Welcome! 

 The Imperial Valley Desert Museum is a new facility in the heart of the Yuha Desert housing Native American and historic artifacts collected from within the Imperial Valley. Opening a new museum in the twenty-first century, we do not want to be seen as an exhibit within four walls, but we want to engage and interact outside of the limitations of the “box,” our new building, both metaphorically and physically.

Preserve, Interpret, Celebrate

  • The mission of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum is to preserve, interpret and celebrate the deserts of Southern California through outstanding collections, research, and educational programs.
  • Our goal is to be the foremost research and educational institution devoted to the preservation, interpretation, and celebration of the Imperial Valley desert.

 

 

Hours of Operation

Wednesday-Sunday    10-3pm 

Monday-Tuesday       closed

 

 

Admission:

Donations appreciated

 

The IVDM believes in being open and accessible to everyone.  Therefore, there is currently no set admission fee. We hope that you will determine the value of your visit and donate at the end of your visit.  Giving Forward like this will allow us to keep the museum open at no set fee.  

 

The Imperial Valley Desert

Museum Needs Your Help! 

  

The Imperial Valley Desert Museum is in the third year of our National Endowment of the Humanities Grant. And this is the year we need your help. This matching grant is a five year grant to build an endowment to fund two positions at the museum, a Head-curator and a Cultural Collections and Programs Manager. The museum was able to fully match this grant in 2015 and 2016 from clean energy projects, creating an endowment of over $578,000. 

Of particular importance is continuing the funding of our Head Curator position. This staff position is held by someone with archeology or museum related experience that can guide the long-term research and preservation efforts of the museum, and the expertise to preserve, conserve, and interpret the Imperial Valley collections for our community. The Head Curator position is vital to retain the necessary expertise for collections management and preservation on staff. Every successful museum program stems from the preservation and accessibility of our local collections. 

We can use pledges to match funds this year. A pledge will get us our federal funds, and it can be paid anytime before July 31, 2019.

We are hoping you will read the Society Notes linked below and please support our grant.

Society Note: June July.pdf

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 Member of the American Alliance of Museums since 2013.

All photographs taken by IVDM staff or used with permission by Joselito Villero and Michael Field. All rights reserved.2014.