(Visitors learn about owls during a High Desert Museum Free Day. The first of two upcoming Free Days is Saturday, January 25 | Photo by Todd Cary)
It’s that time of year again! Visit the High Desert Museum during Mid Oregon Credit Union Free Family Saturdays, occurring January 25 and February 22. Everyone can experience the latest exhibits, dynamic wildlife encounters and more for free.
“We are once again excited to welcome our community to Free Family Saturdays,” said Museum Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, Ph.D. “They’ve always been a very popular event and an amazing way to witness and explore the educational mission of the Museum.”
Along with free admission, Museum visitors can look forward to a special Daily Schedule. Guests will have the opportunity to meet a nonreleasable raptor in the Museum’s care during the Bird of Prey Encounters happening every hour between 11am-3pm.
“Mid Oregon is proud to have partnered with the High Desert Museum for over 21 years, providing free access to tens of thousands of Central Oregonians,” said Kyle Frick, VP of Marketing for Mid Oregon Credit Union. “The Museum is a cultural treasure for Central Oregon, and we appreciate the opportunity to continue support for this great organization.”
The Museum’s exhibition Rick Bartow: Animal Kinship, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, will be open during the first Free Family Saturday on January 22. The exhibit, which closes February 9, features one of Oregon’s most celebrated artists. Rick Bartow (Mad River Band of the Wiyot Tribe, d. 2016) was born in Newport, Oregon, and grew up with close ties to the Siletz community. Nearly two dozen artworks, including two-dimensional and sculptural pieces, were selected for the exhibition, which is the third part in a yearlong collaborative series with the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. The work spans the final three decades of Bartow’s career.
Other ongoing exhibitions include Neighbors: Wildlife Paintings by Hilary Baker. The exhibit shares imagery of wildlife native to the High Desert — gray fox, black bear, pronghorn antelope and others. They stand in the foreground with urban encroachment in the background such as a fox on railroad tracks or a black bear in front of a 7-Eleven. Hilary Baker, born in 1948, spent her childhood exploring the hills and canyons near her home in Los Angeles, searching for animal bones and other evidence of creatures amid the backdrop of the bustling city. This desire to collect natural elements from a vanishing world became the inspiration for her art series Predators. The works in the exhibition at the Museum are from this series.
Blood, Sweat & Flannel, an original Museum exhibition, explores what flannel represents—its history, cultural connections and production — with imagery, tactile elements and interactive displays that bring to life the experiences of those who wore flannel. From timber to ranching, herding and sportswear, and alternative rock, each era espouses that flannel is more than just a fabric. “It’s a symbol of resilience and identity,” said Museum Bonnie Lee and Oliver P. Steele III Curator of Education and Engagement Molly Wilmoth. Visitors can witness how flannel has shifted over time, culminating in its association with the grunge movement of the 1990s.
Those who attend the second Mid Oregon Free Family Saturday on February 22 can look forward to visiting two of the Museum’s newest exhibitions. Frank S. Matsura: Portraits from the Borderland opens February 1. Featuring large-scale photographs taken by Japanese photographer Frank Matsura of Native people in the early 1900s, the exhibition features photos that represent some of the most accurate images of Indigenous culture during this period. The raw and sometimes playful characters in the photos challenge the stereotypes about life during that time. Clothing, beaded bags and cornhusk bags from the collections at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture in Spokane, Wash., which originated the exhibition, and the High Desert Museum add color to the exhibition. The exhibition is possible with generous support from Art Bridges.
A new exhibit opening February 22 invites you to explore the wonders of patterns in nature. Patterns at Play: Fractals in Nature, an original exhibition, showcases how repetition and patterns intertwine in the natural world. The exhibit allows visitors to build their own patterns while an animation creates new fractals right before their eyes.
Winter hours are daily from 10am-4pm. Learn more about all the Museum’s permanent and changing exhibitions at highdesertmuseum.org/exhibitions.
Free Family Saturdays are made possible by Mid Oregon Credit Union.
About The High Desert Museum:
The High Desert Museum opened in Bend in 1982. It brings together wildlife, cultures, art, history and the natural world to convey the wonder of North America’s High Desert. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is a Smithsonian Affiliate, was the 2019 recipient of the Western Museums Association’s Charles Redd Award for Exhibition Excellence and was a 2021 recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
About Mid Oregon Credit Union:
Mid Oregon Credit Union is a full-service, member-owned financial cooperative headquartered in and serving Central Oregonians since 1957. With almost 49,000 members in Deschutes, Jefferson, Crook, Wheeler, Lake, and North Klamath Counties and almost $759 million in assets, Mid Oregon partners with members to meet their financial needs and to help them achieve their dreams. Mid Oregon was named a Top Workplace in Oregon and Southwest Washington for 2022, 2023, and 2024. It was also ranked the #1 credit union in Oregon by Forbes for 2023 and 2024 and received the Bend Bulletin’s Best of the Best of Bend Community Choice Award in the credit union category for 2023 and 2024.
