The nation’s top Western art museums provide a window into our past that inspires our present.

Art of the American West from old favorites like Frederic Remington and Charlie Russell to today’s men and women still attracts fans. Museums and galleries proved that during the past year with a wide range of artists new and old.

And 2024-25 looks just as good with the opening of the Haub Family Collection of Western American Art project, a four-exhibit view that opened in May at the Tacoma (Washington) Art Museum, and Imprisoned but Empowered: Cheyenne Warrior Artists from Fort Marion at Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (September 13-January).

Here are this year’s top 10:

1. Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art (Indianapolis, IN)

Always a favorite, and always thinking outside the box, the Eiteljorg amazed with Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West, a look at how religion shaped and influenced the West, which closed August 4. But the magically mythical Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight, the Tlingit-American artist’s story of Raven (the creator-trickster in Tlingit culture), opens November 8 and runs through March 9. This exhibit was organized by Singletary and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. Don’t forget the Eiteljorg’s annual Indian Market, June 22-23.

Eiteljorg.org

 

2. The Museum of Western Art (Kerrville, TX)

The former Cowboy Artists of America Museum continues to showcase all things Western. Case in point: Scott Christensen & Quang Ho, which ends September 21, displays Western landscapes as seen by Christensen, who grew up in Lander, Wyoming, and whose works have been shown at Russia’s Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute, and Ho, a Vietnamese-American who can be realistic or abstract or a bit of both.

MuseumOfWesternArt.com

 

3. Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ)

At this premier museum for American Indian artwork and home to the annual Indian Fair & Market (March 1-2), we recommend Harry Fonseca: Transformations, which closes April 20, and Art & Sole—sneakers as art!—running through January 5. As always, Home: Native People in the Southwest is a must, no matter how many times you’ve seen it.

Heard.org

 

4. The Brinton Museum (Big Horn, WY)

Hurry! Wyoming’s Artist: Harry Jackson, featuring paintings and bronze sculptures curated by Cody artist Gerald A. Shippen, closes September 2. But admirers of Western and American Indian artwork always have plenty to see. Besides, the ranch, buildings and surrounding countryside are works of art.

TheBrintonMuseum.org

 

5. Taos Art Museum (Taos, NM)

Taos photographer Zoë Zimmerman has been taking pictures for years, and Forsaken Objects and Untold Stories, on display in the museum’s Fechin House till January 12, showcases Zimmerman’s photographs of items found in the house’s basement as well as some Nicolai Fechin landscapes and portraits.

TaosArtMuseum.org

 

6. Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO)

We’re sad to see The Russells in Denver, 1921 (showing his works from a solo art show at the Brown Palace Hotel) close, but Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak, opening October 13, might not be all that Western, but it’ll sure make you smile. And there’s plenty to see in the Western American Art Galleries.

DenverArtMuseum.org

 

7. Desert Caballeros Western Museum (Wickenburg, AZ)

After Howard Post: Western Perspectives closed in February, The Horse in Art opened in July and runs through June 8, and Werner Segarra: Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo is up September 28 through March 2. A longtime favorite, the Cowgirl Up! exhibition and sale celebrates its 20th anniversary March 28-May 25.

WesternMuseum.org

 

8. The Wittliff Collections (San Marcos, TX)

This unique museum owes a lot to its namesake, Bill Wittliff (of Lonesome Dove miniseries fame) with a focus on Southwestern literature, art, photography, music and, of course, Lonesome Dove. Witness to War, focusing on the United States’ 1914 invasion and occupation of Veracruz, closed in July, but Edward Curtis: Treasures of The North American Indian rotates the renowned photographer’s works, and the Lonesome Dove Collection is always a fixture.

TheWittliffCollections.txst.edu

 

9. Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA)

With three stories of art that constantly changes, this museum is always worth visiting. American Indian art has long been exhibited here. Pueblo Pottery: Native American Pottery and Sculpture runs through December 3, 2028.

CrockerArt.org

 

10. Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (Canyon, TX)

The PPHM’s roughly 8,000 art pieces continue to amaze in galleries dedicated to Western illustrators, Texas Panhandle favorite H.D. Bugbee and Dallas Art Society founder Frank Reaugh. The art isn’t all Western. Dali’s Wonderland revealed Salvador Dali’s take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in a special exhibit earlier this year.

PanhandlePlains.org

 

Favorite Western Regional Art Museums

Phippen Museum (Prescott, AZ)

The annual Hold Your Horses! Invitational Exhibition & Sale runs through September 29, but there’s always something to see in the Phippen’s permanent collection, including works by Solon H. Borglum and, of course, its namesake, George Phippen (1915-66), cofounder and first president of the Cowboy Artists of America.

PhippenArtMuseum.org

 

Legacy Gallery (Scottsdale, AZ)

A who’s who of great Western artists can be found in this must-see Scottsdale gallery, including Rick Terry’s offbeat looks at the West, Scott Rogers’s detailed sculptures and wonderful paintings by Tom Browning, Grant Redden and others.

LegacyGallery.com

 

Tucson Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ)

The museum covers just about every kind of art imaginable. Popol Vuh and the Maya Art of Storytelling closes September 22. But visitors can spend hours admiring the ongoing Southwest Art: Contemporary Conversations, Art of the American West and People of the West: A Rethinking of “Westerners.”

TucsonMuseumOfArt.org

 

Olaf Wieghorst Museum (El Cajon, CA)

Olaf Wieghorst’s story remains inspirational. Danish kid, not out of his teens, arrives in America in 1918 broke and knowing three English words. Joins the Army, then becomes a cowboy, teaches himself to paint and becomes one of the wealthiest painters of his time.

WieghorstMuseum.org

 

A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art (Trinidad, CO)

Don’t think this museum is solely dedicated to its namesake whose works adorned the covers of myriad magazines back in that Golden Era. You’ll also find works from noted illustrators Harvey Dunn and Harold Von Schmidt, even Native American pieces Mitchell collected and Hispanic Colonial Art.

ARMitchellMuseum.com

 

Stark Museum of Art (Orange, TX)

 

Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West, which told Black Western history through pictorial quilts, closed in August. But with a gallery that includes artwork by John James Audubon, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington and Charlie Russell, there’s plenty to see.

StarkMuseum.org

 

Yellowstone Art Museum (Billings, MT)

Emphasizing artists and art from Montana and the northwest, YAM continues to impress. Celebrating Complexities: Ucross Native American Fellowship Artists, featuring works from four Native nations with different styles and backgrounds whose works include painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture, runs through October 6.

ArtMuseum.org

 

Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE)

The moment we’ve been waiting for arrives September 10, when the Joslyn, which first opened its doors in 1931, reopens after two years of reconstruction and renovation. We can’t wait to see how the museum will display its outstanding permanent collection, new works and a stunning new building.

Joslyn.org

 

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe, NM)

 

Visiting this museum always feels intimate. Rooted in Place, which focused on O’Keeffe’s fascination with trees, ended in August, but the phenomenal Georgia O’Keeffe: Making a Life, which focuses on how she lived, or curated, her own life, runs through November 2, 2025.

OKeeffeMuseum.org

 

New Mexico Museum of Art (Santa Fe, NM)

Selections from the 20th Century Collection runs through the end of this year at this museum just off the Plaza, while contemporary art fans will admire Off-Center: New Mexico Art, 1970-2000, through May 4, at the museum’s Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe’s Railyard Arts District, about a 15-minute walk from the Plaza.

NMArtMuseum.org

 

Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum (Cuero, TX)

Known for its extraordinary collections of spurs and Edward S. Curtis photogravures, this museum, about 90 miles southeast of San Antonio, amazed art lovers with Spectacular Stitches: Works by Master Textile Artists from The Frank Klein Collection, which closed February 10.

ChisholmTrailMuseum.org

 

Kenedy Ranch Museum (Sarita, TX)

 

In what once was the Kenedy Pasture Company building, the story of Mifflin Kenedy and his family—three generations’ worth—is told in a grand building through murals and Kim Crowley’s sculptures. And the surrounding Wild Horse Desert is beautiful, too.

Kenedy.org

 

Nelson Museum of the West

(Cheyenne, WY)

An old favorite, the Nelson tells the story of many Western cultures through artifacts, books and art, from custom saddles to handmade spurs to many paintings—even painter Burt Procter’s studio—to Native works to a humorous Bud Odell wood carving.

NelsonMuseum.org

 

Hulett Museum & Art Gallery

(Hulett, WY)

Specializing in eastern Wyoming’s history and culture, this small museum often tells its history through art, and its art through history. Quilt lovers shouldn’t miss the Hulett’s fourth annual quilt show September 20-22.

HulettMuseum.com

 

Johnny D. Boggs has been writing about art for more than 25 years, or, basically, since he moved to art mecca Santa Fe, New Mexico.