Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) is Spokane's main cultural institution, a well-curated museum in the Browne's Addition neighbourhood with strong collections in regional art, natural history, and the material culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest interior. The galleries are thoughtfully organized and the building itself is an attractive 2001 addition to the historic Cheney Cowles building.

Particular highlights include the exhibits on the Plateau tribes and the collection of regional modernist art. The museum also runs the adjacent Campbell House, an elaborate 1898 Queen Anne mansion that documents the lifestyle of Spokane's post-mining boom wealthy class. Allow two hours for the museum and house combined.

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The museum's collection grew out of the Eastern Washington State Historical Society, founded in 1916. Its most remarkable holdings are the Indigenous materials from the Plateau tribes — Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce, and others — collected in the early 20th century before many of the traditions they document had been recorded. The adjacent Campbell House, a 1898 mansion, is included in admission and gives a window into the lives of Spokane's mining-era elite.

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