No ideas but in things wrote the poet William Carlos Williams in 1927, the year before the Museum opened. The thousands of “things” in the MNA collection provide an endless trove of ideas that we explore through exhibitions. Each exhibitions tells a unique story of the region through art and objects from our collection.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Turquoise: Stone and Story
Turquoise—the enchanting blue-green stone of the Colorado Plateau—has captivated people for millennia. Born where copper-rich earth meets shifting groundwater, this vibrant stone emerges along the plateau’s edges under rare, almost magical, conditions. From prehistoric times onward, people carried turquoise across the region, weaving it into networks of trade, adornment, and meaning.
Drawing on art, jewelry, archaeological objects, and geologic samples from the Museum of Northern Arizona collections, the exhibition explores turquoise as a color, a mineral, and an element of cultural heritage. Visitors encounter turquoise as a shifting blue-green threshold, a product of mineral chemistry and arid landscapes, and a material shaped through human relationships into objects of beauty, exchange, and tradition.
Opens January 2027