Background Report - Arizona Town Hall

The fact that only 30% of the Heard’s visitors are from Arizona means that the Heard needs to
reach out to local audiences to take part in the many entertaining and educational experiences
offered. We have spent the past year analyzing how we can improve our visitor experience
and attract more local visitors to the museum.
The Heard has an important role to play in educating our visitors about the indigenous
populations of our region and of the Americas. There is a great need in Arizona for an
appreciation of cultural diversity and the commonality of the human experience. The Heard
is starting a new advertising campaign as a part of our outreach to Arizona residents
that is based on the theme, “More in Common than You Think.” It is important that cultural
and educational institutions in the valley play a leading role in raising the level of
discourse and understanding.
My hope is to reach more residents so they can enjoy exhibits, performances, festivals,
dining, and shopping at the Heard Museum. The Heard is a world-class museum, but it is
more than a museum. It is a destination.
Advancing Positive Social Change Through the Arts
Gordon Knox, Director, Arizona State University Art Museum
The answer to the “What brought me here?” question is simple: Arizona today offers an
exceptional opportunity for the arts to advance positive social change, and working with the
arts toward those ends is exactly what I do. The position of Director of the Arizona State
University Art Museum was an ideal match.
Art is a verb; it is a way of knowing, a way of telling; it is a conversation. An object in a
museum is not “art” by itself; these objects, paintings, and exhibitions become art only
in relationship with the viewer, when the conversation takes place, when the ideas embedded
in these object are activated by the inquisitive mind of the beholder.
First and foremost, humans are social creatures. Our defining characteristics rest on collective
projects and joint efforts—language, for example, is a massive multi-generational, on-going,
collective project, as are market systems; tribal, national and religious identities; and the great
bodies of scientific and social knowledge we have amassed over millennia.
Our really big and enduring accomplishments are done together. Art is based on this
collectiveness—it is a way of exploring the world and communicating to each other what we
know. An art museum is a gathering place for these explorations and conversations, an
articulation point for the circulation of ideas. A university museum, free and open to all the
public and also linked to the full range of research and understandings underway at a
university, is a powerful conduit for knowledge, a place for the exchange of ideas and
understandings.
We can talk at great length about the problems facing the arts today in Arizona, as they
are legion: reduced budgets locally and statewide, a general perception of the arts
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