The Heard Museum in Midtown Phoenix exhibits the art and history of the Southwest.  Its rooms are filled with over 39,000 works of cultural and fine art and is a reservoir of the Native peoples. 

While the collection is beautiful and often spectacular for those who don't particularly like southwest art its still worth visiting the museum for the architecture, the positive feeling you will get by walking the garden spaces, enjoying the sculptures and listening to the flowing water. 

(Arcadia Farms Cafe in the Heard Museum)

It's this good feeling that the walls, the trees and light give off, that attracts me to the museum despite my reservations about southwest art.  Had Joanna not stopped to rest on the green grass in front of the building after a long bike riding trip through downtown Phoenix, many more years might have passe before I went to the museum.

(Minimalist Garden at the back of the Museum)

One favourite space is the simple yet amazingly beautiful garden at the back of the museum which you can see in the photo above; the smooth walls, groomed gravel ground and somewhat wild growing flowers spilling and spreading over the ground are a study in the supremacy of simplicity.  I can imagine spending hours in such a garden.

Then there is the beautifully renovated Arcadia Farms Cafe and sitting area outside covered by the shade of the desert trees. 

The Heard Museum is simply well crafted.