Current special exhibitions
In addition to our five museums, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West creates and hosts temporary special exhibitions in various galleries throughout the Center. Here’s what’s on view today.
Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale Preview Exhibition
Open through September 20, 2024
Now open in our John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery, the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale Preview Exhibition displays more than 100 works of western art by contemporary artists. They are on view until the afternoon of September 20, when they are moved to a tent on the Center’s grounds. That evening, all are auctioned off in an exciting, live event. This fundraiser benefits the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, and local art organizations.
Click here to see the online gallery of the art.
Advertising the Frontier Myth: Poster Art of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Open through January 12, 2025
Explore the captivating world of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West through this immersive special exhibition, now open in our Anne & Charles Duncan Special Exhibition Gallery. Advertising the Frontier Myth: Poster Art of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West features posters from the Jack Rennert Collection, acquired through the generosity of the Hal R. and Naoma J. Tate Foundation, as well as works from the Center of the West’s own unrivaled holdings. With thirty large-scale vintage posters alongside original photos and exciting digital interactives, the exhibition offers a unique perspective on the promotional efforts of William F. Cody and his Wild West Company.
The exhibition offers fascinating insights into the cultural legacy, mythmaking, and international impact of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West through posters that feature everyone from Buffalo Bill Cody and renowned sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Johnny Baker to Native Americans, American Cowboys, South American Vaqueros, and the Congress of Rough Riders of the World.
The exhibition is based on the award-winning book, Art and Advertising in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, by guest curator Michelle Delaney of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and funded through The Papers of William F. Cody.
This exhibition is supported with partial funding by Wyoming Humanities.
Advertising the Frontier Myth will be on view through January 12, 2025.
Click to learn more about Advertising the Frontier Myth
Guns of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Performers & Other Cowboy Acts
Now open
Firearms played a key role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and are the focus of a new special exhibition in our Cody Firearms Museum, Guns of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Performers and Other Cowboy Acts. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s performances used firearms to tell stories and wow audiences with shooting feats. The guns shown in this exhibit are tied to individuals that participated in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West or performed in similar shows on their own.
Guns of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Performers is a companion exhibition to another which features the incredible posters that advertised Buffalo Bill’s Wild West during tours and stands across the United States and Europe. That exhibition, Advertising the Frontier Myth: Poster Art of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, is on view in our Anne & Charles Duncan Special Exhibition Gallery.
Click to learn more about Guns of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Best Seats on the Grounds: Behind the Scenes of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Now open
Visit our McCracken Research Library’s Shiebler Family Gallery for Best Seats on the Grounds: Behind the Scenes of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Through photograph and manuscript collections, venture behind the scenes of the posters in Advertising the Frontier Myth. Meet the people who inspired the marketing team that made the Wild West famous around the world. And explore backstage life for the performers and the advertising crew.
Best Seats on the Grounds will remain on view at least through the end of 2024.
Click to learn more about Best Seats on the Grounds
Today’s West
On exhibit on the Mezzanine level above the Center’s Hub, Today’s West features selections from the Whitney Western Art Museum’s collection of contemporary art created since the 1950s. The subjects are familiar: the land, peoples, and wildlife of the American West. However, unconventional techniques and styles and modern-day themes distinguish these artworks from their historical counterparts.
