The Palm Springs Desert Museum
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The Palm Springs Desert Museum was founded in 1938, and housed in a small room in La Plaza Arcade on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, California.The museum focused on the desert environment and the native peoples. On the edge of the present-day business district, the arcade was a gathering place for residents. Soon the growing Museum found temporary new quarters in a section of the town's library, then expanded again in 1947 into a section of a converted wartime hospital. The Museum had evolved to reflect the community's growing interest in its natural science and American Indian collections and programs.
A modern 10,000-square-foot structure was built in downtown Palm Springs in 1958, and in 1962 it expanded to include an auditorium and galleries for contemporary art exhibitions. The Museum continued to grow and a 75,000 square-foot building was designed by architect E. Stewart Williams for a site only a few blocks away. Adjacent to downtown Palm Springs, the architecturally innovative Museum complex enjoys a commanding presence at the base of Mt. San Jacinto. Soon the Museum's emphases became threefold: Art, Natural Science and Performing Arts. Educational programs related to each of the three disciplines were planned, and the new Palm Springs Desert Museum opened to the public in January 1976. The Museum expanded again in 1982 with the addition of the Denney Western American Art Wing, and classic western American art was added to the Museum's art emphasis.
Today the permanent collection consists of more than 24,000 objects. 12,000 objects include fine art, photographic archives, Native American art, Mesoamerican art and artifacts from other cultures. The natural science collections are categorized in geology, biology and archaeology. 12,000 specimens include ceramics, lithics, tools, weapons, minerals, fossils, rocks, casts of fossils, herbaria, mounted invertebrates, preserved amphibians and reptiles, study skins and whole mounts of birds and mammals.
The intimate 437-seat Annenberg Theater presents internationally known performers and concert artists in music, dance and theater.
In 1982 the Museum earned national accreditation from the American Association of Museums. After a two-year process of self-evaluation in 1993/94, the Museum was commended as one of the country's extraordinary institutions and received subsequent accreditation until 2005.
The Museum building had originally been designed with the possibility of adding a third level. The need for more exhibition space and educational facilities was recognized by the Board of Trustees, noting increased population and tourism in the Coachella Valley, in addition to the Museum's growing collections. An expansion project was initiated with a gift of $1.5 million seed money and 132 works of art from the personal collection of renowned designer and art collector Steve Chase.
The Steve Chase Art Wing and Education Center, also designed by E. Stewart Williams, opened in November 1996. The expansion included 25,000 additional square feet of art galleries, a mezzanine, a sculpture terrace, four classrooms, two art storage vaults and a 90-seat lecture hall. The entire Museum complex now encompasses 124,435 square feet and is an institution poised to greet the 21st century with exciting new educational opportunities for the region and for its national and international visitors.
The Palm Springs Desert Museum is located at 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs (just west of the Desert Fashion Plaza).
