Background Report - Arizona Town Hall

Chapter 16
Cultural Institutions Outside the
Metropolitan Mainstream
Arizona possesses many cultural treasures outside of the metropolitan areas of Phoenix
and Tucson. Anyone who has traveled throughout the state has experienced the happy surprise
of discovering such places, which often represent an Arizona that has been erased elsewhere
through the vigorous development that has destroyed many of the tangible reminders
of our rich history. The five essays that comprise this chapter have been written by the
directors of Arizona institutions in Flagstaff, Wickenburg, Bisbee, Dragoon, and Window
Rock. Collectively they map the geography of our large western state. Further, they
convey the challenges of presenting and preserving the arts and culture of Arizona in
more remote locations. They struggle daily with how to sustain their communities, how to
make significant state heritage relevant to new generations, and how to do so in a
challenging economic climate.
Preserving the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Colorado Plateau
Robert Breunig, Executive Director, Museum of Northern Arizona
The Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) in Flagstaff, is an outstanding example of a place
based museum, a regional institution. The museum is devoted to the study and interpretation
of a specific part of the world, in this case the 130,000 square mile Colorado Plateau,
which encompasses northern Arizona, southern Utah, and parts of western Colorado and
New Mexico. The museum was founded in 1928 by citizens of northern Arizona who
were concerned about the growing loss of the natural and cultural history of the region.
Even some of the scientific expeditions of the time created concerns, as archaeological sites
and materials were excavated by scientists from eastern U.S. institutions (such as the
Smithsonian Institution) and were sent back East, never to be seen in Arizona again. The
primary founders of the museum were a remarkable couple from Philadelphia who began
visiting Flagstaff in 1912 and who settled permanently in northern Arizona in 1926.
Dr. Harold Sellers Colton was a scientist, and his wife Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton was an
artist and an art educator. Together, they built an institution devoted to both science and art—
and to their interconnections.
Since its founding, the museum has engaged in three principal activities: research on the
geology, paleontology, archaeology, ethnology, biology and ecology, and art of the Colorado
Plateau; exhibits and educational programs that “tell the story” of the region, and the
building and preservation of collections that document these various disciplines. MNA’s
collections contains more than 560,000 individual items plus bulk collections and
archives, 9,000 sq. ft. of bulk material and archival documents and photographs. The
majority of these collections are now housed in the museum’s new Easton Collection Center,
a 17,000 square foot state of the art Platinum LEED facility completed in 2009 with
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