand to answer your guitar-related questions.

1 – 3 p.m.
Jennifer Complo-McNutt, curator of contemporary art, will unveil the mysteries of the contemporary art collection!

1 – 3 p.m.
Check out the Indy music scene!
Local bands, Old Truck Revival and Stockwell Road will take the stage in April.