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The Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art (the foundation calls it the Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture) is an outdoor sculpture site in Joshua Tree, California, made between 1989 and 2004 by Noah Purifoy (1917 to 2004) from found and discarded materials. The Noah Purifoy Foundation, which looks after it, says it is open daily and free.
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Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum
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Approximate location · 34.145° N, 116.325° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art (the foundation calls it the Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture) is an outdoor environment of large sculpture in the desert at Joshua Tree, California. According to the Noah Purifoy Foundation, Purifoy created it between 1989 and 2004, placing more than 100 works on 10 acres of desert floor and in a gallery structure. All of it is made from junked materials.
Purifoy was born in Snow Hill, Alabama, in 1917 and died in Joshua Tree in 2004. The foundation says he was a founding director of the Watts Towers Art Center in Los Angeles, and that he spent 11 years in public policy work for the California Arts Council, which appointed him in 1976. In the late 1980s he moved his practice to the Mojave Desert.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
The foundation says the museum is open every day from sunrise to sundown and is free. Visitors sign in at the welcome kiosk and take a brochure for a self-guided tour. Leashed dogs are welcome. The final approach is a graded dirt road, and the foundation asks visitors to take care driving on it. The site is open desert; bring water, sun protection and sturdy shoes, and avoid the midday heat in summer. Park in the shade across the road, as the foundation advises.
ACCESS
63030 Blair Lane, Joshua Tree, CA. Open daily sunrise to sundown per the foundation. Groups of more than 10 must arrange with the foundation first. The foundation's tours page says it hopes to restart tours for the general public.
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