An American at Zurich’s North American Native Museum

Entrance:

Getting to NOMA is very easy, just a six minute walk from the Zurich Tieffenbrunnen train station, there are plenty of signs pointing the way so you don’t even need your phone to navigate.

Entrance is 15CHF for adults, but I got in for ‘free’ thanks to the Swiss Museum Pass (177CHF/year). I thought the entrance price was pretty steep for what you end up with.

Special Exhibit:

There’s a floor for a standard collection exhibit and a floor for special exhibits. The special exhibit when I went was called Sedna, and focused on Arctic tribes.

“Sedna” is a name some tribes use to mean something like ‘goddess of the sea.’ All exhibits were in German but they had English-language guides that I thought were well written and easy to navigate.

The art was mostly from the 20th and 21st century, and split up into themes like religion and hunting. Some of the sculptures made out of the bones of marine mammals were quiet stunning!

There were also a few videos depicting life in the Arctic and folk legends of the tribes that still live there.

One room on this floor is part of the permanent collection, and featured the life and times of Karl Bodmer, a 19th century Swiss artist that went to North America and drew Native American life. Everything was in German but there were quite a few of his books to flip through.

The Permanent Collection:

The third floor of the museum houses the general collection and a little cafe. There was no English language guide this time, although you could get translations via a QR code.

I didn’t feel like bringing out my phone though so just made do with my A1-level German.

The exhibit room is small but jam-packed with artifacts, and I think the curation looks good. Focus seemed to be on the Plains, Northwestern, and Arctic tribes.

I liked the pieces a lot, which I thought did a good job of showing the artistry and skill of Native American tribes.

Between the two exhibits I spent about an hour in the museum.

Conclusion:

Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen quite a few museums on Native Americans already, but I did feel a bit underwhelmed by the small space. Without English exhibits this is certainly not a top recommendation for me to international travelers to Zurich.

However, if you don’t know or haven’t seen much Native American art/artifacts, and you speak German, this could be a very interesting visit. I do think it’s nice that there’s a museum on the subject in Zurich at all.

On the way out there’s a pretty neat (but small) gift shop with a lot of unique items, so check that out too!

Overall not one of my Zurich favorites, but was something different to do for an afternoon, so I give it three snacks.