Friendly, helpful docents greet you when you arrive and make sure your visit is pleasant. This is a great museum. We took a tour of the highlights of the collection, which took about an hour. This allowed us plenty of time to go back to each collection and really enjoy the offerings. We spent about 4 hours at the museum, which included a light lunch in the museum cafe (which I would recommend). The exhibit on the boarding schools that native americans were sent to was eye-opening to me as I had never heard of these institutions. The permanent exhibit was incredible and really helped to give insight into the history and heritage of the ancestral puebloans. The gift shop is a bit overpriced, but does have some spectacular offerings.

With interactive, hands on exhibits on Southwestern culture and the arts, you must visit The Heard Museum for at least and hour or two. My family just got back from Scottsdale and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I would rank this museum up there with Chicago's Field Museum and Museum of Natural History. Highly recommend!

After all the glowing reviews, here we were disappointed in the Heard. Perhaps we have been spoiled by the Washington DC Smithsonian's Indian museum which handles huge crowds with aplomb in its Native American cuisine cafeteria. The tiny Arcadia Gardens cafe had over an hour wait when we went in February and they were not serving outside. Luckily the museum staff took pity on us and several parties (including some with impatient children who were hungry and did not want to wait an hour _ and yes I identified with them) and sent us all across the street and down a few blocks to a nearby IHOPs where we ate and still got back to see the museum while the waiting line was still waiting.
The boarding school exhibit on the upper floor was a mixed media that was very moving and quite ironic in that it dealt with trying to wipe out Indian culture and replace it with "american" which seems to be what has happened in the culinary aspect of Heard.

What a fun and fabulous museum. There's so much to see and do. We spent several hours here the first time (OK, about 5!) and have been back a couple times since for special events and the Indian market. The exhibits change a lot, so there's always something new to see. Plus the shopping is so terrific. There's so much to see with stuff in all price rances. My little one loves this place, the kids galleries are cool with lots of stuff to do. We also love the cafe, in a beautiful courtyard with shade, a fountain and the gorgeous Phoenix weather. Some people worry about parking downtown, but we've never had a problem here. Even the big events are fine bc there's lots on central, you just have to walk a little.