Southwest Museum Seeks Ways to Break Out of Box

"The Southwest Museum has a world-class collection, but it does not have a world-class museum," says Duane King, director of the 94-year-old institution in Mount Washington. That has been the case for many years at the venerable but decrepit museum--where 99% of the 350,000 Native American artworks and artifacts are crammed into makeshift storage--but current discussions about joining forces with the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Griffith Park or the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians in Temecula have thrust the Southwest's chronic problems into sharp focus.

What's more, King says, finding a solution to the museum's physical and financial shortcomings--with or without a partner--is a matter of increasing urgency. Even if the museum allies itself with the relatively wealthy Autry Museum or the Pechangas, who operate a lucrative casino on their reservation, money must be raised. "We need to make a decision sooner rather than later," he says, because neither private benefactors nor philanthropic organizations can be expected to support a museum that hasn't charted its course.

To that end, the museum's board of trustees will meet on Tuesday to formulate policies and procedures regarding possible alliances. The biggest issue on the table, however, is whether the museum can finally find a way to realize its potential.

Founded in 1907, the museum has occupied its landmark Mission Revival-style building in Mount Washington since 1914. Despite its charm, the facility is woefully antiquated. Exhibition space and parking are limited, rare textiles are rolled up in a former gallery, and pottery and baskets are stored without air-conditioning in a tower and in subterranean hideaways.

"For the past five years, the museum has operated in the black," says King, who took charge in 1995. "But operating in the black and operating at an optimum level are two different things. To do justice to the collection and to the mission of the museum, we have to make the museum more accessible to the public."

That means expanding, both on and off the historic site, he says. At Mount Washington, construction is expected to begin later this year on the Norman F. Sprague Cultural Resources Center, a $3-million open-storage facility named in honor of the longtime trustee whose family has supported the museum since its inception. The new building--designed to house many of the most vulnerable objects in the collection--will be finished before July 2003, when the Southwest Museum stop of the Blue Line light-rail system is scheduled to open, King says.