Thanks to a $150,000 grant from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust’s ART Fund, the Heard Museum will see a couple of exciting new additions in 2011. The project will relocate and expand the museum’s bookstore, currently located in the Heard Museum Phoenix Shop, and add a coffee bar and cantina to provide quick-service offerings as well as a relaxing environment in the museum’s beautiful arched entry courtyard. Both additions augment the existing Heard Museum Café and Heard Museum Shop and free up those spaces to focus on full-service dining and an expanded inventory of artwork, respectively.
The ART Fund grant will also enable the Heard Museum to create space for artists to demonstrate on site. This will provide the public with an opportunity to witness artists as they create while elevating the exposure of local artists.
The expansion utilizes currently non-public space on the east side of the central courtyard and will create new opportunities for native artists, enhance the museum experience for visitors and improve its economic viability. The boutique bookstore will house one of the United States’ finest collections of books pertaining to native art, culture, history and literature written by and about American Indians. The coffee bar and cantina will offer museum patrons and nearby local residents and workers a relaxing venue for lunch, snacks and coffee, with many of the items coming from tribal communities or with native influences.
Both projects are scheduled to open in early 2011.
