Southwest Museum Reopening a 'Good Start'

The --closed for public displays since 2009--opened its doors on Saturday afternoon to a community eager to see what's been happening inside the historic building.

As of 1 p.m., approximately 100 visitors made had made their way through the museum's lobby and adjacent gardens, taking in a display of 80 items, ranging from arrowheads, to clay bowls to figurines.

See the gallery above for photos from Saturday's exhibition.

"It's a good start," said Nicole Possert, of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, one of the the leading groups advocating for the reopening century-old museum.

In 2002, the Southwest Museum merged with the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Griffith Park, forming the Autry National Center. Since the merger, many Northeast Los Angeles residents have criticized the Autry for prioritizing their Griffith Park campus over the Southwest Museum and, along with local government officials like Councilmen José Huizar (CD14) and Ed Reyes (CD1), have attempted to pressure them to reopen the entire museum to the public for exhibitions.

The museum has been closed since 2009 as the Autry has embarked on a multi-million dollar effort to conserve the Southwest Museum's more than 250,000 item collection.

Possert said she hoped that, with the museum's lobby opened for even a limited time, a greater portion of the community would get a sense of the significance of the museum and the artifacts held within.

"The hope is that people who've never been here, or haven't been here in many years, get a sense of the flavor of the museum's collection."

As of Saturday, only the museum's lobby and gardens were open to the public, as the primary exhibition rooms were being used for ongoing conservation work. Autry Vice President Luke Swetland said additional exhibitions could be coming soon. 

Swetland said the Autry planned to move items housed inside Sprague Hall to off-site storage in Burbank by the end of the year, making room for the reopening of the 400 Years of Pueblo Poetry exhibition.

Behind the scenes tours will also commence on a quarterly basis in June.

The entire conservation effort is not expected to be completed until the end of 2013, Swetland said.

Swetland said he hoped that by giving community members a view of the conservation work being done by the Autry, they would be more appreciative of their stewardship of the museum.

"I can't speak for some of the people who've been more critical, but I hope at some point they would come to see how much work we've put into preserving the collection," Swetland said.

Jerry Schneider of the , were among those left wanting more.

"It's a good start, but it's not enough," Schneider said. "People who come to Los Angeles from around the world don't have a sense of what kind of cultural history we have here. We've got to find a way to open up the whole museum so it can be a destination for not just school children, but the community at large."

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