Our America: 250 Years of Independence, Innovation, and Creativity

Newfields is marking the U.S. semiquincentennial with Our America: 250 Years of Independence, Innovation, and Creativity, which opens October 28, 2026, and runs through January 3, 2027. Rather than keeping everything inside the museum, the exhibition treats the whole campus as its gallery, stretching from the IMA Galleries out into the gardens and historic homes. The museum frames the 250th anniversary as a chance to rediscover the power of the American imagination.

The experience is set up as a tour of 16 stops that read the nation's history through art, architecture and nature. You'll find iconic works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Elizabeth Catlett, Edward Hopper and Horace Pippin, alongside Thornton Dial and three newly acquired photographs by Sheila Pree Bright on view for the first time. Dial's Don't Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together (2003) is one of the pieces you'll encounter along the way.

Because the tour moves across the campus, it takes in architectural landmarks as well as paintings. The Lilly House and Oldfields Gardens were designed by the Olmsted Brothers Firm, and the Miller House and Garden was a collaboration between Eero Saarinen and Dan Kiley. The whole thing is meant to present the American story as a living, evolving landscape of creativity unfolding across the grounds.

Admission is included with general admission, and it's free for members. You can find Newfields at 4000 N. Michigan Rd. in Indianapolis, and the exhibition runs from October 28, 2026, through January 3, 2027.