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Art in the West is an annual juried fine art exhibition and online silent auction featuring art that celebrates the landscapes, wildlife, people, cultures and history of the High Desert—a region that stretches from the eastern slope of the Cascades and Sierras to the Wyoming Basin and Colorado Plateau. Featuring nearly 120 pieces from 80-plus nationally and regionally acclaimed artists, the entire collection is on exhibit at the High Desert Museum and the 2025 Gallery Guide is available to view online! 

The Kids Curate exhibition opens at the High Desert Museum on May 3! This year third and fourth graders from La Pine Elementary focused on the diverse perspectives of fire — from an agricultural tool to community threat to natural process. Come enjoy the students’ charcoal and acrylic paint artworks based on what they learned over months of special in-class visits as well as field trips to the Museum.

Patterns at Play: Fractals in Nature is an original exhibition that invites you to take a closer look at the universe’s curious practice of self-organization. An immersive, family-friendly experience, the exhibit encourages you to build your own patterns while an animation creates new fractals right before your eyes. Visitors should expect to play, touch, listen and watch in this whimsical exploration of nature.

At the dawn of the 20th century, the Indigenous peoples of North America regularly faced narratives that they would soon disappear, be it from artists, academics or politicians. Yet Japanese immigrant and photographer Frank Sakae Matsura (1873-1913) approached his artistry differently. He arrived in the U.S. in 1901 and made Okanogan County, a rural expanse of High Desert in northern Washington state, his home. There, he grew strong relationships with the area’s tribal communities. The resulting body of work includes some of the most visually powerful and nuanced images of Indigenous people from the era.

Featuring nearly two dozen works from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, this exhibition highlights sculptural and two-dimensional works by one of the Northwest’s most celebrated artists, Rick Bartow (Mad River Band of the Wiyot Tribe,1948-2016)

Leave your pop-culture notions behind as you learn about the past, present and future of Sasquatch through the work of five Native artists. See their representations, stories and artwork about this “non-human other” and learn how they vary between tribes across regions in this High Desert Museum original exhibition.

Creations of Spirit is a one-of-a-kind, celebratory experience featuring the stories of living works of art from seven Indigenous artists. Videos, audio and large projections will immerse visitors in the landscapes and communities in which these objects are used, highlighting the theme of artwork as alive, full of stories and created for specific purposes and people.

Walk through the vibrant world of artist Justin Favela! In his original High Desert Museum exhibit Vistas del Cielo, he celebrates the history of Latinx vaqueros—his own family history—through bright piñata materials and large-scale installations. He offers an immersive experience that is joyful for the entire family.