Date: Fri 16-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: MELISS

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HeardMuseum

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Heard Museum

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PHOENIX, ARIZ, -- For more than 70 years, the Heard Museum has been a landmark

in Phoenix, a place where visitors from across the globe come to learn about

the region's Native cultures and art. With its latest expansion, the Heard

Museum encompasses 130,000 square feet of galleries, classrooms and

performance spaces. That's more than eight times the size of the original

structure, built in 1929 to house collections of two Phoenix residents, Dwight

and Maie Heard.

Dwight Bancroft Heard moved to Chicago from Wayland, Mass., shortly after high

school. He began working at Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett and Company, one of the

biggest wholesale hardware companies in the country and the precursor of

True-Value Hardware Stores. While there, Dwight Heard was a protege of

Adolphus Bartlett and subsequently met his daughter, Maie Bartlett. In 1893,

Dwight Heard and Maie Bartlett were married. Just one year later, the couple

headed for warmer, dryer climates on a doctor's advice after Dwight was

diagnosed with lung ailments. After traveling throughout the Southwest, the

young couple settled in Phoenix in 1895 and decided to make it their home.

Once settled in Phoenix, the young couple began what would be a lifelong

dedication to the betterment of their new community. Dwight Heard was one of

the largest landowners in the Salt River Valley, and his Bartlett-Heard Land

and Cattle Company south of Phoenix raised prize cattle, alfalfa, citrus trees

and cotton. As the president of the Arizona Cotton Growers' Association, he is

credited with helping to make the Arizona cotton growers industry competitive

internationally. His other business interests included real estate

development, investment lending and newspaper publishing.

Maie Heard also became actively involved in her new community, founding or

supporting a number of civic endeavors. Maie Heard and other Bartlett family

members donated land for the city's first civic center, where the original

Phoenix Art Museum and Phoenix Library were built, and where the recently

expanded Phoenix Art Museum stand today.

The Heards built a 6,000-square-foot house called "Casa Blanca" in what was

then north Phoenix. The home featured Spanish-style architecture and was built

around an open courtyard. The couple planted hundreds of palm trees along four

miles of roads in Los Olivos, the neighborhood surrounding their home which

was developed by Dwight Heard, and the couple are credited with introducing

the stately trees to Phoenix.

Casa Blanca was a major gathering place, where the Heards hosted a variety of

family and friends over the years including Marshall Field; Charles

L.Hutchinson, founder of the Art Institute of Chicago; Herbert Hoover; Harvey

S. Firestone; Theodore Roosevelt and others.

While learning about their new community, the Heards developed a keen interest

in Native American artifacts and art, and they began to acquire pieces that

they exhibited in their home. Over the years, the Heards built their

collection through travel and contacts with trading posts as well as with

Indian arts dealers such as the Fred Harvey Company.

Much of the archaeological material in the Heard's collection came from La

Ciudad, a Hohakam Indian ruin they purchased in 1926. The Heard often shared

the site with the public through a series of afternoon viewings, and Mr Heard

was a frequent lecturer.

Through the years, it became evident that a space larger than their home

should be dedicated to the collection and, on the suggestion of the

daughter-in-law, Winifred, the Heards decided to build a museum.

The Heard Museum opened quietly in June 1929, several months after Mr Heard

died of a heart attack. There was little fanfare, and the museum didn't even

have a sign in its early days, although the Arizona Republican newspaper noted

its incorporation with headlines in June and its official opening in the fall

of that year. Visitors often rang a doorbell connected to the Heard's nearby

home, Casa Blanca, so that Mrs Heard could show them the museum.

Maie Heard acted as museum director, curator, maintenance man, lecturer and

guide at the Heard Museum for more than 20 years, quietly teaching visitors

about the Native cultures that were so dear to her heart. Local luminaries

such as department store owner Barry Goldwater frequently lectured and showed

his films and photographs.

In the 1950's, the Heard Museum underwent significant growth. Upon Maie

Heard's death in 1951, a board of trustees was established to ensure the

museum's continuation, and several staff members were hired. In 1956, the

Heard Museum Auxiliary was established to assist with educational programs.

Today, the Heard Museum Guild numbers nearly 700.

The Heard Museum experienced a significant expansion in 1983, when it nearly

doubled in size to its current 78,000 square feet. The expansion added the

museum's award-winning "Native Peoples of the Southwest," exhibit gallery

along with a new wing for administrative offices, a larger auditorium, a

significantly larger museum shop and the Dr Dean Nichols Sculpture Court.

In 1997, the Heard Museum broke ground for its current expansion, which adds

50,000 square feet to the internationally acclaimed center for Native culture

and art. Included are several new structures -- an expanded library and

archives, new administrative space, new collections storage facilities and new

exhibit preparation areas.

The $18.1 million expansion also adds three new exhibit galleries, bringing to

ten the number of galleries at the Heard. The Heard Museum's long-term exhibit

"Native Peoples of the Southwest" lets visitors explore the history of the

Southwest and learn about Native Americans of today. The Crossroads Gallery

and Gallery of Indian Art feature contemporary artwork, and the museum's other

galleries change regularly.

The new gallery contains "More Than Art," an introduction to key themes that

developed throughout the museum's other exhibitions. The Crossroads Gallery,

featuring a soaring two-story ceiling with skylights, showcases important fine

art from the Heard Museum's collection, most of which has never been displayed

because of its size.

The Lovena Ohl Exhibit Gallery features changing exhibits and highlights

pieces by artists working in the artist studio. Currently, it features

"Patrons and Partners: Recent Acquisitions of the Heard Museum."

Also on view are "Cradles, Corn and Lizard" as well as "Old Ways, New Ways"

and "Horse". The first explores the cultures, landscapes and wildlife of

Arizona.

In "Old Ways, New Ways," visitors can experience first-hand the way Native

Americans used to live -- and how they live today. The exhibit continues

through May 1999.

"Horse," which runs through January 2000, examines the influences the horse

has had on indigenous cultures in North America. It also explores the deep

meanings horses hold for Native Americans in four regions of the United

States: the Northern Plains, the Plateau, the Southern Plains and the

Southwest.

"Blue Gem, White Metal: Carvings and Jewelry from the C.G. Wallace

Collection," features pieces from the Heard's often-studied C.G. Wallace

Collection of Zuni and Navajo jewelry, which is considered the largest, most

well-documented collection of Zuni jewelry from the early to mid-1900's. The

exhibition runs through September 19, 1999, and features pieces collected by

C.G. Wallace, a trader at Zuni Pueblo in the early to mid-1900's. He

encouraged artists to experiment, resulting in a melding of traditional styles

and motifs with contemporary techniques. Over the years, Wallace established a

private collection of 2,500 pieces of exquisite Zuni Jewelry, 525 of which he

donated to the Heard Museum in 1975.

"Native Peoples of the Southwest" is filled with thousands of objects

including baskets, jewelry, pottery and textiles. Visitors can journey through

various regions of the Southwest and experience life as it was centuries ago

as well as how many Native Americans throughout the Southwest live today. The

exhibit includes and extensive Katsina Doll Gallery, which showcases the

collections of Senator Barry M. Goldwater and the Fred Harvey company.

The Sandra Day O'Connor Gallery is named after Supreme Court Justice Sandra

Day O'Connor, who was president of the museum's board of trustees before she

went to Washington, D.C.

Today, the gallery displays a look at the history the museum and the

collection of more than 32,000 objects that has attracted visitors from around

the globe with the exhibition "History and Collections of the Heard Museum."

In Heard's Gallery of Indian Art is "Art in 2 Worlds: The Native American Fine

Art Invitational 1983-1997," celebrating the creativity and innovation of

Native American artists. It continues through October 1999, with contemporary

work by artist featured in the Heard Museum's seven Invitational fine art

exhibits.

The Heard Museum North, a satellite location at the Boulders Resort's el

Pedregal Festival Marketplace in north Scottsdale, is featuring "Cloud

Messengers: Hope Katsina Dolls." The exhibit features more than 200 katsina

dolls ranging from contemporary carvings to pieces made in the late 1800's.

Many katsina dolls in the Heard Museum's 1,200-plus collection were donated by

Senator Barry M Goldwater and the Fred Harvey Company. The exhibit also

features a selection of the late Senator's photographs that capture the beauty

of Northern Arizona.

The Heard Museum is at 22 East Monte Vista Road, telephone 602/252-8840.