City of Peoria pays tribute to West Valley Art Museum

After nearly 50 years of serving art patrons throughout the Northwest Valley, the West Valley Art Museum has officially closed the doors of its art gallery at Peoria City Hall.

The City of Peoria honored the organization and paid tribute to WVAM Board member Connie McMillin during its June 18 Peoria City Council meeting. A special award was presented to Ms. McMillin, a Sun City resident and long-time benefactor of the museum who has overseen the museum’s operations for the past several decades.

The Peoria City Hall Art Gallery has served as the museum’s home since 2011.

The museum was the first professional free-standing art museum ever established in an active-adult retirement community. The concept for the museum was initially created by Sun City residents in the mid-1970s, with the intention of building an art museum in Sun City.

The museum’s early exhibits were showcased first at a bank and then several other temporary locations in Sun City. Original plans were to build a permanent museum at 111 ^th Avenue and Thunderbird Road in Sun City.

Plans were later changed, and the Sun Cities Art Museum officially opened in 1985 on a parcel of land in Surprise donated by the Del E. Webb Corporation.

The first museum was located on 114 ^th Avenue just north of Bell Road in Surprise. The road was later re-named Avenue of the Arts in honor of the art museum and today the building is home to the Salvation Army.

The name was changed to the West Valley Art Museum in 1997 to reflect the growing population of the West Valley. The economic downturn in 2007, however, severely impacted the West Valley Art Museum and financial hardships forced the organization to sell the building.

The City of Peoria offered to store and museum’s collection and later provided the City Hall Art Gallery as a permanent home.

Over the years, the museum has hosted numerous juried art shows and notable exhibits featuring artworks, photographs, quilts, clothing designs and more.

The museum may no longer have a permanent gallery to call home, but Ms. McMillin isn’t ready to entirely close the book on the organization’s history.

“The West Valley Art Museum’s uniqueness as a cultural institution is still valid with national recognition,” she said.