The Heard Museum: Why Phoenix's Crown Jewel Matters

The Heard Museum on North Central Avenue holds one of the most significant collections of American Indian art and history in the United States, and its position within the cultural landscape of Phoenix — a city associated with sprawl rather than cultural depth — makes it one of American museology's more striking ironies. The permanent collection, anchored by the 3,200-piece Goldwater Collection of Hopi Kachina dolls, is one of three collections in the world with the documentation and completeness to constitute a definitive scholarly resource. The museum's ongoing commitment to presenting American Indian art as living contemporary practice rather than ethnographic artifact distinguishes it from many institutions in its category. Contemporary Native American artists — including several from Arizona's twenty-two federally recognized tribes — are represented throughout the permanent galleries and in rotating exhibitions. The outdoor sculpture garden and the gallery devoted to the boarding school history of American Indian education provide important counterbalance: the beauty of the collection sits alongside honest documentation of the policies that shaped the communities that produced it. Admission is modestly priced. Free days occur on specific holidays.