Published in the fall 2011 issue of MyLIFE magazine
PHOTO BY JOHN MCMURRAY
Roger Clyne is a third-generation Arizonan and founder of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, a homegrown local rock band. The band’s last six consecutive album releases have debuted among the top 10 on Billboard’s Internet Sales Chart, the first-ever independent band to achieve this feat. Clyne, who is also a poster child for the Phoenix Heard Museum, is featured in the January 2012 issue of MyLIFE magazine.
A stately jewel along Central Avenue’s downtown arts and culture corridor, the Heard Museum is one of Phoenix’s most venerable institutions. However it is also one of the city’s great spots for viewing, and even purchasing, vibrant contemporary works by present-day American Indian artists. Dating back to the 1929 founding of the museum by Dwight B. and Maie Bartlett Heard, the collection is rich and varied. However, the Heard has never stopped collecting, which means there’s always something new to see—a fresh discovery to delight the eye, touch the heart and stimulate the mind. And, with a full schedule of exciting special events, an award-winning café and a vast museum shop offering the finest quality handmade Native art, jewelry, handcrafts and more, the Heard is a multifaceted destination that amply rewards frequent visits.
On arriving at the Heard, visitors encounter an inviting central courtyard, with cooling water fountains, natural landscaping, beautiful sculpture and shaded walkways beneath graceful arches. Visitors lounge at cozy tables outside the Heard’s Courtyard Café, enjoying Native-inspired contemporary fare or maybe just a casual beverage or snack from the adjacent Coffee Cantina. The café is, in fact, a popular lunch destination for downtown locals as well as visitors from afar. On a busy day, the sounds of many languages echo joyously throughout the courtyard.
But the heart and soul of the Heard is the collection itself, which numbers some 40,000 objects, housed in the museum’s main building. Here, in 11 galleries occupying some 35,000 square feet of exhibit pace, visitors discover the broad range and extraordinary beauty of American Indian arts and crafts—a dazzling array of pottery, jewelry, textiles, ancestral artifacts, sculpture and painting. There are pieces dating back to the first millennium AD, and many items that the Heards collected prior to founding the museum in 1929.
However there is also one of the finest selections anywhere of recent and contemporary masterworks by celebrated Native artists like Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache), Fritz Scholder (Luiseño), Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee) and Dan Namingha (Hopi/Tewa). The Heard’s extensive holdings in contemporary American Indian Art set it apart from other major museum collections, both regional and national. This is one of several reasons the Heard is internationally recognized as one of the finest museums of American Indian art in the world.
The museum’s 11 galleries are divided between permanent and ongoing exhibits on the one hand, and changing exhibits on the other. One highlight among the permanent exhibits is Home: Native People in the Southwest. Containing nearly 2,000 treasured artifacts plus interactive displays, the exhibit explores the life, culture and artistry of the Southwest’s native peoples. The Navajo, Apache, Hopi, Zuni and other significant groups come to life, their distinctive identities and values coming into clear focus. A major long-term exhibit, The Boarding School Experience, will be on view through late 2012, when it will travel to several other major museums around the country.
There’s still time to catch several highly popular changing exhibits at the Heard, including the much-loved More Than Child’s Play: American Indian Dolls, The Art of Ceremony: American Indian Painting of the 20th Century and the inspiring work of sculptor Retha Walden Gambaro on exhibit in Attitudes of Prayer. Several of these shows will close in 2012 to make way for what promises to be a blockbuster season of new exhibits at the Heard, which will include Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage and Contemporary Artistry; Beyond Geronimo: the Apache Experience; Namingha Family Paintings; and Sculpture and Elegance from the Earth: Hopi Pottery. (Read Bolo Ties – Arizona’s Official Neckwear for details.)
The main galleries at the Heard are complemented by the beautiful Nichols Sculpture Garden and the Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives. Located on the second floor of the main building, the library is open to the public—a valuable resource for scholars or for any visitor who wants to learn a little more about the art and artists on exhibit. All told, including an auditorium for performances, an education building and extension collections areas, the Heard encompasses 130,000 square feet of space located on 12 beautifully landscaped acres.
Another exciting and fun way to engage with American Indian art at the Heard is to visit the Heard Museum Shop. The first thing one notices on entering this enticing emporium is that it is a good three or four times larger than most museum shops. The shop at the Heard is a trading post right in the heart of Phoenix, offering the finest quality, handmade, authentic American Indian art, jewelry, carpets and other items. Adjacent to the shop is the Berlin Gallery, a fine art retail gallery that one might expect to find in New York or Los Angeles.
Both the museum shop and Berlin Gallery feature work by artists and artisans whose work is on exhibit in the museum. So, if you fall in love with an artwork on exhibit, chances are you may be able to take home and treasure an original piece by that very same artist. And, on the third Saturday of each month, the Heard’s Indigenous Visions event offers an opportunity to meet and talk with some of Indian Country’s most acclaimed artists in a convivial setting with live music and Courtyard Café specials.
That’s just one of many exciting special events that take place at the Heard throughout the year. The Heard Museum Guild’s Indian Fair and Crafts Market is one of the Southwest’s largest and most prestigious events. Other highlights include the annual Spanish Market, Annual World Champion Hoop Dance Contest, Thanksgiving Day Harvest Feast and the museum’s first full-scale fashion show, Native Style: Where Fashion Is Heard.
Adding up all these exhibits, special events and other programming equals a year of near-constant happenings at the Heard. The same is true for the museum’s community branch, the Heard Museum North Scottsdale. Located in the Summit at Scottsdale, this 11,000-square-foot facility offers two galleries featuring changing exhibits and highlights from the Heard collection, an interpretive garden, the Gallery Café, the museum shop and a program of public events. Even longtime Phoenicians will find something new to discover at both Heard locations. And for newcomers to town, you’re in for a fun and fascinating experience that embodies the true spirit of the Southwest.
For more information, visit heard.org.
