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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Liz Bustamante, Project Coordinator
(520) 624-0595 x14
liz@TucsonPimaArtsCouncil.org
100 ARTISTS OPEN THEIR CREATIVE SPACES
FOR PUBLIC TO SHARE EXPERIENCE OF ART
Open Studio Tour in Tucson: November 10 & 11
Preview Exhibition Kickoff Reception: November 8, 2007
TUCSON, AZ – All around Tucson all year long, the visual arts blossom behind hundreds of closed doors – in historic warehouses, converted garages, gardens, desert sanctuaries, lofts, and shared studios.
Then once each fall on a November weekend those doors open wide to reveal more than 100 artists, their centers of creativity and new works in progress. Welcome to the Open Studio Tour, a Tucson tradition for more than 20 years.
Step inside to see what inspires these inventors, painters, potters, sculptors, jewelers, photographers, weavers, and metalsmiths as they work with alabaster, fiber, glass, wood, gold, bronze, found objects, clay, acrylics, oils, gouache, paper, ink, watercolors, even the sun itself.
Their creations span the spectrum of art styles – traditional, contemporary, abstract, ethnic, and shock art. Expect the unexpected – bright and bold, subtle and ethereal, provocative or poignant. Discover giant alien flowers, solar photograms, tin collages, whimsical carvings, free-form sculpture, pop art, and painted books. These artists can be political, mythical, surreal or downright funny.
Take your pick. With more than 100 artists opening their studios all over the metropolitan area, you can’t possibly see them all.
That’s why the tour coordinator – Tucson Pima Arts Council – compiles and publishes a detailed program of the artists with maps to make finding them easy. This year the full-color printed program – designed by a local artist of course – includes a 14-month calendar featuring the participating artists’ work. The program is also posted online in September, then published and distributed at various sites around the region in October and at artist studios during the tour. For a Sneak Preview visit the website now www.TucsonPimaArtsCouncil.org
Take your time. Make a plan. Then head out to experience art as it happens.
This annual Open Studio Tour features established and emerging artists who make Southern Arizona their home. The tour is free to the public. The studios are open Saturday and Sunday, November 10 & 11, from 12 to 5pm.
The sponsors of the 2007 Tour are John Wesley Miller Companies, Tucson Home Magazine, KGUN 9, and the City of Tucson.
The Open Studio project includes a preview exhibition and artists' reception. The exhibition opens October 20 and continues through November 8 at Dinnerware Artspace, 264 East Congress Street. This gallery is celebrating 30 years of presenting contemporary art in downtown Tucson. The Artists Reception is Thursday, November 8 from 5 to 7pm at the gallery.
This Open Studio Tour reveals the depth and breadth of greater Tucson’s arts community today. This region is artistically and culturally rich. Its roots are deep, the climate moderate and the lifestyle relaxed. The quality of light attracts and inspires many artists.
Yesteryear, through its Western movie and the dude ranch days, Tucson had a cowboys-and-Indians image and still is home to acclaimed Western artists. Yet today’s art scene is far more scintillating and diverse – ranging from nationally known glass artist Tom Philabaum to award-winning Latino and Native American artists to teaching artist Simon Donovan who designed Tucson’s iconic Diamondback Bridge.
Meet a few of the artists who are opening their studios again this year:
- Navajo artist Glory Tacheenie-Campoy creates paintings and works on paper. She directs visitors to her ‘brown house with purple doors.”
- Loren Dawn’s abstract paintings are “sometimes shorthand for long stories or still clips from a constantly moving stream.”
- Sara Spanjers “recycles art from the ground to your heart.” Her email moniker is “bottlecapgirl.”
- Surrealist figurative painter Gwyneth Scally is also known for her sculptural installations. She’s exhibited in New York, Washington DC, and Beijing.
- Fiber artist Kathy Withers raises llamas, angora rabbits, goats, and sheep, then spins her own yarns.
- Wil Taylor’s totemic style is imbued with symbolic, mythological, and dream-inspired images as well as graffiti.
- Metal artist Lynn Rae Lowe says she is “a believer in surrounding oneself with images that uplift the soul and make the spirit dance.”
For desert-dwelling Tucsonans, autumn color can mean the vivid, vibrant hues of new art, not the changing leaves on trees. All over Pima County, people are welding, sanding, drawing, assembling, thinking, painting, molding, or pondering their art. Some work alone in intimate indoors spaces, on rooftops or outdoors. Others draw inspiration and energy by creating together in large shared spaces. Engaging with artists “at home” can be far more casual, intriguing and revealing than meeting them at a gallery exhibit.
In addition to the Open Studio Tour, the Arts Council oversees the City of Tucson and Pima County’s public art programs. It also presented the Ponies del Pueblo, where 35 life-sized ponies painted by local artists were sold at auction, raising $500,000 for local nonprofit organizations.
Founded in 1971, the Tucson Pima Arts Council is the designated arts agency for the City of Tucson and Pima County, regranting nearly $500,000 to arts and cultural organizations each year. Since 1986, the Arts Council has overseen 100 public arts projects. In 1999, the Arts Council established Artworks Academy for at-risk teens. The Community Arts program serves neighborhoods and rural areas, including residencies for professional artists and underserved youth. Since 2000, the Arts Council has sponsored a free multi-cultural Family Arts Festival. It also presents the annual Lumie Awards to artists, individuals, businesses, and other luminaries in the arts community. This year, with $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arts Council is leading an in-depth cultural planning process to produce an Action Plan for Pima County’s Cultural Development.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For high resolution images email Liz Bustamante at liz@TucsonPimaArtsCouncil.org
ATTN ARTISTS: The deadline to register for the Tour is September 6, 4pm. See the Call to Artists online www.TucsonPimaArtsCouncil.org
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