The Phoenix Art Museum is a gem located in downtown Phoenix, offering beautiful exhibits, films,…read moreperformances, workshops, lectures/talks, and more! It has its own parking lot, shared with the Phoenix Theatre Company, so parking can be difficult especially when there are shows going on. The normal admission prices are as follows: Museum Members | Free Children (5 and younger) | Free Adults | $23 Seniors (65+) | $20 Students (with ID) | $18 Youth (6-17) | $13 They also graciously offer free/reduced admission on - Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays from 3-8pm - First Fridays 5-8pm which includes access to in-gallery sketching, live music with resident DJ J-ME LEE, unique books and resources at the library pop-up, delicious food and drinks from local vendors, and docent-led art tours - Family Fundays 2x yearly for all-ages, free-access day with arts-engagement programming suitable for visitors of all ages, interests, and abilities Note that general admission is free, but special exhibitions require a ticket (pricing may vary) They also offer $5 off tickets for Phoenix Theater ticket holders, $3 for AAA members, and discounted admission for military personnel/veterans. When I visited, The James K. Ballinger Wing (Art of the Americas + Europe galleries) was temporarily closed for necessary infrastructure updates, but it is scheduled to reopen this Fall. Otherwise I got to see the: Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller: The Instrument of Troubled Dreams Colorwear: A Kaleidoscope of Fashion Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection Flowers of the Punjab Carlos Amorales: Black Cloud The Collection: 1960 - Now Fireflies Infinity Mirror Room ... and more!! Super fun visit for any casual or serious art enthusiasts. Expect to spend hours here exploring!

My sister and I stopped by the Phoenix Art Museum on Friday for their August First Friday event. We…read moredidn't really know what to expect of the event, as we had not attended one before. We went in assuming it would be a toasty and crowded outdoor event, but instead, we encountered a calm, organized, indoor event. We waited in a brief line for the aura photography station. Because we arrived later in the event's timeframe, we weren't able to do much else, but the aura photography was incredible. We really enjoyed what we saw of the museum and the museum's associated store...why are museum stores always the best!? We look forward to returning to the museum and plan on attending future First Fridays as much as possible!

Was in the area from out of town and I wanted to see this beautiful house in person. I wasn't able…read moreto go inside but the outside is so pretty Love all the details. It's truly breathtaking

I grew up in an old victorian house and thought it would be fun to bring my dad here for a tour…read morewhen he was in town visiting. We ended up being the only ones on the tour which was nice. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny. The entire house has been restored to represent how the original owners would have it set up as closely as possible. The inside details are gorgeous and intricate. Our tour ended up being more like 45 minutes because it was just us and we didn't ask questions. It was a great way to spend a little bit of time before our next activity.

After discovering the Heard Museum in the book "1000 Places to go Before You Die", we put it on the…read morelist of ''must sees' for a recent trip to Phoenix. TAKE THE LIGHT RAIL We took the light rail to the museum from our downtown hotel. There's a stop just down the road. GET A DISCOUNT The adult entry fee was $26 and we used our AAA membership for an exciting $1 off. I feel by the time you're paying $50+ for a couple, the cost is getting off-putting. LOCKERS AVAILABLE We used their complimentary storage lockers for our carry-on luggage as we were on our way to the airport afterwards. You also have to stow water bottles in the lockers. There are a couple of water fountains around the museum in case you get parched. ALLOW HALF A DAY The museum is a quality museum with a lot to see and read, but you really have to be into southwest stuff to really appreciate it in my opinion. After a few hours we were getting slightly overwhelmed, glassy-eyed and tired/bored with aching backs. (To be fair, it was our fourth museum in 3 days, so we were a little burned out!) STAY FOR LUNCH We really enjoyed an excellent lunch at the cafe in the courtyard and highly recommend it. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP(S) There's a high-end store where you can purchase expensive rugs, jewelry, sculptures, etc. and there's also the 'Mugs and T-shirts' souvenir store and a small coffee shop. RIDE SHARE DROP OFF AND PICK UP The ride share pick-up and drop off is around the back at one end of the parking lot. Helpful?

My husband and I really enjoyed this museum! We spent about 4 hours here (with a break at the cafe)…read moreand did not see everything. We are planning to return soon to finish the areas we didn't have time to see. There is a ton of information on Native American culture and history. There are also a lot of videos scattered throughout to learn even more. My favorite gallery was the Majestic Figures section. The figurines are extremely intricate utilizing various materials. Food options here are better than most museums. I really enjoyed the sit down restaurant with a full menu in the courtyard area. It's different than most museums who have a small cafe with limited options or none at all. If you live in Phoenix or are visiting this is a must see!

This was a great find on the Pinball Map (they have four pinball machines inside and on free play…read morewith admission). This is a unique car museum in the Phoenix area. Definitely worth the price of admission and they have complimentary cold water. The volunteers are awesome and very informative. Felix worked on the day I was there (Wednesday) and he pretty much gave me a private tour. Come check it out. I am sure people in Phoenix don't go here. I know my friends didn't know about it.

Loved going here. I took my 2 year old nephew, at first he was a bit scared to get in cars but once…read morehe did he wanted to get in all of them and "drive" he also loved the game room. We will be back and spend more time here his next visit! So much fun and staff was very inviting! Loved that water was included with our ticket

A free museum with neat exhibits, perfect to cool down in AC on a hot Arizona day... and learn…read moresomething along the way! The museum rotates through 6-8 exhibits a year, mixing local Chandler history with traveling exhibits on art, history and culture. Right now (August 2026) you can learn about Eddie Basha (a genuinely fascinating individual whose story runs way deeper than the grocery stores bearing his name), take a spin through Arizona radio history in Radio That Rocked the Valley, and stare into the ever-changing face of Abraham Lincoln. All three exhibits are actually really good!

Small site, great ode to the late Mr. Eddie Basha…read more What a phenomenal person he was - his accomplishments and CONTRIBUTIONS to and love of the Navajo Nation will live on in Chandler's history forever.

While visiting Scottsdale we stumbled upon this musical instrument museum and it was an amazing…read moreexperience. They show case various musical instruments from all over the world. Feels like from every country. We did a good 2 hours here unguided and we barely scratched the surface. There was so many to see and hear. This place cost $20 admission for adults and you get to use a headset that will play music when you get close to the tv screen. It was nice to hear various instruments around the world. The staff here are really nice and friendly. There's a cafe on site so you can get beverages and meals to enjoy. Mathis museum has 2 levels and on the bottoms level there's a room where you can play various instruments. I finally got to play the gong and the harp!!! What a dream it has been for me and I finally got to play it. There's also an electronic self playing self built organ that they named Appollonia and there were 2 songs that were played at 12 noon. What a treat. There's even a museum store that you can take trinkets home. Overall a great and educational time here at the MIM. Highly recommend for people that visit Arizona to see this one out!

When I walked through this museum I thought about the words of the Artemis II astronauts as they…read moreviewed the earth from the furthest vantage point ever. I recalled the stories they shared of noticing how small we are in comparison to the universe. I had expected to see exhibits of flutes and horns, pianos and stringed instruments - all manner of drums. But I hadn't expected the global context, nor the gift of automatically hearing those instruments played, sung with, danced by their people. It made me feel small, insignificant, but not in bad way. All of this beautiful music is going on around the world uplifting souls, bringing joy, initiating. I thought of the photos the astronauts took of the earth and I love imagining it in the context of the atmospheric music I experienced, world without end. Given this context, how sad it was to head to the gift shop for a sweet souvenir of my experience - and to be followed by a poorly raised, uncivilized employee. How else to explain having a space above her that celebrates and unifies the whole world and yer to operate with so little love, care and basic respect for humanity. Maybe she wanted me to feel insignificant, as her parents or neighborhood had taught her. Our mismatched melanin appeared to have her give herself mental license to not only pretend to straighten socks, but move her body close enough to mine to emit an empty, useless alarm. All while smiling smugly and offering no customer service. I had been thinking of getting these guitar measuring spoons but I put them down. Because her goal was loss prevention she lost a sale. I went home and found them on Poshmark for half the price.

What a surprise -- this place was absolutely amazing! We honestly didn't know exactly what to…read moreexpect, and it ended up being such a fun and memorable experience. Every room and installation was completely different, creative, interactive, and made you stop and look at things in a new way. Liam and I both loved exploring everything and finding our own favorites. Definitely one of those places that is much more impressive in person than you expect from the photos. Such a unique experience -- we will absolutely be back!

A nice unique thing to do in Scottsdale when you want to cool off from the oven-like conditions…read moreoutside but still want to wander around on your feet. Wonderspaces is basically a poor-man's TeamLabs. Large scale immersive and sometimes interactive artpieces arranged in a minimal modernist setting. When I first looked to go here it looked like it was only operating 5 days a week but to my surprise and delight they were open on the Monday that I was in town, so naturally I grabbed myself a ticket for a mental diversion from my workcation otherwise holed up in my hotel. When you check-in, a nice old man explains all the exhibits and points out a few highlights, one of which is a piece where you have to sit still for 20 minutes and let "3 robuts" draw you - cuz when else do you get drawn by a robot? (Well, in the age of AI, is it all that different?) Thankfully it wasn't too crowded when I went otherwise it could get quite backlogged waiting to sit for a digital caricaturist! This was probably the most tedious of the works, so I'll start here, as I had to get the host's attention and he came over and did some set up with the robot arms and the nearby tablet's app. He made small talk with me so as to keep my gaze steady as the robots with their webcams and drawing arms started their work. After a few minutes he left me alone but insisted I stay seated still until all the robots were done. One of the robots worked on me for an extra 8 minutes, so this felt more like a dental appointment than a fun electronic experiment. Another work was very reminiscent of teamlabs with dangling strings of LED lights They made such a big deal of each light having its own IP address, which was an implementation detail that really should not have needed oversharing. The work spoke for itself and the lights synchronized to the music immersively. Another fun one was large dots flipping in such a way that you could tell was capturing your motion and playing it back. And some 3D models spun at high speed with flickering lights to make it look like they were pulsing. Then there was the uninteresting video about a boy growing up awkwardly. Didn't seem to fit the theme of the exhibit. The last large scale piece were large plastic takeout bags almost recalling the nihilism from American Beauty and the futility of consumerism - which I think is the underlying principle that got me to spend money in this museum in the first place. A big crowd pleaser which was a large suspended tapestry was out of commission - you could see it but it was lowered for maintenance, so I missed out on that. Anyway, was it a good diversion? I'm satisfied.

Looking for an inexpensive way to kill time, we stumbled upon the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary…read moreArt! There is a free parking garage located behind the museum, shared with nearby businesses. Admission is as follows: Non-members: $16 Students, seniors (65+), veterans, active duty-military, and educators: $13. ID required. Not on their website but healthcare workers are also given this $3 discount! Thanks! I showed up in scrubs after work and qualified lol. * Squidsoup * Infinite * Mark + Making Visions '26 Open Spaces: Fiber Arts Addressing the Landscape Knight Rise by James Turrell ... and more! Small but quaint museum with enthralling exhibits. Definitely worth checking out if you're ever in the area and even remotely into art!

This is a small, contemporary art museum. There are 5 galleries, which are well marked and very…read moreinteresting. The museum is very clean and modern. Parking is FREE, in adjacent covered parking structure Bathroom is in Performing Arts Building, which is right next door to museum Admission is $3.00 less ($13) is bought ahead of time Docent George was a real standout- What a nice guy! He was extremely knowledgeable about the exhibits There is a small gift store area as well as a outdoor exhibit All exhibits were contemporary art Overall, this is a fabulous museum to visit. It takes a couple of hours to see everything

Went to see James Hood's "Astronomica" at the Dome - what an experience!…read more We had VIP tickets and sat in the reclining chairs, the whole dome ceiling covered in twinkling stars before the actual show itself. The music was performed by an orchestra, I believe it was the Hungary Philharmonic in the credits, and the narration was about how we are all part of the Universe, stardust over millennia becoming bodies. This is a visual performance without astronomy as a lesson; the graphics are fantastic and all around you as you lie back - just like gazing at the sky at night. I couldn't help smiling during the entire hour! The seats were great, I'm so glad we sat in the recliners and not upright for the display. Parking - we found out later - is at the Heritage building and they will validate your ticket; we parked in the other garage and it wasn't cheap due to the game nearby. It is wheelchair accessible, but in the Ladies restroom there was only one stall for disabled. In the atrium there's a gift shop as in all museums, and a cafeteria still open when we left the Dome. The ongoing Julia Child exhibit was right near the Astronomica show, so I went and took a walk around the exhibit: big fan of Julia so it was an extra bonus :) I enjoyed the experience very much, I hope you will too!

Jen & I wanted to take our granddaughter Op somewhere before she started school so we headed to the…read moreArizona Science Center, we had a great time seeing everything and being in side an air conditioned building. We got there early before it really started to get busy so was able to see everything without bumping elbows with other people. We had a good time and sure you would as well so plan a date and enjoy a trip to the Arizona Science Building.

We visited the museum on a weekday morning. We enjoyed the displays of rocks from various parts of…read morethe earth, the Arizona-Mexican artifacts, and of course the dinosaurs, especially the aquatic dinosaurs. This museum has an active dinosaur fossil dig - you can watch and even talk to the paleontologist working on it! There's lots to see and enjoy here, including real elements from a jail that held prisoners from the 1830s to the 1970s!! The gift shop is reasonably priced and you can even purchase a "memory bag" filled with pencil, notebook eraser, etc, for only $2.50 each.

Paid $14 and only stayed about 40 minutes. There were multiple groups of school children that were…read morerunning around, screaming, jumping and bumping into everything. I expect that behavior to be tolerated at a children's museum, not a public museum where a basic level of respect and decorum is expected for EVERYONE inside. Wish I could say I enjoyed it but the hundreds of screaming children ruined any experience I could have had and left with a migraine. **Would appreciate museums to have specific days for "field trips" or hours for school days. Unfortunately many museum experiences are ruined due to the behavior of unruly children, and I'm still the one paying full price.