Shapeshifting at PEM: Definitely Worth the Visit
![Peabody Essex Museum will change your perception of Native Art in this exhibit - Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art! Peabody Essex Museum will change your perception of Native Art in this exhibit!](https://northshorekid.com/sites/default/files/styles/post_photo/public/stories/pem_transformations.jpg?itok=yS98VqgV)
I recently had the opportunity to tour PEM's newest exhibit Santa at Salem Common and left with a whole new perception of Native Americans as individual artists in their own right. As a child and growing up I remember native art being presented more as 'craft' than art - possibly because it was not made as art, but as something to be used - a basket, a blanket, a beaded headdress, a tomahawk. PEM has changed all that with this exhibit.