For the first time in 11 years the Heard Museum opened its first new gallery, starting with an art exhibit featuring 200 American Indian artworks from renowned collections, including pieces from the museum’s permanent collection.
The first exhibit within the new Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Grand Gallery, “Beauty Speaks for Us,” features pottery, textiles, jewelry, beadwork, functional art, paintings, basketry and carvings.
[espro-slider id=198031]
Photos by Jesse A. Millard, Experience AZ
Local collectors Nadine Basha, Carol Ann and Harvey Mackay and Janis and Dennis Lyon contributed pieces from their collections to the first exhibit.
“We wanted to present this show of beauty with the best from collections in Phoenix, Arizona as well as in the Heard Museum,” Janis Lyon said. “We were fortunate to go around the city looking at beautiful collections, and finding some special things.”
Janis Lyon and Carol Ann Mackay are long term collectors. Carol Ann said she is known as the blanket lady, and Janis has one the best ceramics collections around.
“We had the fun of not only editing our own collections, but also visiting other phenomenal collections,” Carol Ann said about bringing the “Beauty Speaks for Us” exhibit together.
The “Beauty Speaks for Us” exhibit features iconic artists such as Charles Loloma, Maria Martinez and Fritz Scholder.
There are older pieces dating from the 1820s and 1840s, including a classic Navajo wearing blanket, a Kiowa beaded cradle and a Kiapkwa polychrome jar of Zuni origin.
The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Grand Gallery is the first gallery addition to the Heard Museum in 11 years, and was funded by a $1.25 million grant from Virginia G. Piper. The 7,000-square-foot gallery is within the Heard Museum, and has a modern look inside the the museum.
“The Piper Grand Gallery ushers in a new era for the Heard Museum and this exhibition, celebrating American Indian art and the Phoenix community, represents the first step toward achieving an exciting and expanded vision,” Heard Museum Director and CEO David M. Roche said in a statement.
The new gallery took eight months of reshaping, restructuring and modernizing two older gallery spaces at the museum.
