This month we celebrate museums with our annual Western Museum Directory. We really pulled out all the stops and tried to include everything we could get our hands on, and trust me, the cuts we made were difficult and painful. There are just so many great shows. Too many to fit in the issue. Some of the exhibitions we had to cut are going to end up in later issues, but even those issues are going to be full of great museum content. This may sound like I’m complaining, but what an amazing problem to have!
One of the exciting elements of our museum coverage—in every issue, not just this one—is the diversity of museums we feature. Of course, some of these venues are the great Western art destinations that most people know about. I’m referring to the Booth, the Briscoe, the Cowboy, the Russell and others. (They have longer names, but most Western fans likely know the shorthand here.) These are great places to go at any time of the year to see important Western art.
But then there are other museums that are outside the normal Western channels that are also presenting exciting Western-themed exhibitions and events. In the past we’ve covered shows at The Met, Peabody Essex Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and others. These museums are known for their diverse array of materials—not necessarily cowboys and cattle. Stories from the West are uniquely American stories, so it’s exciting to see other museums embrace an important part of history when it comes to their programming. And think about it: an American art museum misses out and deprives its patrons of relevant context about the American experience when it excludes stories from the West. This is my rally cry to museum curators on the fence about Western art: join us!
As always, if you find a museum you love, support it. Museums are some of the most sacred places we have, but they don’t exist without our support.
Michael Clawson
Executive Editor
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