HEARD MUSEUM

NEW EXPERIENCES at the Heard Museum

By Lisa Van Loo

The Heard Museum has made some changes. With new safety precautions, Heard Museum was the first cultural intuition in Arizona to reopen and it’s preparing to unveil new exhibits in the coming months, moving forward with its mission to advance American Indian art.

“We felt it was important to continue our mission for those who felt it was safe to go out,” Todd Vigil, Heard Museum's director of marketing and communications, says of the museum’s decision to open in June. “And we’ve seen our attendance tick up each month.”

When it did reopen, the Heard welcomed visitors back with new sanitizing stations in place, new spaces created to allow for social distancing, limited capacity, a mask requirement and adjusted hours. And, for those who didn’t feel comfortable venturing out, the museum created a Heard at Home page on its website allowing for a virtual experience.

“We created it to make some of our resources available,” Vigil says. “But, at the end of the day, we believe what we do at the museum can’t be completely replicated online.”

To enhance the in-person experience, the Heard used funds received from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to create a mobile app. The app offers paperless versions of resources for visitors, offering them the opportunity to explore supplemental information about the pieces and exhibits they see during their visit.

“It had been on our roadmap for a while,” Vigil says of the app development. “But the fact we needed to suspend our tours, and provide contactless options, it really facilitated the rollout.”

In September, the museum opened Larger Than Memory, its largest contemporary arts exhibition in in history. In the coming months, Vigil says the museum will unveil a new textile exhibit in December and a new Grand Gallery exhibition in February, as it continues to refresh exhibit spaces.

“We’re excited to keep bringing in new things for members and visitors to see,” Vigil says.

For more information, visit heard.org.