Museum of Northern Arizona offers admission discount to Grand Canyon visitors

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Starting this fall, all fulltime Northern Arizona University students can visit the Museum of Northern Arizona just by showing their student id — Grand Canyon visitors will receive a 20 percent discount, too.

To celebrate the new arrangement, the museum invites NAU students and Grand Canyon visitors to see the "Pivot: Skateboard Deck Art" exhibition. This exhibition features art by more than 32 artists from varied tribes and traditions who used skate decks as canvases.

“Pivot is the perfect introduction to the broad range of exhibitions students will find at the museum, spanning art, culture and science,” Heinonen said.

“The graphically dynamic decks speak to the artists’ contemporary experience, while being strongly rooted in deeply cultural symbols and stories.”

The museum is similarly dynamic, with something for all students, from prehistoric pottery to contemporary art. Jurassic fans will find full dinosaur skeletons on display. Fashionistas will covet the extensive collections of Zuni, Hopi and Navajo silverwork. Students can experience Latinx culture, food and music during the Celebraciones de La Gente Courtyard After Dark Oct. 20 from 5-8 pm. The museum also convenes community conversations on important topics of interest to students, such as a Future of the Colorado Plateau Forum Oct. 24 focused on how the changing climate is driving migration to the area.

The recently-opened Native Peoples of the Colorado Plateau exhibition offers insight into the culture and history of 10 tribes, the Acoma, Apache, Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Navajo, Paiute, Ute, Yavapai, and Zuni. Consultants from all the tribes worked with MNA to tell their own story through carefully chosen objects and interactive displays. The new agreement strengthens institutional ties and fosters collaborative research, education, and service activities focused on the creation of new knowledge and understanding of the peoples, cultures, natural history, and environments of the Colorado Plateau.

Qualified NAU students, faculty, and staff already use the museum’s collections, archives and library for their research. MNA collections contain over 800,000 artifacts, objects, and specimens in its permanent collections of anthropology, biology, geology, and fine arts; extensive federal and tribal research collections; and significant library and archival collections.

Information provided by Museum of Northern Arizona.