Milestones: The Hope & John L. Furth Collection

Milestones: The Hope & John L. Furth Collection opens at the Heard Museum on November 20, 2026, in the Kitchell Gallery. It's a massive show—over 260 pieces of Native American art, including pottery, sculpture, textiles, baskets, and beadwork, spanning the 19th century to the present day. The collection comes from Hope and John Furth, who started collecting in 1995 after moving to Carefree, Arizona. Their home near the Boulders Resort was built to fit right into the Sonoran Desert landscape, and as they gathered these pieces, they created a space where art, architecture, and nature lived together. This exhibition brings that collection into the public eye.

The range is wide, with significant works by leading contemporary artists alongside older pieces. A few of the highlights include The Bowl of Gourds (1994), a ceramic piece in black sand by Sǫhahiyǫh/Richard Zane Smith (Wyandot); a 1994 jar by Tammy Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo, b. 1969); and Wedge Weave (2017), a handspun and hand-dyed wool piece by Kevin Aspaas (Diné). Seeing them together gives you a sense of how Native American art has moved and changed over more than a century.

Milestones is the first in a series of exhibitions the Heard is putting on to celebrate major gifts as the museum approaches its centennial year. It's as much about the act of giving as it is about the art itself, and the scale of the Furth gift is a good place to start that conversation. If you're into pottery, textiles, or just the way a private collection comes together over decades, this is one to see.

There's a curator talk on December 1, 2026, led by the Heard's chief curator, Diana Pardue, for anyone who wants to hear the story behind the collection. The exhibition itself opens November 20 in the Kitchell Gallery, with a preview that morning featuring breakfast and coffee in the Pritzlaff Courtyard.