Louis \u201cBuzz\u201d Sands made his fortune selling cars around the Valley.<\/p>\n
The art at the multi-million dollar museum expansion he is funding indeed celebrates horsepower \u2013 of horse-drawn carriages and Native Americans riding through Western landscapes in the days long before automobiles took over Scottsdale.<\/p>\n
The Old Town art anchor Western Spirit: Scottsdale\u2019s Museum of the West will unveil a major expansion the week of March 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grand opening of the Louis Sands IV Center marks a transformative new chapter for Western Spirit Museum and a defining moment for Scottsdale as the \u2018The West\u2019s Most Western Town.\u2019 This must-see destination was designed to inspire pride in our community, spark curiosity, and deliver a powerful, immersive cultural experience that really connects with our guests,\u201d said Todd Bankofier, CEO and executive director of Western Spirit Museum.<\/p>\n
In the fall of 2023, Sands made a $12 million donation to fund an expansion adding two new floors and two galleries.<\/p>\n
That was quickly followed by another eyebrow-raising gift: the donation of the Eddie Basha Collection of American Indian and Western American fine art.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A staggering collection put together over four decades by the late Bashas\u2019 leader will be split between the Scottsdale museum and the Heard Museum in Phoenix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Louis Sands IV Center will feature this and three other new exhibitions, which Bankofier calls \u201ca milestone moment for Scottsdale and its community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Louis Sands IV Center is a two-story, 12,000-square-foot addition that expands the museum by a quarter, to 55,000 total square feet.<\/p>\n
Western Spirit Museum will host a weeklong celebration inspired by the theme \u201cUnmistakably West,\u201d displaying Western American and American Indian art, painting, sculpture, jewelry and ceramics.<\/p>\n
On the main gallery level, three interconnected exhibitions present the West through three-dimensional art forms.<\/p>\n
\u201cVisions in Bronze\u201d explores how sculptors have used this enduring medium to shape modern myths of the frontier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The exhibition draws on more than a century of work, from the classical inspirations of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell through contemporary works by American Indian and women artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Earth to the Stars\u201d traces the evolution of American Indian jewelry, revealing how artists transform silver, turquoise, and stone into expressions of identity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The exhibition showcases masterworks by artists such as Preston Monongye, Jesse Monongya, Charles Loloma, Verma Nequatewa (Sonwai) and the Yazzie family.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire of Ages\u201d explores over six centuries of American Indian ceramic traditions, showcasing how Hopi and southwestern potters have shaped clay and fire into vessels of extraordinary beauty and meaning. Major exhibits are from the Allan and Judith Cooke Collection and the Arthur and Linda Pelberg Family Collection, showing the products of fire, clay and vision.<\/p>\n
Basha collection<\/strong><\/p>\n The upper level of the new Sands Center is dedicated to \u201cWorking Pardners: Masterworks from the Eddie Basha Collection.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the inaugural public presentation of what Bankofier calls \u201cone of the most significant collections of Western American and American Indian art assembled.\u201d<\/p>\n At a 2023 event celebrating the huge donation, Nadine Basha said her late husband\u2019s collection is in good hands and that \u201cthese two world-class institutions will be excellent partners in fulfilling Eddie\u2019s wish to continue to share the collection and have it remain in Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n Edward \u201cEddie\u201d Najeeb Basha Jr., who died in 2013, was the chairman and CEO of Bashas\u2019 Inc., Arizona\u2019s only family-owned grocery store company.\u00a0<\/p>\n After taking over Bashas\u2019 when his father died, he and his fellow Bashas\u2019 members expanded the small company to a chain of 160 stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1971, under the encouragement and guidance of his aunt Zelma Basha, Eddie began collecting art inspired by and reflecting the American West.<\/p>\n The museum will show paintings, sculpture, and works on paper that reflect Basha\u2019s lifelong commitment to Western arts and artists.<\/p>\n The sprawling exhibition \u201creflects the depth of Eddie\u2019s partnerships with artists,\u201d said Tammy Fontaine, associate curator. “This exhibition gives visitors a rare opportunity to experience his love for the West, its land, and its people.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom bronzes and paintings to prints and carvings, \u2018Working Pardners\u2019 invites visitors to see the West not as a solitary frontier,\u201d Fontaine stressed, \u201cbut as a shared landscape of labor, kinship, ceremony, and collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n The Basha exhibition features masterworks by the likes of Joe Beeler, David Johns, Larry Yazzie, Gary Niblett, Martin Grelle, Russell Houston, Ernest Berke, Cecil Calnimptewa, Howard Terpning, David Halbach, James Reynolds, Bill Owen, Ken Riley and Roy Anderson.<\/p>\n Rather than cramming Basha\u2019s invaluable collection into the pre-expansion museum space, the new exhibit will have a home of its own.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Louis Sands IV Center allows us to tell the story of the West in a new, more expansive way, placing painting, sculpture, jewelry, and ceramics into conversation across two floors,\u201d said Andrew Patrick Nelson, chief curator.<\/p>\n \u201cThe grand opening of the new expansion will not just be an unveiling, but a meaningful cultural experience,\u201d Nelson promised.\u00a0<\/p>\n Receptions and special events will be held March 24 through March 29, honoring the museum\u2019s expansion and \u201ccelebrating the enduring spirit, artistry, and heritage of the North American West.\u201d<\/p>\n Western Spirit is located at 3830 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale.<\/p>\n