Museum shops: Secret superheroes of great gift giving

Gift giving is an art, it's true. So if you're searching for special gifts for your special people, pop over to your nearest art museum. Or science center. Or historical society.

Whichever you pick, you'll give your shopping an artistic upgrade because museum shops are the secret superheroes of great gift giving. Like all superheroes, they're disguised— hidden behind the larger mission of their organization, but museum shops are curated just as carefully as the museums they're in, and they're packed with interesting and unusual items.

In fact, behind their disguises, you'll find several not-so-secret secrets about museum shops: There's no admission fee to shop; they don't charge sales tax; and all proceeds go to support the museum's programs. Most also offer a discount to members, so if you give yourself a membership, you'll save money and have a great place to explore after the shopping is done.

Where to start?

Musical Instrument Museum

For blues travelers or armchair travelers, try the Museum Shop at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in north Phoenix, which features instruments, gifts and handcrafts from around the world.

Yes, the MIM sells CDs — ranging from flamenco classics to Jake Shimabukuro — but it also encourages DIY music-making with rain sticks, pan flutes, singing bowls and talking drums. Avant-garde musicians can find a Moog theramin, but old-fashioned bicycle bells also strike a pleasant tone. Somebody on your list probably needs a ukelele, but if not, you can find French horn, trumpet and trombone kazoos.

The MIM's bookshelves stretch from a biography of Stradivarius to "Air Guitar: A User's Guide," and there's an assortment of Beatles memorabilia, as well as T-shirts and books commemorating Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Taylor Swift.

Stockings would be well stuffed with harmonicas, drumstick pencils, music-themed socks, miniature music boxes or magnets shaped like quarter notes, bongo drums and electric guitars.

Beyond music, the MIM offers gifts with an international flair: wire baskets made by Zulu weavers; Day of the Dead figurines; a variety of menorahs and dreidels; and Christmas ornaments from Uzbekistan, Scandinavia and Latin America. The jewelry collection ranges from  work by Arizona's own Kit Carson to elegant Italian glass beads and pieces made from piano wire. And the children's section includes recorders and glockenspiels as well as toys and books celebrating global cultures.

Details: 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. 480-478-6002, www.themimstore.org.

Heard Museum

Representing cultures closer to home, the Heard Museum Shop showcases the work of more than 600 Native American artisans. The Heard's director of retail sales, Bruce McGee, purchases authentic works from Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Laguna craftspeople, as well as from tribes elsewhere in the U.S. and Mexico.

The Heard's jewelry collection fills several cases with bracelets, earrings, necklaces, pins, bola ties and belt buckles. Most pieces are sterling silver, and many incorporate turquoise or other stones, but styles vary from traditional motifs to contemporary geometric shapes and from weighty to dainty. Prices vary as well, from $13 for beaded key chains to several thousand dollars for necklaces by internationally recognized jewelers.

If your giftees would prefer home decor, there are ornamental baskets of all sizes and Navajo wool weavings from small coasters to floor rugs. Zuni fetishes — small stone carvings of animals — are extremely popular gifts, as are wooden Hopi kachinas. Got a tree that needs some spark? The Heard's Ornament Market includes hundreds of one-of-a-kind pieces.

Across the courtyard, the Heard Bookstore features handmade dolls, sand paintings and dreamcatchers, as well as note cards, children's gifts and local foods like salsas, beans and jams. Unsurprisingly, the bookstore offers an impressive assortment of books about Native American and Southwestern history and art, archaeology and native plants and animals. And if you need a stuffed javelina, you'll find it on the top shelf.

Details: 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. 602-252-8344, www.heardmuseumshop.com.

Superstition Mountain Museum

To the east, the Superstition Mountain Museum in Apache Junction offers another excellent resource for Southwestern style. Museum exhibits cover mining, railroads and Native American history, as well as films shot at Apacheland Movie Ranch. The gift shop extends those themes with books about the Lost Dutchman mine, Arizona history, cookbooks and biographies of Westerners like Sandra Day O'Connor and "Westerners" like John Wayne.

The shop also offers jewelry by Native American artisans like celebrated Navajo silversmiths Tommy Jackson and the late Henry Morris. Other items include Mata Ortiz pottery, Zuni fetishes, dreamcatchers and jewelry set with amethysts from the Four Peaks mine.

For those who prefer their rocks in more rustic form, the museum sells prospecting guides as well as Apache tears and geodes. Or outfit the nature lovers on your list with handmade walking sticks and hiking guides. If the maps fail, the "Desert Survival Handbook" may come in handy. For kids, find books, games, T-shirts and stuffed animals in the main store, or head next door to Charlie's General Store for pop guns and prickly pear candies.

Details: 4087 N. Apache Trail, Highway 88, Apache Junction. 480-983-4888, www.superstitionmountainmuseum.org.

Challenger Space Center

To get from the Wild West to the Space Age, head to Peoria, where the Challenger Space Center offers a small shop full of science-themed gifts.

This is the place for astronomy guides, glow-in-the-dark Einstein T-shirts, chunks of meteorites and astronaut ice cream. But the focus is on such educational toys as robotics kits, model space shuttles and cardboard Google glasses to pair with a virtual reality app.

Parents dreading the traditional vacation-induced boredom might grab an activity kit focused on magnets, weather or space science. Or, for those who appreciate the science of ornamentation, 3-D printed jewelry from Gilbert-based STAX3D includes both plastic and metal creations.

Challenger Space Center doesn't sell telescopes, but it offers a buying guide and gift certificates for a post-holiday class to help recipients make the most of their new scopes. Other giftable classes include robotics workshops, "Cosmic Kids" camps and stargazing events.

Details: 21170 N. 83rd Ave., Peoria. 623-322-2001, www.azchallenger.org.

i.d.e.a. Museum

Another great place to shop for little kids with big imaginations is the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, where Marketing Director Yvette Armendariz describes the offerings as "out-of-the-ordinary gifts."

Those gifts range from moldable play foam to an inflatable vinyl horse that toddlers can bounce on. The preschool set can get some mileage out of the wooden Sportster cars or colorful magnetic trains, while young engineers will enjoy building sets and 3-D puzzles. Art supplies include modeling clay, sticker pads and doodle books, or go straight for the facts with flash cards games on Earth science and wonders of the world.

The i.d.e.a. Museum also has a sizable inventory of Beanie Babies and other stuffed animals. Armendariz recommended the toys for "pretend play," but there's no need to pretend how cute they'd look peeking out of a stocking.

Details: 150 W. Pepper Place, Mesa. 480-644-2468, www.ideaMuseum.org.

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Of course, some of the best artsy shopping is at the Valley's art museums. Two standouts are the Shop at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) and The Store at the neighboring Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.

Bill Kelly, retail manager for both shops, describes his guiding aesthetic as "classic but edgy and quirky but still cool."

The jewelry, which is a major seller, frequently falls into all of those categories at once. In SMoCA, artist-made accessories include rubber or aluminum necklaces and pieces that combine concrete and diamond dust. In The Store, high-fashion lucite bracelets from France sell for almost $500, while fair-trade beaded bracelets from Guatemala start at $18.

Non-jewelry items include books on art and architecture as well as clocks, vases, kitchenwares, mobiles, original artwork and Bookniture — cardboard furniture that folds up into a book. The Store also offers gifts for music lovers, and both shops are reliable spots to pick up stylish cards and stationery, as well as unusual games, toys and books for children.

Details: SMOCA: 7374 E. Second St. 480-874-4666, www.smoca.org. The Store at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts: 480-874-4644, www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org.

Also check ... 

Other great museum shops include those at the Phoenix Museum of Art, Desert Botanical Garden, Arizona Science Center, The Children's Museum of Phoenix and Arizona Museum of Natural History. All of them will help you put the art back into gift giving.

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