The Southwest Museum in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles was founded in 1907 by one of the smartest, most uninhibited and fun men in Los Angeles in the early Twentieth Century: Charles Lummis. (See more about Lummis, his home and his explorations and adventures in this post.)
For decades the Southwest Museum was home to an ever-growing collection of Native American art that, I’ve been told, was not treated with the care it deserved. Now owned by the Autry Museum of the American West it is open on Saturdays only and only a fraction of the collection remains in the building. The curators at the Autry moved most of the art works to safer conditions.
Entry and parking are free. If you go by Metro Gold Line you will disembark at the remarkable and controversial Southwest Museum Metro Station just one block of the Museum. You can choose to walk up a very steep driveway or go up into the museum via an elevator inside the hill. Access the elevator from Museum Drive.
Back in June I stopped in and here is some of what I saw starting with this contemporary sculpture entitled Kayenta Woman near the entrance.
And outside the museum facing the parking lot is this contemporary iron sculpture.
