Sedona Heritage Museum Anniversary Open House

Event Details

The Sedona Heritage Museum is hosting a free party so the entire community can participate in a celebration of the 15th anniversary of "Sedona's Own Museum". The theme of the open house and party is "Be a Museum Insider for the Day", and is scheduled for Saturday, October 19 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

This free event is planned to be a day for locals and visitors alike to experience the Museum inside and out. Beginning at 11:00 a.m., Sedona's Mayor Rob Adams and other dignitaries will be on-hand for a brief program. Long-time volunteers who helped open the museum will be recognized, as well current volunteers. A special ending to the program will be the unveiling of a new piece of public art at the Museum.

After the opening program and sculpture unveiling, the day's activities will begin with a demonstration of the 1940s era mechanized apple sorting machine in the Jordan Fruit Packing Shed. These demonstrations will be held at a variety of times throughout the day. Also, all day, Museum volunteers will be offering a variety of behind-the-scenes activities. Members of the public will be able to assist with a small project in the Restoration Workshop or experience the proper way to archivally store clothing and textiles in a safe Museum-like manner.

There will be guided tours inside the Archives and Collections Room itself, along with guided tours of the general Museum. The Museum's digital catalog database system will be running so you can try your hand at a search to view inside the collection of almost 20,000 cataloged items and photos. Docents will be around to answer your questions about most any Museum function, exhibit, program or service. A complete schedule will be posted of special demonstration and tour times.

For kids of 'all ages', volunteers will be leading a "make & take" project in the Kids Korral where you can make an old-fashioned cornhusk doll. A corn husk doll is a Native American toy, a doll made out of the dried leaves or "husk" of a corn cob. Making corn husk dolls was adopted by early European settlers in the U.S. and is now practiced as a link to the arts and crafts of our founders.

Museum Gift Shop will be offering everyone a 15% discount for just the day. The shop specializes in items made by local artists and crafters and books about local history. They also feature a section of old movies made during the heyday of film-making in Sedona.

A special treat will be friends of the Museum who will be firing up their open campfires and baking cowboy biscuits in Dutch ovens over open fires all day. A long-time basic of cowboys and homesteaders, these tender and delicious staples of the trail will be served plain or with a little honey or butter. Nothing like it!

Special guests for the day will be many members of Sedona pioneer families who are expected to be in attendance and will be ‘holding court’ in the historic Fruit Packing Shed. Representatives from the Jordan family, the family that built the buildings where the Museum is housed, will be present, including two of the children who grew up in the house. A large contingent of members of the area's fourth permanent family, the Schuerman and Owenby families, are also planning to attend. This will be your opportunity to meet and greet and ask questions about local history and get answers directly from some of those who lived it.

The new sculpture at the Museum is a gift from the Red Rock Arts Council (RRAC). The RRAC has been in the forefront of Art in Public Places starting with the sculpture of Sedona in front of the Sedona Public Library. Now they have set their sights on a demonstration of history in its most basic form – story telling. The unveiling of 'Josie' at the morning program will add the life size statue of a pioneer girl at the feet of the 'Story Tellin' Cowboy', a life size bronze set in place last year. With the addition of 'Josie', the planned vignette of three statues will be 2/3 complete. All that is left is a pioneer boy to join 'Josie' while they listen to the cowboy communicating Sedona history and heritage.

Just one more way to make this a special day, and as a way for the Museum to say "Thank you" to supporters, a light lunch will be available at noon, for free, until it is gone.