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HEARD MUSEUM HAS RICH HISTORY IN PHOENIX, RECENT GROWTH IN NEW CORNERS OF THE VALLEY

PHOENIX, Ariz. — For more than 80 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. The Heard encompasses 130,000 square feet of galleries, classrooms and performance spaces. This vast space is more than eight times the size of the original structure, built in 1929 to house the personal collections of 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 was a protégé of Adolphus Bartlett and subsequently met his daughter, Maie Bartlett. In 1893, Dwight and Maie were married. Just one year later, the couple headed for warmer, dryer climes on a doctor's advice after Dwight was diagnosed with lung ailments. The young couple settled in Phoenix in 1895 and decided to make it their home.

Life in Phoenix Once settled, the couple began a lifelong dedication to the betterment of their new community. Dwight 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 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 became actively involved, founding or supporting a number of civic endeavors including the Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, the YWCA and the Woman's Club of Phoenix. Maie Heard and other Bartlett family members donated land for the city's first civic center at the corner of Central Avenue and McDowell Road (where the original and Phoenix Library were built, and where the expanded Phoenix Art Museum stands today).

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The Heards built a 6,000-square-foot house called “Casa Blanca” at Central and Monte Vista Road, 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, and the couple is 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.

Collecting American Indian Art The Heards developed a keen interest in American Indian 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 Hohokam Indian ruin they purchased in 1926 at 19th and Polk streets in Phoenix. The Heards often shared the site with the public through a series of afternoon viewings, and Mr. Heard was a frequent lecturer at Rotary Club meetings throughout the city.

Through the years, it became evident that a space larger than their home should be dedicated to the collection and, on the suggestion of their daughter-in-law, Winifred, the Heards decided to build a museum.

Opening the 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 on December 26, that year. Visitors often rang a doorbell of Casa Blanca, so that Mrs. Heard could show them the museum.

During its early years, as today, the museum was a central gathering place for locals as well as school children. Lectures, workshops and talks about the exotic lands the Heards had visited brought people from all around to the Heard Museum.

Maie acted as museum director, curator, maintenance staff, lecturer and guide at the Heard for more than 20 years, quietly teaching visitors about the Native cultures that were so dear to her heart. Local luminaries such as frequently lectured and showed his films and photographs.

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In the 1950s, the Heard Museum underwent significant growth. Upon Maie Heard’s death in 1951, the Board of Trustees worked 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.

Expanding the Heard In 1958, volunteers launched two aggressive fundraising projects — a shop and bookstore and a major event featuring Native artists, food and fun. Both activities continue with great success today, thanks to the continuing support of Guild members who work in the shop and meticulously plan the Indian Fair & Market (which today draws more than 18,000 people). Both enjoy national recognition and are major contributors to the Heard Museum’s operations. Also in 1958, the first of three expansion projects was completed, adding additional classroom and office space to the museum.

The next expansion occurred in 1968-69, nearly doubling the original building. A 350- seat auditorium was added as well as a large gallery on the east side and the Gallery of Indian Art on the west.

The Heard experienced another expansion in 1983, when it nearly doubled in size again to 78,000 square feet. The expansion added the museum’s first award-winning signature exhibit gallery along with administrative offices, a larger auditorium, a larger Shop and the Dr. Dean Nichols Sculpture Courtyard.

In 1999, the Heard added 50,000 square feet which included several new structures including a Museum Shop twice the size of the former shop, the Steele Auditorium with plush theater-style seating for performances and events, the Dorrance Education Center with three classrooms, a cafe, an artist studio and the Pavilion, which included a new admissions entrance and three galleries. Also added: an expanded Library and Archives, new administrative space, new collections storage facilities and new exhibit preparation areas.

The expansion also added three new exhibit galleries, bringing to 10 the number of galleries at the Heard. HOME: Native People in the Southwest opened to the public in May 2005 and is the museum’s $7.6 million, 21,000-square-foot signature experience, housing almost 2,000 objects from the permanent collection.

Community Locations In January 1996, the Heard Museum opened its first community location in North Scottsdale, Heard Museum North. Located at el Pedregal Festival Marketplace the first Heard Museum North location was an 8,500-square-foot facility including a 4,500-square- foot exhibition space, Shop and classroom. In June 2007, the Heard Museum North Scottsdale opened in a brand new facility located 1.1 miles south of its former location in an 11,000-square-foot, freestanding building.

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The new facility enables the community location of the Heard to display more of its permanent collection in two exhibit galleries, expand its retail offerings at the Heard Museum North Scottsdale Shop and add the elegant Café at Heard Museum North Scottsdale as well as an interpretive garden created in partnership with the . The self-standing building provides more usable space and a distinct identity for Heard Museum North Scottsdale.

In June 2006, the Heard Museum opened its second community location in Surprise, Heard Museum West. Heard Museum West was a 7,000-square-foot facility that included an exhibition gallery, education classroom and Shop. Unfortunately, economic factors dictated that the Heard Museum close Heard Museum West in September 2009.

In November 2007, the Heard Museum opened the Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum Shop. The gallery, a 2,400 square-foot, $1 million expansion, added a retail gallery featuring American Indian fine art by 22 master and up-and- coming artists. The Berlin Gallery extends the educational mission of the Heard Museum by providing an expanded space for the exhibition and sale of American Indian painting, sculpture, photography, as well as prints and drawings. Artists represented include: Norman Akers (Osage), Fritz Scholder (Luiseño), Steve Yazzie (Navajo), and Doug Hyde (NezPerce/Assiniboine/ Chippewa).

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