Phoenix Art Museum

• Hours: Open Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday and major holidays, open late on Tuesdays and the first Friday of the month
• Reservations: Not required
• Cost: Entrance fee
• Location: Corner of McDowell and Central, driving directions below
• How Long: Allow one to two hours
• Best Time to Visit: Any time

Phoenix Art Museum is one of the largest general visual arts institutions in the Southwest. Its collections include over 17,000 objects.

Phoenix Art Museum Review

The Phoenix Art Museum collection includes the standard smattering of early American, European and other artworks. It's fairly new by art museum standards, founded in 1959, and these works include few recognizable names. Their collections of newer works are more noteworthy, including:

• Western American Art: Featuring paintings of the early West and its sights

• Art of Philip C. Curtis: A nice collection of the works of an important regional artist

• Thorne Miniature Rooms: The Phoenix Art Museum owns 21 of these creations, out of about 100 made in the 1930s by Narcissa Niblack Thorne as an outlet for her extensive collection of miniatures, and as an alternative to costly full-room musuem installations. Only the Chicago Insitute of Art has more of these exquisite, highly-detailed miniature rooms.

• Asian Art: Besides the standard textiles and silk-screen prints, this gallery includes some very interesting contemporary works.

Daily, one-hour, docent-led tours of the Phoenix Art Museum are free with general admission. If you'd rather go on your own, a random-access audioguide is included with your general admission. Special guides are also available outside many of the gallery rooms. Entitled "How to Look At...", they provide good insights into the style you're looking at.

The Phoenix Art Museum works hard to be child-friendly. The free audio guides include stops just for kids, and they offer a Kids Pack at the entrance. You'll need to keep an eye on little hands, though (and big ones, too). It's easy to get a close-up look at things at the Phoenix Art Museum, with no barriers, but this means that some works hang low and are all-too-easy to touch.

Packages, umbrellas, and bags larger than 11 by 15 inches are not allowed in the galleries. Leave them in the car or use the free lockers available in the lobby

Getting to the Phoenix Art Museum

Phoenix Art Museum
1625 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ
602-257-1222
Phoenix Art Museum Website

The Phoenix Art Museum is at the corner of McDowell Road and Central Avenue, next to the Phoenix Theater.

From I-10, take the 7th Avenue exit (exit 144) towards Central Business/ Cultural District and get onto North 7th Avenue going north (away from downtown). The Phoenix Art Museum will be on your right, just past McDowell Road.

From I-17, take the McDowell Road exit. go east on McDowell Road and left onto North Alvarado Street, which runs behind the Phoenix Art Museum.

If you park in the lot across Coronado Road, walk through the Phoenix Theater breezeway to get to the entrance.