5 Best Sights in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe, Arizona

Pioneer settlers Dwight and Maie Heard built a Spanish colonial–style building on their property to house their collection of Southwestern art. Today the staggering collection includes such exhibits as a Navajo hogan dwelling and rooms filled with art, pottery, jewelry, kachinas, and textiles. The Heard also actively supports contemporary Native American artists and displays their work. Annual events include the World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in February and the Indian Fair & Market in March. Children enjoy the interactive art-making exhibits. The museum also has an incredible gift shop with authentic, high-quality goods purchased directly from Native American artists.

This museum is in the gray-purple stucco Nelson Fine Arts Center, just north of Gammage Auditorium on the Arizona State campus. For a relatively small museum, it has an extensive collection, including 19th- and 20th-century paintings and sculptures by masters such as Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Diego Rivera. Works by faculty and student artists are also on display, and there's a gift shop.

One of the best collections of Western art in the nation includes paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, and others. The museum has an extensive historic photography collection, and is leading an oral history project to capture the stories of the area's longtime residents.

This museum is one of the most visually appealing pieces of architecture in the Southwest. Basking in natural light, the museum makes great use of its modern, open space by tastefully fitting more than 17,000 works of art from around the world—including sculptures by Frederic Remington and paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Moran, and Maxfield Parrish—within its soaring concrete walls. The museum hosts more than 20 significant exhibitions annually and has one of the most acclaimed fashion collections in the country.

SMoCA, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is often referred to as a "museum without walls." There's a good museum store here for unusual jewelry and stationery, posters, and art books. New installations are planned every few months, with an emphasis on contemporary art, architecture, and design.