PHOENIX, ARIZ, - For more than 70 years, the Heard Museum has been a landmark in Phoenix, a place where visitors from across the globe come to learn about the region's Native cultures and art. With its latest expansion, the Heard Museum encompasses 130,000 square feet of galleries, classrooms and performance spaces. That's more than eight times the size of the original structure, built in 1929 to house collections of two Phoenix residents, Dwight and Maie Heard.

Dwight Bancroft Heard moved to Chicago from Wayland, Mass., shortly after high school. He began working at Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett and Company, one of the biggest wholesale hardware companies in the country and the precursor of True-Value Hardware Stores. While there, Dwight Heard was a protege of Adolphus Bartlett and subsequently met his daughter, Maie Bartlett. In 1893, Dwight Heard and Maie Bartlett were married. Just one year later, the couple headed for warmer, dryer climates on a doctor's advice after Dwight was diagnosed with lung ailments. After traveling throughout the Southwest, the young couple settled in Phoenix in 1895 and decided to make it their home.

Once settled in Phoenix, the young couple began what would be a lifelong dedication to the betterment of their new community. Dwight Heard was one of the largest landowners in the Salt River Valley, and his Bartlett-Heard Land and Cattle Company south of Phoenix raised prize cattle, alfalfa, citrus trees and cotton. As the president of the Arizona Cotton Growers' Association, he is credited with helping to make the Arizona cotton growers industry competitive internationally. His other business interests included real estate development, investment lending and newspaper publishing.

Maie Heard also became actively involved in her new community, founding or supporting a number of civic endeavors. Maie Heard and other Bartlett family members donated land for the city's first civic center, where the original Phoenix Art Museum and Phoenix Library were built, and where the recently expanded Phoenix Art Museum stand today.

The Heards built a 6,000-square-foot house called "Casa Blanca" in what was then north Phoenix. The home featured Spanish-style architecture and was built around an open courtyard. The couple planted hundreds of palm trees along four miles of roads in Los Olivos, the neighborhood surrounding their home which was developed by Dwight Heard, and the couple are credited with introducing the stately trees to Phoenix.

Casa Blanca was a major gathering place, where the Heards hosted a variety of family and friends over the years including Marshall Field; Charles L.Hutchinson, founder of the Art Institute of Chicago; Herbert Hoover; Harvey S. Firestone; Theodore Roosevelt and others.

While learning about their new community, the Heards developed a keen interest in Native American artifacts and art, and they began to acquire pieces that they exhibited in their home. Over the years, the Heards built their collection through travel and contacts with trading posts as well as with Indian arts dealers such as the Fred Harvey Company.

Much of the archaeological material in the Heard's collection came from La Ciudad, a Hohakam Indian ruin they purchased in 1926. The Heard often shared the site with the public through a series of afternoon viewings, and Mr Heard was a frequent lecturer.

Through the years, it became evident that a space larger than their home should be dedicated to the collection and, on the suggestion of the daughter-in-law, Winifred, the Heards decided to build a museum.

The Heard Museum opened quietly in June 1929, several months after Mr Heard died of a heart attack. There was little fanfare, and the museum didn't even have a sign in its early days, although the Arizona Republican newspaper noted its incorporation with headlines in June and its official opening in the fall of that year. Visitors often rang a doorbell connected to the Heard's nearby home, Casa Blanca, so that Mrs Heard could show them the museum.

Maie Heard acted as museum director, curator, maintenance man, lecturer and guide at the Heard Museum for more than 20 years, quietly teaching visitors about the Native cultures that were so dear to her heart. Local luminaries such as department store owner Barry Goldwater frequently lectured and showed his films and photographs.

In the 1950's, the Heard Museum underwent significant growth. Upon Maie Heard's death in 1951, a board of trustees was established to ensure the museum's continuation, and several staff members were hired. In 1956, the Heard Museum Auxiliary was established to assist with educational programs. Today, the Heard Museum Guild numbers nearly 700.

The Heard Museum experienced a significant expansion in 1983, when it nearly doubled in size to its current 78,000 square feet. The expansion added the museum's award-winning "Native Peoples of the Southwest," exhibit gallery along with a new wing for administrative offices, a larger auditorium, a significantly larger museum shop and the Dr Dean Nichols Sculpture Court.

In 1997, the Heard Museum broke ground for its current expansion, which adds 50,000 square feet to the internationally acclaimed center for Native culture and art. Included are several new structures - an expanded library and archives, new administrative space, new collections storage facilities and new exhibit preparation areas.

The $18.1 million expansion also adds three new exhibit galleries, bringing to ten the number of galleries at the Heard. The Heard Museum's long-term exhibit "Native Peoples of the Southwest" lets visitors explore the history of the Southwest and learn about Native Americans of today. The Crossroads Gallery and Gallery of Indian Art feature contemporary artwork, and the museum's other galleries change regularly.

The new gallery contains "More Than Art," an introduction to key themes that developed throughout the museum's other exhibitions. The Crossroads Gallery, featuring a soaring two-story ceiling with skylights, showcases important fine art from the Heard Museum's collection, most of which has never been displayed because of its size.

The Lovena Ohl Exhibit Gallery features changing exhibits and highlights pieces by artists working in the artist studio. Currently, it features "Patrons and Partners: Recent Acquisitions of the Heard Museum."

Also on view are "Cradles, Corn and Lizard" as well as "Old Ways, New Ways" and "Horse". The first explores the cultures, landscapes and wildlife of Arizona.

In "Old Ways, New Ways," visitors can experience first-hand the way Native Americans used to live - and how they live today. The exhibit continues through May 1999.

"Horse," which runs through January 2000, examines the influences the horse has had on indigenous cultures in North America. It also explores the deep meanings horses hold for Native Americans in four regions of the United States: the Northern Plains, the Plateau, the Southern Plains and the Southwest.

"Blue Gem, White Metal: Carvings and Jewelry from the C.G. Wallace Collection," features pieces from the Heard's often-studied C.G. Wallace Collection of Zuni and Navajo jewelry, which is considered the largest, most well-documented collection of Zuni jewelry from the early to mid-1900's. The exhibition runs through September 19, 1999, and features pieces collected by C.G. Wallace, a trader at Zuni Pueblo in the early to mid-1900's. He encouraged artists to experiment, resulting in a melding of traditional styles and motifs with contemporary techniques. Over the years, Wallace established a private collection of 2,500 pieces of exquisite Zuni Jewelry, 525 of which he donated to the Heard Museum in 1975.

"Native Peoples of the Southwest" is filled with thousands of objects including baskets, jewelry, pottery and textiles. Visitors can journey through various regions of the Southwest and experience life as it was centuries ago as well as how many Native Americans throughout the Southwest live today. The exhibit includes and extensive Katsina Doll Gallery, which showcases the collections of Senator Barry M. Goldwater and the Fred Harvey company.

The Sandra Day O'Connor Gallery is named after Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was president of the museum's board of trustees before she went to Washington, D.C.

Today, the gallery displays a look at the history the museum and the collection of more than 32,000 objects that has attracted visitors from around the globe with the exhibition "History and Collections of the Heard Museum."

In Heard's Gallery of Indian Art is "Art in 2 Worlds: The Native American Fine Art Invitational 1983-1997," celebrating the creativity and innovation of Native American artists. It continues through October 1999, with contemporary work by artist featured in the Heard Museum's seven Invitational fine art exhibits.

The Heard Museum North, a satellite location at the Boulders Resort's el Pedregal Festival Marketplace in north Scottsdale, is featuring "Cloud Messengers: Hope Katsina Dolls." The exhibit features more than 200 katsina dolls ranging from contemporary carvings to pieces made in the late 1800's. Many katsina dolls in the Heard Museum's 1,200-plus collection were donated by Senator Barry M Goldwater and the Fred Harvey Company. The exhibit also features a selection of the late Senator's photographs that capture the beauty of Northern Arizona.

The Heard Museum is at 22 East Monte Vista Road, telephone 602/252-8840.