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792 Signatures

• Eric S

  • Comments
  • please don't ignore one of our best local museums and collection of local heritage!
• Mike M. M

  • Comments
  • The Southwest Museum is an asset to the community where it stands. It's a hillside landmark for the area (Drivers on the 110 Freeway take note of it.) and an honor to live nearby. The southwest Muse. is part of Southwest L.A.'s cultural history & should not be tampered with, but protected from further deterioration.
• Dr. Karen G

  • Comments
  • It would be disgrace and a disservice to both our community and the Native American community to do away with Los Angeles' first museum.
• Maria E. O

  • Comments
  • We need to preserve this legacy now & in the future. People without history are empowered people.
• An T

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• Greg G

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  • This landmark cultural institution inspired me as a child, and I would hope that the City of Los Angeles has the courage and intelligence to keep it where it belongs, in Highland Park. The Autry ought never be permitted to dismantle the collection and expatriate it.
• Hon. Felipe E. Agredano, M

  • Comments
  • As an educator and boardmember on the Garvey Board of Education I urge the Board of Directors to fully embrace the Southwest Museum as an educational and cultural jewel of the Los Angeles community. I have sent many of my students to the Southwest Museum and will continue to do. I fully support and embrace this cultural institute so should you.
• Sara Hart T
• Ravi G

  • Comments
  • This is an important L.A. institution that must be saved.
• Audrey E

  • Comments
  • I was there in the Spring. The visits were bittersweet . The failry recent exhibit on California native peoples, Tongva, Ajachemen, Ohlone, and so on is excellent and shows what can be done when there is caring and passion. Sad to say, the other exhibits are covered with dust and display the neglect of ages and the lack of a native perspective. I found grevious errors in some of the materials that I reviewed. What can we do to change the current situation?
• Dona Van B

  • Comments
  • Speaking as a fifth generation native Angeleno, I recognize the Southwest Museum as an integral part of our history and our heritage. It must be preserved as the treasure it is with an eye to future generations, particularly in light of the considerable public money that has been spent to build the Gold Line Metro stop at the museum. Planner and developers must wake up to the fact that the people of this city abhor the fact that so many of our historical buildings have been destroyed to make way for strip malls, shopping centers filled with identikit chain stores, and freeways. We need long term vision if we are to preserve the last vestiges of our cultural heritage.
• Marilyn S

  • Comments
  • Don't continue to rape, rob and plunder the first LA museum, it's neighbors and the city of Los Angeles. Do the right thing. Leave the Museum where it began, where it belongs. Have THAT be your legacy.
• Joseph K

  • Comments
  • Do the right thing and keep this museum as orginally promised. Thank you.
• Mona S

  • Comments
  • Erasing the legacy of Charles Lummis would be so incredibly unwise for Los Angeles. It's part of the heart and soul that belies what most outsiders think of L.A. It's truly what makes L.A. such an incredibly special place.
• Karen B

  • Comments
  • As a member of the museum and a local resident I find the closing of this historical entity disturbing. The Southwest Museum has a long standing tradition here in the area and is an important public institution located in a neighborhood that otherwise has little resources of this type. It would be a great loss to close this site.
• William B

  • Comments
  • I am Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the College for Appraisers, located in HB. The resources of the SW Museum must be maintained for working professionals, as well as the public. This facility is one of few that provides specialized resources on Native American culture in the LA area.
• Gerry H

  • Comments
  • We love SW, and don't want any more infrastructure going into Griffith Park, a park that is a REGIONAL PARK, not a place to build museums.
• Galen H

  • Comments
  • This whole thing is depressing. I hate when people misuse power.
• Lois R

  • Comments
  • The Southwest Museum is in a historic and scenic area if Los Angeles. The Museum deserves to be restored and preserved in its present site.
• Allison M

  • Comments
  • I am deeply disappointed in the Autry National Center's past decisions and hope they will make more responsible ones in the future, including the community, and in a way that is legally-binding and will guarantee the future success of the Southwest Museum.
• Kathryn P. H

  • Comments
  • I think this whole move by the Autry is to gain control of the land so they can sell it off to developers, who are probably planning condos for the museum building right now. Look at the changes on Museum Drive and the surrounding streets over the past 10 years, and count the number of new and ugly"temples to greed" that have prolierated, no, metastasized in the area. Keep up your great effort to save that museum and the surrounding acerage!
• peter b

  • Comments
  • thank you for our consideration
• Suzi L

  • Comments
  • The museum and it's artifacts belong to the Native People's of Los Angeles and surrounding areas. If the Autry refuses to maintain the museum at it's original location, it should return the artifacts to the tribal owners. Also, the Southwest Museum should have an advisory board which includes Native Elders.
• RuthAnne T
• Kim O

  • Comments
  • I am a member of the Southwest Museum/Autry Museum and a 21 year resident of Mt. Washington. I was attracted to the area because of its place in early Los Angeles history. I urge you to support this city's heritage and honor Native Americans by making the Southwest Museum the destination museum that it deserves to be.
• Clare Marter K
• Jessica M

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• Charles C

  • Comments
  • It's time to live up to your original guarantees to preserve the Museum and leave the artifacts intact and displayed at the Musuem.
• Paula L

  • Comments
  • I have twice visited the Southwest Museum in Pasadena with my fourth grade students. All the textbook reading about California Indians was brought to life by the docents and unique artifacts on display. This museum is a precious resource in our community that I have not seen duplicated anywhere else.
• Donald F

  • Comments
  • The Southwest Museum is an important treasure that must be preserved.
• Lois W

  • Comments
  • Why move from this location which is so convenient to people in this neighborhood who cannot easily get to the Autry. This site has historical significance
• Lisa O

  • Comments
  • Don't deprive my children, and their children's children access to a REAL SW Museum here, in Mt. Washington, where it belongs.
• ana b

  • Comments
  • I grew up in highland park and i love that place and i persomally think that its awful that you always want to change everything.....i want to take my children up to visit but with all the changes it doesn't even have the orginal look that it once had inside. I understand in time all things must be updated but for the love of God leave some part of history alone and let other people enjoy what use to be!!!!!!
• Marguerite D

  • Comments
  • The Southwest Museum should be saved and kept a viable museum- not stolen from or used for the Autry's greed
• leslie l
• Rosamaria M

  • Comments
  • Let us honor Charles Lummis vision
• Lois A. W

  • Comments
  • Please save this historic masterpiece for the children of Southern California
• Carol C
• Maida P

  • Comments
  • Los Angeles has lost so much of its early history through buildings being demolished; this is an opportunity to retain a significant structure in its original purpose to maintain a publicly accessible facility which is a reminder of the enterprising and forward thinking spirit of an early Angeleno who in his own time cared enough to preserve the history of those who came before him. There is so little worthy of modelling and inspiration in this city along those lines, it's our duty to respect and maintain that which exists.
• Christine Z

  • Comments
  • My family has been members of the Autry Center for years. We only recently discovered the SW Museum & found it to be an outstanding experience. The SW Museum's collection was refreshing & we've been back a few times. Actually, I've enjoyed visiting SW more than the Autry's recent exhibits.
• kathie z

  • Comments
  • as an orginal member of the aurty i hope you do the right thing and preserve this lovely little museum
• Linda P

  • Comments
  • Say, what's up with the controversy? Generally there's no space to display artifacts and art even in the original museum...what's gonna happen now??
• michele (mimi) le b

  • Comments
  • As an integral pt of MtWash history & as I continue 2 fite the fraud & distruction of MY home, protctng R SWmuze is No1 priorty. Plz kp my Email.
• Kristy B
• Sharyn Y

  • Comments
  • Important Los Angeles historical structure. The issue is the value of the collections, Autry collections do not rival the value of these collections in any sense. This is a political ploy to strengthen the Autry at great cost to the people of Los Angeles. It is historically important to maintain the history of the act of creating these collections.
• Allen F

  • Comments
  • The Autrey team has willfully perpetrated a fraud, pretending to commit to preserving the charming and historically significant Mt. Washington site of the Museum of the Southwest, in order to gain control of the world class collection of artifacts, documents, and other materials belonging to the Southwest Museum. This is the same basic maneuver that occured when Sea World's parent company acquired Marineland (in L.A. County) to "restore" it, then shipped its key assets--notably, its orca--to Sea World in the dead of night, and shut down Marineland. Please don't reward the Autrey team for their duplicity!
• Joan L

  • Comments
  • The Hillside Federation completely supports Friends of the Southwest Museum's petition's conditions including but not limited to insisting that the Aurty Museum honors their legally-binding commitment for the maintenance and operation of the Southwest Museum as a condition of being allowed to develop new facilities on land owned by the City of Los Angeles in Griffith Park. Joan Luchs, President, The Federation of Hillside and Canyon Association
• Steven Z

  • Comments
  • Shame on the Autry National Center for trying to obtain the priceless collection from the Southwest Museum under false pretenses.
• Allison A

  • Comments
  • Once you destroy a gift from the past, you can never get it back. Preserve the Southwest Museum as it was meant to be.
• Nancy A. L

  • Comments
  • I am a teacher who truly misses taking my classes to the Southwest Museum, which was a unique experience for the students. The entire vibe the excellent staff created ignited the students imagination and creativity and produced exceptional writing. The unique trail upon arrival can't be recreated at the proposed sight,and served to begin the wonderful transition for the students to another place and time. We have tried the Autry alternative with extreme disappointment. Please have the courage to help right a wrong and create what needs to endure.

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