| Autry National Center of the American West | |
| Former Name: | Autry National Center |
| Established: | 2003 |
| Location: | 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park Los Angeles, California |
| Coordinates: | 34.1487°N -118.2813°W |
| Type: | Western and American Indian |
| President: | Stephen Aron, President and CEO |
The Autry Museum of the American West (Autry National Center) is a museum in Los Angeles, California, dedicated to exploring an inclusive history of the American West. Founded in 1988, the museum presents a wide range of exhibitions and public programs, including lectures, film, theater, festivals, family events, and music, and performs scholarship, research, and educational outreach. It attracts about 150,000 visitors annually.[1]
In 2013, it extensively redesigned and renovated the Irene Helen Jones Parks Gallery of Art and the Gamble Firearms Gallery in its main building. In its related opening exhibit for the Parks Gallery, Art of the West, the new organization enabled material to be presented in relation to themes rather than chronology, and paintings were shown next to crafts, photography, video and other elements in new relationships.[1]
The Autry Museum of the American West has two sites, about apart:
In 2022, the museum opened a storage facility in Burbank, California to store its and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian's collections. The facility includes a ritual space for indigenous people to use items in the collection in ceremonies.[3]
The Autry was established in 1988 by actor and businessman Gene Autry as "Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum," dedicated to exploring and sharing the comprehensive story of the American West and its multiple cultures, as well as further interpreting the West's significance.[4] Its Griffith Park collection includes 21,000 paintings, sculptures, costumes, textiles, firearms, tools, toys, musical instruments, and other objects.[5] The museum contains contemporary and historical exhibitions, year-round programs for children, intellectual forums, and the Native Voices at the Autry performing arts series.
In 2003, the Autry acquired the Southwest Museum of the American Indian.
The museum is located in Griffith Park directly across from the Los Angeles Zoo. The 4,000-square foot Parks Gallery was renovated in 2013 and has been organized into three theme areas: Religion and Ritual, Land and Landscape, Migration and Movement. The main location also contains two mini galleries with revolving exhibits.
The Gamble Firearms Gallery also was renovated in 2013. It now shows more of the context and place of firearms in the Old West; curators grouped firearms by themes: "hunting and trapping, the impact of technology on firearms, the conservation movement and the West in popular culture."[1] The Firearms Gallery is part of the larger Western Frontiers: Stories of Fact and Fiction Gallery.[1]
From 2004 to 2015, it was known as the "Autry National Center of the American West”. However, in October 2015, the museum began using the name "Autry Museum of the American West" to emphasize its "principal activities as a museum."[7]
Since 1995, Native Voices at the Autry has been the only existing equity theater solely focused on producing new works by Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nation playwrights.[8] Randy Reinholz, a member of Oklahoma's Choctaw Nation, and his wife Jean Bruce Scott have run the program for 20 years. Native Voices has produced over 34 full productions, gone on over 20 tours, with 23 new play festivals and 13 Native playwrights.[9] This program is a crucial part of the Autry's mission to promote art history and cultures of the American West.