photo by: Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector

University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University recognized the reinstallation of vandalized public art panels by KU graduate Edgar Heap of Birds, who offered viewers a sense of place by displaying the name of Kansas spelled backward next to the name of five tribes that previously inhabited the area.

After his artwork on the KU campus was vandalized last semester, Native American artist Edgar Heap of Birds will have a new university gallery named after him and will be a guest of honor at its Saturday opening.

KU Endowment and the University of Kansas Department of Visual Art are officially opening the Edgar Heap of Birds Family Gallery on Saturday in Chalmers Hall at the KU campus. The new gallery, which is inside the Department of Visual Arts, will host an annual series of exhibits highlighting Native American art.

Heap of Birds and Norman Akers, an associate professor of visual art at KU, will be the inaugural artists to have works displayed in the gallery, KU officials announced on Tuesday.

Heap of Birds previously was selected to present as part of KU’s Common Work of Art program. His piece “Native Hosts” — which consists of five aluminum signs in front of the Spencer Museum of Art drawing attention to the native tribes that have inhabited the region now known as Kansas — was vandalized last semester. In addition, one of the art panels was stolen but was later recovered.

The crimes sparked a public outcry from many members of the university community. On Tuesday, KU Endowment announced it received a private gift that has funded the creation of the Edgar Heap of Birds Family Gallery. The association didn’t provide details about the size of the gift or the donor, but did say the gift was given prior to the vandalism of the artwork.

Edgar Heap of Birds

Heap of Birds and Akers both will be on hand for Saturday’s gallery opening, which runs from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Chalmers Hall, Room 300, 1467 Jayhawk Blvd. In addition KU Chancellor Douglas Girod and distinguished professor Robert Warrior are expected to deliver remarks. KU is limiting attendance at the event because of pandemic social-distancing considerations, a spokeswoman for KU Endowment said.

Heap of Birds is a Wichita native who is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations. The artist, who now resides in Oklahoma City, is a KU graduate and completed his graduate studies at the Royal College of Art in London and at Temple University. His works have been shown in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the timing of the donation.