John P. Lukavic (he/him/his) serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts and head of the Native Arts department at the Denver Art Museum where he specializes in Indigenous arts of North America. He is the organizing curator for such exhibitions as “Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger” (2021), “Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer” (2018), and “Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967-1980” (2015), as well as lead curator for DAM’s reinstallation of their Indigenous Arts of North America galleries (2021). Lukavic received a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma (2012) where he conducted his doctoral fieldwork with Southern Cheyenne moccasin makers and religious leaders in Oklahoma, and he received an MA in Museum Science from Texas Tech University (1999). In 2018, he was selected for the Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University’s NextGen program for emerging top talent in the museum field. In 2019 Lukavic received an Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators for his essay in the Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer exhibition catalogue. He serves as Vice President for the Native American Art Studies Association as well as a Board member for the Denver Indian Center, Inc.

John P. Lukavic, Ph.D. is Curator of Native Arts at the Denver Art Museum where he conducts and presents scholarly research, develops exhibitions, collects Native arts, disseminates knowledge of the Denver Art Museum’s American Indian, African, and Oceanic collections, and is also responsible for DAM’s collaboration with Native American communities and the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). His specialty is contemporary art by American Indian artists as well as historical American Indian arts from the Plains region. Before joining the Museum in 2012, he received his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma where he conducted his doctoral fieldwork with Southern Cheyenne moccasin makers and religious leaders in Oklahoma. Prior to this, Dr. Lukavic earned an MA in Museum Science from Texas Tech University (2001) and a BA in anthropology (1999) also from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Lukavic has organized such exhibitions as Jeffrey Gibson: Like A Hammer (2018), Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967-1980 (2015), Revolt 1680/2180: Virgil Ortiz (2015), and the group exhibitions, Sovereign: Independent Voices (2013) and Strong Statements (2015). He was lead curator for Stampede: Animals in Art (2017), and he co-curated Eyes On: Julie Buffalohead (2018), Why We Dance: American Indian Art in Motion (2016) and Georgia O’Keeffe In New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land (2013), among others. Dr. Lukavic has presented academic and public lectures internationally and across the U.S., and has published extensively on topics ranging from individual artists like T.C. Cannon, Jeffrey Gibson, and Fritz Scholder to historical Native arts. Dr. Lukavic also serves as a Board member for the Denver Indian Center, Inc.

Works in the Department of Native Arts. Duties include exhibition development, research, academic writing, fundraising, and public speaking.

Taught undergraduate courses on the Anthropology of Religion and General Anthropology. Co-curated an exhibition at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Cataloged a collection of Native American art.

Provided administrative support to a Presidential Commission that reviewed architectural and design review for Federal and DC government property within the District of Columbia, U.S. coinage, and military metals.