Southwest Museum Seeks Ways to Break Out of Box

Helpful as those developments may be, the museum needs a presence elsewhere, he says. His predecessors came to the same conclusion, but to no avail. An effort to merge with Los Angeles County's Museum of Natural History in 1987 was squelched by neighborhood groups who didn't want the museum to lose its independence or relocate, and by charges that trustees who sat on both boards had a conflict of interest. A search for a new location during 1992-94 created another outcry about the loss to Mount Washington and ended with promises of city support that have never been fulfilled.

One attempt to increase the museum's visibility was realized, however. The Southwest maintained a satellite exhibition space at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1998 to 2000. "That was a very good experiment for us," King says, noting that favorable reviews of exhibitions there and public access to prime portions of the collection increased awareness of the museum.

Discussions about working with the 13-year-old Autry Museum began long before King took charge of the Southwest Museum six years ago, but he looked into establishing an exhibition space there soon after his arrival. In 1999, when John L. Gray succeeded Joanne Hale as president and chief executive of the Autry, talks evolved into a tentative plan for a strategic alliance.

The draft proposal currently on the table calls for building a new Southwest Museum adjacent to the Autry, converting the existing Southwest Museum into a joint research center and governing the entire operation by a new National Center for the American West. Though the side-by-side museums would maintain separate identities and manage their exhibitions and collections separately, they would be governed by a single board and share security, membership and other behind-the-scenes operations.

Gaining permission to erect a new building on Griffith Park's green space would be difficult if not impossible because of public resistance, as a 1999 attempt to establish a new Children's Museum in the park proved. Even expanding into paved areas would require city approval, Gray says, but he thinks a new facility for the Southwest Museum could be accommodated within the footprint of the existing complex by extending the building over the back parking lot and opening up unused spaces.