DENVER, CO.- Building on the approach the Denver Art Museum (DAM) pioneered in 1925, when it became the first American museum to collect Native American objects as art rather than artifacts, this summer the museum will begin the renovation and complete reinstallation of its American Indian and Northwest Coast art galleries to place an expanded focus on individual artists, their creations, and inspirations. Today the DAM holds one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of American Indian art, including 18,000 artworks ranging from prehistoric to contemporary, displayed in a 23,000 square foot gallery on the third level of the North Building. The American Indian presentation initially installed in 1988 will be open to the public through June 13, and will reopen with new interactive, artist-centric displays in early 2011. The transformed galleries will host approximately 600 artworks