When planning trips, I often plan them around visiting art venues, exploring art communities, and experiencing specific artworks. It is a fun way to organize a trip and really helps me to get to know a city. The best way to Art Tour is to do it with a friend who loves art. This is just what I did last week in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. The purpose of the trip was to see a friend, see some art, get to know the cities, and checkout potential galleries and studio locations.
My partner in art-crime was my friend Jean. She lives in Tucson, Arizona and loves art. Her mother was a painter and she grew up for a short time in Manhattan living next door to the DeKoonings. Although she is not an artist, art has always been a large part of Jean’s life. Her house is filled with her mother’s paintings. It is always nice to travel and stay in a place where art is appreciated and shared. For me, that was easy on this trip. But on other trips, I have chosen AirBnB locations with a host that mentions art in their biography or description of their rental. It always helps to have a local who can help you with the ins-and-outs of getting around.
For this trip, part of what I wanted to do was get to know Tucson and Phoenix to see if they might be good places to start over-wintering. As an artist, I can’t just look for a place to house myself for a few months, I also need to find a place to create my art.
I stayed in Tucson, which has a lot of public art — in particular, murals. There are all kinds of murals, from small to large, from simple to complex. As part of my touring, I do a little research ahead of time and determine places and artwork I want to discover. I came to Tucson looking for Rock Martinez murals. Rock is an artist who lives part-time in Tucson and part-time in Minneapolis. So, although I haven’t met him, I feel a little kinship as I am looking to maybe split my time between these locations.
His one mural, Goddess of Agave was quite prominent and easy to find. This mural is located on the edge of the Arts District in Tucson.
A couple of other places I wanted to visit were the art galleries at the local universities. I wanted to check out the quality of the exhibits and see the spaces to determine if they might be suitable places to submit a future exhibit proposal.
I spent one day in Phoenix, by myself, and visited the Arizona State University Art Gallery. The ASU Gallery was an interesting gallery, architecturally. Instead of long horizontal levels, the gallery is more vertical in it’s orientation. I stopped in to see the George Floyd Square exhibit, having just been at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis the previous Sunday. The exhibit was of the thousands of pieces of art left by visitors to the site where George Floyd was killed. In reality, a vast majority of the exhibit was of homemade signs left by visitors. The signs were almost completely text — very little imagery. So, not a very arty stop, but a valuable tool to teach those who have not been to George Floyd Square.
On another day, Jean and I stopped at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson. This is a very good museum. The exhibits that were up during our visit included a local high school competition and a UA MFA exhibit. It was really enjoyable to see the stark difference that a few years of instruction can make. The art in one show was focused on acquiring skill and showing that one can make art that looks like something. The art in the other show had moved into the realm of concepts, sharing experience, and working the material.
The permanent collection galleries at UAMA were also quite impressive. The American Art Gallery had a decent collection of important artists. The Samual H. Kress Gallery had a wonderful collection of mostly religious European art from the 14th to 19th centuries. On the lower level was a delightful exhibit by Annie Lopez that combined photos and humorous stories of her childhood. But the gallery that blew me away was the Alterpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo. Twenty-six panels from 15th-century Spain depict the different stages of Christ’s life. These are sincere, skillful artworks that, displayed on all four walls of one gallery, are overwhelming. I could have spent an additional hour here, except we visited at the end of the week and were quite tired before even stepping into the gallery. It will be a place to revisit next year.
We also visited the Tucson Museum of Art, a wonderful museum in the heart of downtown Tucson. One of the exhibits was an extensive one hundred year summary of the museum, thus far. Drawing from their collection of local and international artists, the museum showed their many cultural influences over the years. The space is very enjoyable and you keep finding more rooms and galleries around every corner with a central Guggenheim-esque ramp that takes you to three levels.
The exhibits are very well presented and the curators create interesting associations by placing certain artworks near each other. If in the Tucson area, it is well worth a visit.
During my day in Phoenix, I visited the galleries in Scottsdale. There are about four blocks in old Scottsdale that are lined with galleries of many stripes. There was a Gallery Walk event that night, so the place was fairly empty while I walked around during the day. It was good to have the time to chat with some of the gallery owners/workers. I stopped into the Estates and Consignment Gallery, which resells artwork from estates. Most of the works are fairly small, but it is one of the few places where you can get art by known historic artists at a reasonable price.
To my surprise, the owner had sold the gallery to a wonderful couple, a sister and brother. They are going to continue the estate aspect of the gallery, in part, but the main aspect of the gallery will be representing contemporary artists. The estate artworks were still on display and available. I took quite a bit of time before deciding to purchase one. I had a very enjoyable time talking with the new owners and learning their plans. It will be fun to follow them and their gallery: Bella Fine Art.
I also spent part of a day trying to get to know the Tucson art community a bit better. I took a bus to the Arts District and visited with artists in their studios and discussed with them about the local scene. I was also inquiring about the short-term availability of studio spaces in the area. I was given a few names of people who sorta act as studio landlords with spaces spread throughout Tucson. I will follow up and see what the real costs and availability are.
Part of learning about a town is coming across art when not expected. I attended church with Jean on Sunday morning. At her church, St Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal church, there is a small gallery. The current exhibit was by church members who make art.
Another unexpected art stop was the Tucson Botanical Gardens. There were permanent sculptures and mosaics throughout the garden and they had an exhibit of sculptures made from trash collected from the ocean. These sculptures were crafted much better than most artwork I have seen made from trash.
In my week in Tucson and Phoenix I learned a lot about the local art communities, I learned my way around each town, and created a little more homework for myself in order to discover if they will be good cities for over-wintering. The art community in Tucson is certainly active and reminds me of the art community in the Twin Cities: world-class institutions, lots of public art, and an active community of artists. Phoenix will take a little more research, but the galleries on Scottsdale have a national reputation. I did find one gallery in Scottsdale that is interested in my art. I will be following up with them and see what can happen.
In all, I feel that touring the arts in each city and talking with people about why they live and/or make art there, I learned a lot about Phoenix and Tucson — and had a fun time. It always helps to have a good friend touring with you who can also decide to throw a last minute dinner party. Thank you, Jean!