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| - Visited the Bashas Art Gallery, which is located in the corporate headquarters of the company, and in the Chandler, AZ area. It is a private collection of of Indian baskets, and southwestern art and sculptures. The Native American baskets are sorted by age and triibes, and we were told given to the Bashas family as gifts in return for the food given to them. Have never seen so many in one place; the workmanship is mind boggling.
The art collection is sorted by artist, and varies from traditional realistic representations of cowboys and Indians in the west and more modern abstract representations. Evidently, most if not all artists were personal friends of the Bashas family judging from the included correspondence, a lot of which are art works themselves. Including the correspondence was a stroke of genius; it made viewing the art collection all the more interesting.
Finally, there was also rifles, pistols, kachina figures and probably other items I've missed.
This is no small collection; we spent a couple of hours there and still could have stayed longer. Not to be missed. It is free, but there is a collection basket if you want to make a donation.
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