Meet the 93 Year-old Founder of Tucson's Drawing Studio
Andy Rush is a former associate professor of art at the University of Arizona, he is a printmaker, sculptor, and drawer. He considers the study and practice of drawing from observation to be the foundation of visual intelligence. As a teaching artist Andy explores how to broaden each person’s notion of what drawing can be. He founded The Drawing Studio in 1992 with a core group of Tucson artists. He is a resident of the Rancho Linda Vista art community in Oracle, Arizona.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographer: Danny Sax, Özlem Ayşe Özgür, Nate Huffman
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Avery is a physician, psychiatrist, and printmaker. His social content prints explore issues such as human rights and social responses to disease, death, sexuality, and the body. He uses science and art in tandem to heal. He transmutes suffering into his art. Eric’s motto is “life before art” as he plunges into healing the victims of society wherever he finds them.
Producer/Videographer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Editors: Danny Sax and Nate Huffman
Cumbi was a fine luxurious fabric of the Inca Empire offered only to rulers and reserved for royalty. The Tucson Museum of Art exhibition CUMBI: Textiles, Society, and Memory in Andean South America offers a new look at 2,000 years of art in Andean traditions. In this exhibition there are textiles from the ancient Andes alongside creations of contemporary Latin American and Latinx artists.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographer: Diana Cadena, Danny Sax and Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Editor: Diana Cadena
For Gavin Hugh Troy the roots of creative life began with skateboarding, creating something from nothing. Growing up in a time when skateparks were being torn down, Gavin and his friends built ramps, emptied swimming pools, skated ditches and rode the streets. He is one of downtown Tucson’s longest-running artists, since 1998. He pours his life journey onto his canvases with a lyrical brilliance. His paintings mirror his personal openness and serenity.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Özlem Ayşe Özgür, Nate Huffman, Robert Lindberg, Diana Cadena
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Carla Fabris is the Harp Instructor at the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. In this delicate performance, she explains what makes the harp such a unique and versatile instrument, as well as what she hopes audiences might glean from one of her performances.
Tucson artist and yoga instructor Maria Arvayo, who is also a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, talks about her passions and inspiration from the Sonoran Desert landscapes. She is one of many Native American artists who have exhibited at the Amerind Foundation east of Tucson, between Benson and Willcox just south of I-10. The Amerind (from American Indian) Foundation was founded in 1937 as a private, nonprofit archaeological research institution but later opened as a museum, art gallery and research center.
Artista e instructora de yoga de Tucson María Arvayo, quien es miembro de la Tribu Pascua Yaqui, nos platica sobre sus pasiones e inspiración tomadas por los paisajes del desierto sonoro. Ella es una de muchas artistas indígenas que ha presentado sus obras en el Amerind Foundations al este de Tucson, entre Benson y Wilcox al sur de la carretera estatal 10. La fundación Amerind fue fundada en el 1937 como un instituto de investigación arqueológico privado y no-lucrativo que luego abrió sus puertas como museo, galería de arte y centro de investigación.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer/Editor: Eryka Dellenbach
Sisters Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete are 5th-generation master Navajo weavers born for the To’aheedliinii (Two Waters Flow Together Clan). Both have been weaving since a very young age and are internationally acclaimed for their tapestries. Follow along as they share what the art of weaving means to them and its importance to Navajo culture.
Lex Gjurasic is a visual artist from the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest currently living in sunny Tucson. Lex’s work comes from the intensity she feels from being alive. For her, life is not an inspiration for art, rather, it is a compulsion to make art. Lex works purely from gut instinct. Creating joy filled paintings and sculptures is her way of processing memories, emotions, and experiences in a chaotic world. Her work is a visceral expression of life.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Danny Sax, Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Editor: Danny Sax
Founded in 1928, the Museum of Northern Arizona protects and preserves the natural and cultural heritage of northern Arizona through research, collections, conservation, and education. Take a tour of the museum with us and explore the people, history and ecology of this beautiful and diverse part of the country.
Producer: David Fenster
Videographer/Editor: Nathan Huffman
Music: Ryan Chavira
Meet Kyklo, a local Tucson band that explores tunes from the Aegean region. Paul Amiel and Anton Shekergiev are inspired by Bulgarian, Greek, and Turkish songs. Sometimes Kyklo’s tunes will allure the audience to follow the steps of an old folk dance.
Have you heard about Kyklo? Kyklo means "cycle" in Greek, but in Tucson it is a band that plays otherworldly and mystical music. Kyklo’s music carries the traces of old romances and melancholy. Paul Amiel and Anton Shekergiev explore the Mediterranean and the Balkan spirit. The duo plays tunes from the Aegean region including Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish songs. If you are in Tucson and lucky enough to hear Paul and Anton, their music will drag you into an enchanted land.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographer: Robert Lindberg and Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Navajo Silversmith Alex Beeshligaii (Diné/Apache) has worked as a traditional silversmith for more than three decades, making jewelry using tufa and sand molds. He learned the art from family and community members and he sings to the artwork that he makes, as he was taught by his late mother. He works with his son, Shane Beeshligaii, to pass on the tradition and philosophy of the artform as well as the Navajo Diné language and history.
Producer: John DeSoto
Videographer: Nate Huffman, Danny Sax
Editor: Danny Sax
We do not change because of what we know, we change because what we feel about what we know. Having an emotional experience with something created by an artist can make a difference. Jim Waid, a Tucson artist, who is in major museums including New York Museum of Modern Art, is celebrating a career of more than 40 years. He paints a visceral world bursting with life, filled with light and energy. His paintings change what we feel about the Sonoran Desert. His dreamy landscapes refence Abstract Expressionism, Color Field paintings and Victorian botanicals. Each brush stroke and color reflect a moment under Southwest's vast blue sky. Experiencing a Jim Waid painting in person means entering the mysterious world of Sonoran Desert’s exuberant fauna and walking under the shimmering Mesquite trees. Jim says, “my paintings are enactments of the world around me.” He invites all “to step right in!”
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographer: Robert Lindberg, Özlem Ayşe Özgür, Diana Cadena
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Spanish subtitles available | Subtítulos disponibles en español
John Contreras is a mariachi musician and has served as the director of the award-winning Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School for the past 20 years. Mariachi music has been an integral part of John’s life since age three, when his father taught him to play the guitar. He has spent his career passing along his knowledge and the heritage of mariachi music to generations of mariachi students. His career investment earned him the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award in Arts Education.
John Contreras es un músico mariachi y ha sido el director del galardonado Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School por los últimos 20 años. La música mariachi ha sido una parte integra de la vida de John desde los tres años cuando su papá le enseñó a tocar la guitarra. Durante su carrera, él ha transmitido su conocimiento y herencia a generaciones de estudiantes mariachis. En el 2001, John recibió el premio Governor’s Arts Award por su trabajo en la educación del arte.
Producer: John DeSoto
Videographer: Robert Lindberg, Danny Sax
Editor: Diana Cadena
Miguel Molina is a Peruvian artist based in Tucson. He was classically trained in easel painting, mural painting and ceramics. His aesthetic style is in tune with his ancestral Andean cultural influences. Molina has his own cosmology where he expresses universal themes. In his paintings, he has used regional colors, music, dance, myths legends and ancestral rituals. His works as an illustrator has been published in numerous books, stories, music album booklets, posters and more.
Miguel Molina es un artista peruano basado en Tucson. Fue entrenado clásicamente en las áreas de pintura de caballete, pintura mural, y cerámica. Su estilo estético está sintonizado con sus influencias de cultura ancestrales andinas. Molina tiene su propia cosmología en el cual expresa temas universales. En sus pinturas, él ha usado colores regionales, música, danza, mitos, leyendas y ritos ancestrales. Sus obras como ilustrador han sido publicados en numerosos libros, historias, folletos de álbumes musicales, pósteres, y más.
Poet Gabriel Dozal reads his poem “No Pares, Sigue, Sigue” from his larger collection of poems, titled "The Border Simulator." The collection tells stories of a brother and sister, named Primitivo and Primitiva, who are attempting to cross the US-Mexico border in search of a better life. The poems are all written in both English and Spanish and explore the idea of the border as both a real place and a living simulation.
En su poema visual, el poeta Gabriel Dozal lee, “No pares, sigue, sigue”, de su colección de poesía titulada, “The Border Simulator”. La colección narra las historias de un hermano y una hermana, llamados Primitivo y Primitiva, que intentan cruzar la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México en busca de una vida mejor. Cada poema está escrito en inglés y español y explora ambas ideas de la frontera como un lugar real y una simulación viviente.
Producer: Bryan Nelson
Videographer: Bryan Nelson, Diana Cadena, Danny Sax
Editor: Diana Cadena
Spanish subtitles available | Subtítulos disponibles en español
Gertrude “Gertie” Lopez is a celebrated Tohono O’odham musician who has been a force in Tucson’s music community for decades. She is revered as the only female band leader on the Tohono O'odham reservation, writing and performing a traditional style of music known as ‘waila’, with her band Gertie and the T.O. Boyz. She now inspires a new generation of musicians to preserve waila’s rich history.
Gertrude “Gertie” López es una música célebre Tohono O’odham, cuya ha sido una fuerza en la comunidad musical de Tucson por décadas. Ella es venerada como la única mujer líder de banda en la reservación Tohono O’odham. López compone y toca un estilo tradicional de música conocida como “waila” con su banda “Gertie and the T.O. Boyz”. Ella ahora inspira una nueva generación de músicos que preservarán la rica historia del waila.
Producer: Abraham Cooper
Videographer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Editor: Emmanuel Joubeaud
Adam Homan is a Tucson-based sculptor, whose medium is steel. When he was six years old his parents took him to the El Dorado Theater in Tucson, to see Star Wars. When he walked out, his life was changed forever. He wanted to know everything about Star Wars. He found books about the model makers, the creature shops and the visual effects. It was a moment in his life where he grasped the idea that you can create your own world and tune into other realities. Adam says, “The joy of artmaking is in the moment of creation where everything else melts away and you connect to the energy of imagination.”
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Nate Huffman, Danny Sax, Özlem Ayse Özgür, Diana Cadena
Editor: Danny Sax
Blue Lotus, a water lily that is native to North Africa, grows along the Nile. In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the triumph of wisdom over suffering. In Tucson it is a symbol for the Blue Lotus Artists Collective. The president of the board and the gallery Laura Pendleton Miller says, “Like the Blue Lotus, Black artists have risen from harsh environments to bring beauty to the world.” The gallery had its soft opening last spring and will have its official opening on November 3, 2023.
Theodore Buchholz is the Associate Professor of Cello at University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. In this elegant performance of a piece composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, he explains his intimate relationship with the cello and what life lessons can be found in learning to play an instrument.
Barbara Rogers is a force of nature, a loving mother and a prolific artist living in Tucson. Her work explores the ideas of paradise, life, destruction vulnerability and beauty. Barbara paints because the act of painting is direct. For her painting is just another truth. She makes paintings to transcend daily life. Her paintings evoke the sublime and reaffirm the existence of beauty. She hopes her paintings remind us the critical importance of cherishing the earth. She explores ideas of paradise, life, destruction, vulnerability and beauty via abstraction in her work. Barbara has exhibited nationally and internationally.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Robert Lindberg, Özlem Ayşe Özgür, Diana Cadena
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Inna Rohr and Emily Hallowell are founders of the Untitled Gallery, whose goal is to provide a platform to discover Tucson’s local talent. They welcomed us to their invitational exhibition “Passages” to share their artistic aspirations, as they believe art connects us all.
Ana Maria Iordache is a performing graduate student in guitar at the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. She took a break from maintaining a regular performing career around the world to sit down for an exclusive with Arizona Illustrated. In this intimate performance, she showcases her love of the guitar and discusses how the instrument has shaped her life.
Ian Urquhart runs a local black-owned screen-printing business that raises money for schools in Kenya as well as the Z Mansion's WORKship program in Tucson. Ignis Clothing was created by Urquhart, a Tucson native, who has an imperfect lifestyle business that is all about representation, creativity, and being bold, just like the name of his clothing brand. Urquhart is focused on quality streetwear at an affordable price.
Urquhart hosted his first-ever fashion show in April at the Z Mansion and in September, he will be heading to New York Fashion Week where some of his clothes will be hitting the runway.
Producer: John DeSoto
Videographer: Diana Cadena, John DeSoto
Editor: Diana Cadena
Poet Susan Briante is a professor in UA’s English Department and is the author of three books of poetry. In this story, as part of a collaborative effort between Arizona Illustrated and the University of Arizona Poetry Center, she shares her “To Erasures, Erasures" which addresses the US-Mexico border and immigration.
In this installment of Arizona Illustrated’s poetry series, a collaboration with the UA Poetry Center, former Tucson Poet Laureate William Pitt Root reads "White Boots: Ghost of the San Manual Mine".
William Pitt Root is the author of eleven books and has been published in hundreds of magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and more. He grew up in Florida and earned degrees from the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was Tucson’s Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2002.
Producer: Liz Scherffius
Videographers: Diana Cadena, Robert Lindberg, Danny Sax
Editor: Danny Sax
In this installment of Arizona Illustrated’s poetry series, a collaboration with the UA Poetry Center, the acclaimed poet and writer, Raquel Gutiérrez, reads On the Crisis of Abandonment, a poem about living next to Aviation Freeway.
Raquel Gutiérrez is the author of Brown Neon (Coffee House Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction, and Southwest Reconstruction (Noemi Press, 2022). A 2017 recipient of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, they run Econo Textual Objects, which publishes intimate works by QTPOC poets. She is a poet and writer based in Tucson, Arizona.
Puppetry has its roots in folklore, religion, and magic. The first puppets on the North American continent were part of the ceremonial rituals of Native Americans. The 20th century brought ethnic puppeteers to the US. Their performance styles and designs influenced the permanent vocabulary of puppet theatre. Lisa Aimee Sturz, the founder of the Red Herring Puppets, is a puppeteer who lives in Tucson. She welcomes us into her world.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Robert Lindberg and Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Editor: Robert Lindberg
TC Tolbert is a nationally certified EMT and often identifies as a trans and genderqueer feminist, collaborator, dancer, and poet. S/he holds an MFA from the University of Arizona, and is the author of Gephyromania (Ahsahta Press, 2014), five chapbooks of poetry, and is co-editor with Trace Peterson of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books, 2013). Tolbert is the recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Award. In 2019, s/he was the guest editor for Poem-a-Day in January and was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Tolbert is currently the poet laureate of Tucson, Arizona, where s/he lives.
In collaboration with the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and American Indian Studies Bojan Louis recites “Poem V” (five). Poem V speaks of the ancient relationship between Native American culture and the loquacious desert environment in which we live.
Producer/Editor: John DeSoto
Videographer: Danny Sax
Sierra Vista’s Germany – Angelika’s German Imports
Angelika Gloyd is the popular owner of Angelika’s German Imports in the community of Sierra Vista, Arizona. It is one of three German restaurants there, even though it has a population of fewer than 50,000 residents. Cochise County’s largest city has a thriving international dining scene, thanks in part to US Army base Fort Huachuca.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer/Editor: Danny Sax
The owner of Angry German restaurant in Sierra Vista, Arizona used to get jokes about “sounding angry” when he spoke to his mother in German, so he decided it would be fun to incorporate that into his restaurant’s name. It is one of three German restaurants in Sierra Vista, even though the city has a population of fewer than 50,000 residents. Cochise County’s largest city has a thriving international dining scene, thanks in part to US Army base Fort Huachuca.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer/Editor: Robert Lindberg
Snakebite, a small gallery space in Tucson, is owned by artists Geneva Foster Gluck and Racheal Rios who set out to fill a void in the downtown art scene. Modeled after various “creation spaces” they visited in different cities, Snakebite provides underrepresented artists a space to be more experimental with their work, to create discourse, and build community. Artist Lizz Denneau is one of those artists who used the space to test her thesis for a low residency MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Using a variety of mediums and found objects, Denneau’s sculptures unearth erased histories of the black diaspora and systems of racism and class. These histories, ingrained in ephemera and relics used in her work, invite us to examine what she calls “a collective ancestry and generational memory.”
Javier Zamora: Aniversario or We Moved To Tucson During a Pandemic
In this installment of Arizona Illustrated’s poetry series, a collaboration with the UA Poetry Center, the acclaimed poet, Javier Zamora, reads Aniversario or We Moved To Tucson During a Pandemic, a tribute to his wife Jo Cipriano.
Javier Zamora was born in El Salvador and migrated to the US when he was nine. His first poetry collection, Unaccompanied explores some of these themes. In his debut New York Times bestselling memoir, SOLITO, Javier retells his nine-week odyssey across Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. He travelled unaccompanied by boat, bus, and foot. After a coyote abandoned his group in Oaxaca, Javier managed to make it to Arizona with the aid of other migrants.
Producer/Editor: David Fenster
Videographer: Diana Cadena
Fanya Lin is the Associate Professor of Practice in Piano at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music. In this evocative performance of a piece composed by Alberto Ginastera, she explains her process and philosophy of playing classical music and how it applies to life.
We think so little of socks. Barbara Schroeder knits socks with a 130-year-old antique sock knitting machine. The Hand Cranked Knitter and Sock Machine, invented in the United States and manufactured in North America, was essential. These machines were used between 1813 to the 1990s. Barbara tells the importance of these machines during WWI when the US had a national mobilization. Knitting was a heroic act at the time and all women were called to "knit their bit" to help the boys fighting in the trenches. Barbara cannot emphasize enough the importance of wearing wool socks, even in summer!
Even though Sierra Vista has an official population of fewer than 50,000 residents, people here have a variety of culinary options, thanks in part to the US Army’s Fort Huachuca which has brought in soldiers and their spouses from different parts of the globe. However, many people are surprised to find out the community has not one, not two, but three German restaurants. Let us introduce you to the people behind the establishments.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer: Nate Huffman
Editor: Diana Cadena
Matt Cotten is a painter, puppeteer, and performer based in Tucson. He explores memory, time, and entropy in his artwork. He uses abstraction to reveal decay and disorder in urban spaces. Places disintegrate and stories dissolve into traces of color and layers of light in his paintings. He uses expressionistic figures to visualize the flow of time and its organic effects on us. His paintings suggest that each of us is but a tiny facet in an expansive natural world.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Robert Lindberg, Danny Sax, Özlem Ayşe Özgür, Diana Cadena
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Jimmy Descant is a Tucson-based, self-taught sculptor and assemblage artist. He is known among artists as a Severe Re-constructivist. He compounds found objects to create socio-political artwork in a style he calls: ‘Western Futurism.” Jimmy creates his work during live assemblage art performances. Using the objects of the past, Jimmy Descant’s artwork comments on the present while sending a message to the future.
“May we all release and surrender to the flow of love while expanding and making a difference together,” says Lisa Agababian. Her motto is “Spread peace, beauty, and love!” She inscribes these words on the back of each of her unique heart sculptures. Agababian, born and raised in New York City, is a self-taught ceramic artist. She has been honing her craft since she started her journey with clay at the age of seven, at an Armenian summer camp in upstate New York. She creates ceramic heart-shaped wall sculptures, each telling a unique story.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographer: Nate Huffman, Erika Dellenbach, Daniel Sax, Robert Lindberg
Editor: Robert Lindberg
Spanish subtitles available | Subtítulos disponibles en español
Cecilia Vicuña is a poet and artist. She was born in Santiago, Chile in 1948 and worked in relative obscurity for several decades, but her creative power and sensitivity are no longer a secret. In the last few years, she has had solo exhibitions of her work at some of the most prestigious museums in the world including the Tate Modern in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. She was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Now she brings her unique artistic practice to MOCA Tucson for a show called Sonoran Quipu. A quipu (‘knot’ in Quechua) is an ancient Andean communication technology that uses knotted strings to record information and was banned by the Spanish during the colonization of South America. Vicuña reimagines the ancient quipu system, incorporating contemporary materials to highlight its capacity to connect worlds and people.
Cecilia Vicuña es una artista y poeta. Ella nació en Santiago, Chile en el 1948 donde trabajó en relativa oscuridad por varias décadas, pero su poder creativo y sensibilidad ya no es un secreto. En los últimos años, ella ha mostrado exposiciones individuales en museos prestigiosos que incluyen la galería Tate Modern en Londres y el museo Guggenheim en Nueva York. Fue galardonada con el premio Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement en el Biennale de Venezia en el 2022. Ahora comparte sus prácticas artísticas con MOCA Tucson en una exhibición titulado “Sonoran Quipu”. El quipu (lo cual significa ‘nudo’ en Quechua) es una antigua tecnología de comunicación andina que usa cordones anudadas para anotar información que fue prohibida durante la colonización de América del Sur por los españoles. Vicuña reimagina el sistema antiguo quipu e incorpora materiales para realzar su capacidad en conectar mundos y gente.
Producer/Editor: David Fenster
Videographer: Nate Huffman, David Fenster, Diana Cadena
Music: Ryan Chavira
Architect Rick Joy is based in Tucson but has worked on projects around the globe. His minimalist, refined style defies expectations or classification but always seeks to reflect the environment it is situated in. He met lighting designer and now wife, Claudia Kappl-Joy while working on a luxury hotel in southern Utah. In this story, the talented couple takes us on a tour of their own private offices and home.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer: Nate Huffman, Jandro Davalos
Editor: Andrew Brown and Nate Huffman
The Weekend Market at St. Philip's Plaza is a local vendor showcase hosted every Saturday and Sunday. The market is free to anyone and has a little something for everyone; St. Philip's Art Market celebrates Tucson's diverse community with a wide variety of local art and crafts ranging from foods, windchimes, plants, locally sourced cutting boards, and everything in between.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Robert Lindberg, Özlem Ayşe Özgür, and Diana Cadena
Editors: Emmanuel Joubeaud and Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Jane Hamilton has operated a gallery in southern Arizona for 30 years, and she traces its roots to the time she prayed while staying in a tipi in New Mexico. She began her business in Bisbee in 1992 and moved to Tucson in 2001, surviving in a challenging industry that is affected by issues such as recessions and road construction.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer/Editor: Robert Lindberg
Lotfi is an Iranian-born, multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Tucson. She focuses on the notions of self and identity formation in relation to architecture, landscape, space, and place. Lotfi’s art practice is rooted in her experiences of growing up in post-Revolutionary Iran. She continued her education and artistic career as an immigrant in the United States. For Lotfi, the body, the house, the garden, and the nation are enclosures that define the self and the other, inclusion and exclusion, access and belonging.
Producer: Özlem Ayşe Özgür
Videographers: Robert Lindberg and Nate Huffman
Editor: Özlem Ayşe Özgür and Nate Huffman
Native Tucsonan Feng-Feng Yeh created the Tucson Chinese Chorizo Project as a way to retell the story of how Chinese and Mexican communities once thrived throughout the barrios of downtown Tucson. This historic recipe of the Chinese chorizo has been re-created and distributed to local restaurants that are putting a modern spin on this sausage as it is used to highlight the story of its humble past.
Producer/Editor: John DeSoto
Videographer: John DeSoto, Jandro Davalos
Ivy Wahome, from Nakuru, Kenya is the first black woman member of the I.A.T.S.E. local union 415 since it was chartered in Tucson. She is currently working on her MFA in Costume Design and Production at the School of Theater, Film, and Television at the University of Arizona. Her show, “Gilded in Black” sets the stage to show us a flipped version of the Victorian period from the African cultural perspective.
Producer: Andrew Brown & Özlem Ayse Özgür
Videographer: Bob Lindberg & Nate Huffman
Editor: Bob Linderberg & Özlem Ayse Özgür
Mel & Melissa Dominguez opened Galería Mitotera in 2018 as a space that celebrates and uplifts Chicanx culture and artists of color. Join Mel and Melissa as they host an indigenous art show in South Tucson and discover the passion they have for local art in their community.
Mel y Melissa Domínguez inauguraron la Galería Mitotera en el 2018 para crear un espacio donde se pudiera celebrar y apoyar la cultura Chicanx y los artistas de color. Acompañen a Mel y Melissa mientras albergan una exposición indígena en el Sur de Tucson y descubre la pasión que sienten por el arte local en la comunidad.
Producer: Andrew Brown and Jandro Davalos
Videographer/Editor: Jandro Davalos
La Doce is a neighborhood in the Southside of Tucson that spans three miles along South 12th Avenue from 4th street to Drexel Road. What makes this corridor of the city is its resilience as a cultural district despite years of disinvestment. Now more vulnerable than ever to gentrification, multiple agencies have been coming together to strategize on ways to preserve and protect La Doce’s community and traditions and help its existing economy thrive with the area’s residents taking leadership in its development.
La Doce es un vecindario en el Sur de Tucson que abarca tres millas a lo largo de la Avenida 12, el cual empieza en la Cuarta Avenida y acaba en la calle Drexel. Lo que hace único a este corredor de la ciudad es su resiliencia como distrito cultural a pesar de muchos años de desinversión. Múltiples agencias cooperan para preservar y proteger la comunidad de La Doce, sus tradiciones, y para prosperar su economía existente con la ayuda de residentes locales tomando un liderazgo para combatir la gentrificación.
Producer: Cáit NíSiomón
Videographer/Editor: Robert Lindberg
Cocina La Ley has been a Nogales, Arizona staple since German Larios founded the restaurant in 1994. It has been in the family ever since, serving up delicious and fresh tacos and soups for Nogalenses and people passing through the city. What is the key to Larios’ success? Use fresh ingredients, make the customers feel at home, and make it an unforgettably delicious dining experience!
Cocina La Ley ha sido un restaurante fundamental para la ciudad de Nogales, Arizona desde que German Larios abrió sus puertas en el 1994. Ha estado en la familia desde entonces, sirviendo tacos de pescado frescos y caldos deliciosos para los nogaleños y la gente pasajera. ¿Qué es la clave para el éxito de los Larios? Utilizar ingredientes naturales, hacer sentir a los clientes como familia, ¡y crear una experiencia culinaria inolvidable!
Charles Mingus is one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American music. He was born in Nogales, AZ to a father who was a Buffalo Soldier stationed at Camp Little in 1922. He later became known as a virtuoso jazz bass player, band leader, and composer. Although Mingus' time in Nogales was brief, his Southern Arizona roots are still a sense of pride and celebration for the community. His 100th birthday was celebrated with concerts in Phoenix, Tucson, and Nogales by the quintet Mingus Dynasty before being finalized with the unveiling of the Charles Mingus Memorial in Nogales.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: John DeSoto
Artist Alex! Jimenez spent a year creating the Chubasco Channel, an artwork commissioned by Tucson Water to raise awareness of the vulnerability of Tucson’s water supply. Using field recordings of the 2021 monsoon season, the project was realized as an immersive sound installation along the Santa Cruz River on Dia San Juan, an annual celebration of the monsoons.
The beauty of the natural world has long been an inspiration for writers and poets. in April 2022, poet Jodie Hollander teamed up with the National Parks Service in Arizona to host workshops across the state celebrating national poetry month by inviting anyone who is interested to learn about the art form, reflect on their environment and even write their own poems. Hollander is working with NPS on a similar schedule of events for April 2023.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Jandro Davalos
Experts and enthusiasts converged in Tucson to celebrate the history, culture, and culinary offerings of the agave plant at the 14th annual Agave Heritage Festival. There are six agave species that grow wild in the Tucson basin, and they are a key nutritional source for pollinators like long-nosed bats, hummingbirds, and butterflies. Cultivation of the agave century plant dates to 950 C.E. and has been used for fiber as well as a food source. How is agave consumed by humans, and what does it taste like? This piece takes viewers to an agave “piñas” roasting pit at Mission Garden and a fermented beverages workshop at El Crisol.
Producer: Liz Scherffius
Videographer/Editor: Bob Lindberg
The themes in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" are as relevant now as they were when it was written four hundred years ago. Director Kevin Black sets "Hamlet" in a modern society that's ruled by artificial intelligence systems. Through the use of multimedia, Black interrogates media itself, our relationships to technology, and one another.
Tucson resident Maryanne Chisholm discovered art in prison and her life has never been the same. In 2005, she was sentenced to more than 30 years behind bars for fraudulent schemes and other charges, but she was released after serving 14 years. She says she was able to survive her time in prison by concentrating on paintings and drawings. Now, she is a successful artist who sells traditional works and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and has tens of thousands of followers on Twitter. She says one of her major goals, in addition to her art, is to work on prison reform and help other people turn their lives around. She credits much of her success to the Prison Ministry program which is operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Videographer/Editor: John DeSoto
In an excerpt from her poem Birth Witness, poet and Tohono O’odham tribal member Ofelia Zepeda explores the sacredness of her language in the face of government bureaucracy.
Producer/Director: Nina Shelton Videographer/Editor: John DeSoto
A behind-the-scenes look at Arizona Theatre Company’s world premiere musical ‘Justice.’ The play examines the friendship between Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, what it means to be the first and how the court continues to move forward thanks to their efforts. Playwright Lauren Gunderson also created a third character, Vera, who represents the future of the court by being the first black female Supreme Court Justice. In a strange case of life imitating art or art imitating life, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was being sworn in while the cast was in rehearsals.
Producer:Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: John DeSoto
What happens when your language is in critical danger of dying out? This is true for the majority of Indigenous tribal languages in the United States. Meet Ofelia Zepeda, a UA linguistics professor who has spent her life’s work preserving the Tohono O’odham language. She, along with two parents, share their efforts to preserve this important heritage for future generations.
Producer:Nina Shelton Videographer/Editor: John DeSoto Additional music by Ivan Burrell and Antoinette Encinas with the Mission San Xavier del Bac
Founded in 1893, Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona is the oldest and largest anthropological research facility in the U.S. Southwest. It is also Arizona’s official archaeological repository, housing more than 3 million cataloged objects, and growing by as much as 1,000 cubic feet of bulk material every year. Three separate collections are especially prized (pottery, basketry, photography), designated as American Treasures by the U.S. government, which underscores the museum’s vital importance to the nation's shared cultural history.
Producer/Editor: Bryan Nelson Videographer/Editor: Jandro Davalos
The Lunar New Year is a major event in many parts of the world. This year, Mission Garden and the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center teamed up to celebrate the occasion. The day included traditional foods, a lion dance, a tea ceremony, and much more. Join us as we learn about, and celebrate the Lunar New Year!
Producer: David Fenster Videographer/Editor: Robert Lindberg
At the age of 47, Alanna Airitam decided to become an artist. She left a successful career in advertising and pursued photography full-time. The photographs depict Black subjects in regal and dignified poses and settings. Her goal is to create work that she did not see represented growing up and to show the world her truth, as she sees it. To see more from Alanna visit alannaairitam.com.
A selection of her work will be on display at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography from April 16-October 15, 2022.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Gage Judd, John DeSoto Colorist: Emmanuel Joubeaud
rafa esparza is an artist who famously disrupts and re-envisions institutional spaces into places of inclusivity, diversity, and community. Here, we bring viewers into rafa’s vision through a public adobe brick-making workshop at MOCA Tucson and his solar observation room, which harnesses the power of the sun and gives a nod to the indigenous architecture found in the Southwest and Mexico.
Poet Mathias Svalina takes us on a dream history tour of downtown Tucson. The guided walk left MOCA Tucson with around 50 participants and stopped at key locations where the writer describes events that never happened. Svalina combines Tucson’s history which he studied while in residence at the University of Arizona Poetry Center with his own surrealist interpretations. His aim is to unlock the city’s dream logic which he says is often analogous to the way its real history is remembered.
The Swiss-born artist Olivier Mosset has exhibited work in some of the most prestigious museums and galleries in the world but lives a quiet life in Tucson, Arizona. His solo exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art presents new large-scale monochrome paintings along with important works from his career, personal objects, and an ephemeral ice sculpture. His work challenges notions of authorship and definitions of art and leaves the viewer to decide what to make of it.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: John DeSoto, Jandro Davalos, Nate Huffman, Andrew Brown Colorist: Emmanuel Joubeaud Field Audio: Zachary Harns Music performed live by: Naïm Amor, Thøger Lund and Casey Hadland and Karima Walker
Cooking over wood has been a part of Tucson’s culinary history for thousands of years and it is at the center of the midtown bistro Tito and Pep. Head chef and owner John Martinez grew up cooking family meals, pig roasts, and tamales with his grandmother in Tucson, which led him to pursue a career in the field. After several years in New York working for acclaimed chefs and opening restaurants around the world, Martinez returned to Tucson hoping to open a restaurant that reflected this city’s diverse cultural influences, Tito and Pep is the result.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographers: Jandro Davalos, John DeSoto Editor: Jandro Davalos Colorist: Emmanuel Joubeaud Location audio and animations: Zachary Harns
Barbea Williams moved from Chicago to Tucson in the 1970s. She brought with her the annual tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa, the seven-day holiday uniting families and communities to honor their African culture. Not finding other Black Tucsonans who celebrated Kwanzaa, Barbea’s life calling was born. For the past 50 years, she has shared the message of Kwanzaa, its principles, and festivities throughout Southern Arizona.
Producer: Nina Shelton Videographer: Nathan Huffman, Robert Lindberg Editor: Robert Lindberg
When Josefina Lizárraga first moved to Tucson in the 1960s and started her family, she wasn't earning enough money in her job at a store so she started making tamales at home to sell to friends and family. This side gig flourished and eventually, she was able to save enough money to quit her day job and open up her own florist business. Now retired, the 85-year-old mother, grandmother, and former businesswoman is a busy volunteer in the community, including Mission Garden where she loves the people, plants, and traditions. We join Josefina at the garden's kitchen where she talks about the popular tamale tradition in her culture.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographers: Gage Judd and Nate Huffman
Editor: Gage Judd
The Fourth Avenue Street Fair returned to Tucson for the first time since 2019 after cancellations due to the pandemic. The bi-annual event which started 51 years ago now brings an average of 300,000 people downtown over its three-day run. We visited shoppers, vendors, and organizers as the event returned to see what was new and let them reflect back on the last two years.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographer: Bob Lindberg Colorist: Emmanuel Joubeaud
Pole dancing is an art form that started in the strip clubs and like many other subcultures is now part of the American mainstream. Tucson has become an unexpected hotbed for the industry, boasting a variety of studios teaching different styles of pole dance. It is even home to the U.S. Pole Sports Federation which holds the national championships here and hopes to one day bring the sport to the Olympics.
Producer/Videographer: Andrew Brown Editor: Mya Long
Josie Zapata and her friends and neighbors Rosanna and Louis Lievanos, have things in common; an alleyway, and sadly, having lost people to COVID-19. To stay positive, they came together and transformed the alleyway into an art gallery. Over time more friends and neighbors have joined to contribute, resulting in a new sense of community, that not only was affected by the pandemic but has become less common in our modern age.
Producer: Cáit NíSíomón Videographers: John DeSoto, Gage Judd, Jordan Chin Editors: Gage Judd, Cáit NíSíomón
Spanish subtitles available | Subtítulos disponibles en español
For Carlos Valenzuela art is a family tradition and a lifelong obsession. At a young age, he learned from his mother that “if you could make something with your hand and endow it with enough love that you could feed your children,” and that’s what he’s been doing most of his life. The community educator and glass and tile artist had helped facilitate the creation of hundreds of mosaic tile murals across Southern Arizona with local youth. These murals, which are nearly ubiquitous in South Tucson and New Pascua, reflect community heritage, cultural values, and history so deeply that they have become symbols of the community in and of themselves.
This story is dedicated to Carlos’ mother, Amelia H. Cruz, who died on August 29, 2021. Rest in Peace.
Para Carlos Valenzuela, el arte es una tradición de familia y una obsesión de por vida. Desde muy joven, su mamá le enseñó que “si puedes crear algo con tus manos y dotarlo con mucho amor, podrás alimentar a tus hijos,” y eso es lo que ha hecho la mayoría de su vida. El educador comunitario y artista de vidrio y de azulejo ha facilitado la creación de más de cienes de murales azulejos a través de Arizona del Sur con la juventud local. Estos murales, los cuales son omnipresentes en el sur de Tucson y Nueva Pascua, reflejan la herencia comunitaria, valores culturales e historia tan profundamente que se han convertido en símbolos de la comunidad por sí mismos.
Esta historia es dedicada a la madre de Carlos, Amelia H. Cruz, quien murió el 29 de agosto del 2021. En paz descanse.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Andrew Brown and Nate Huffman Post-production audio: Jim Blackwood
The annual thesis exhibition for the University of Arizona School of Art is the culmination of several years of work for Master of Fine Arts students. The work covers a wide range of mediums and is almost always ambitious, bold, and immersive. In March of 2020, the graduating class and faculty were in the final stages of preparation for the show when the covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt. The young artists temporarily lost access to their studios, the physical exhibition was postponed indefinitely then moved online and students graduated into an uncertain world. Fourteen months later, in June of 2021, the school fulfilled its promise and mounted the exhibition for all graduates who were able to participate inside the University of Arizona Museum of Art, The Joseph Gross Gallery, and the Center for Creative Photography. “It really does provide us with that closure that we’ve all be waiting for the past year,” said 2020 MFA graduate, Leah Netsky.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographer: Gage Judd, Bob Lindberg Editor: Gage Judd
Body of Work: Nicole Miller features artist and filmmaker Nicole Miller, a world-renowned artist with roots in Tucson. The segment unfolds around Miller's creation of a bronze sculpture of Michael Jackson, using molds taken from Jackson’s actual body in the 1980s. It was poured at Metalphysic Sculpture Studio, a Tucson foundry. Through the creation of this sculpture, we look back at Miller’s previous work, which often deals with black bodies.
Miller's work has been celebrated around the world, with solo exhibitions at Marfa Ballroom, Centre D’art Contemporain Geneva, Kunst Werk Berlin, the California African American Museum, Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, The Highline NYC, and The LA County Museum in Los Angeles. She was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2018.
Producer/Editor: David Fenster Videographers: Gage Judd & David Fenster
Before he was in middle school, aspiring blues musician Roman Barten-Sherman leaned on Tom Walbank as a mentor and teacher. You may have seen them together at Cafe Passe, or at the Congress Patio. Now ready for college, Roman will begin a five-year Contemporary Improvisation program hosted by Tufts University and the New England Conservatory this fall. We capture Tom and Roman's journey, framed around the Roman Barten-Sherman and Tom Walbank Neighborhood Outdoor Concert at the Feldman Neighborhood in Tucson. "It's the last time for a while that Tom and Roman will play together," says Tom.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Andrew Brown and Jordan Chin Audio recording: Jordan Chin Mixing, mastering, post-production audio: Jim Blackwood Archival footage: Cáit Ní Síomón, Julius Schlosburg, David Sherman
Special Bonus Content
Listen to the full Feldman Neighborhood Set
Hear the full recording of Tom Walbank and Roman Barten-Sherman’s set from Saturday May 29, 2021. Field audio recorded by Jordan Chin, mixed and mastered by Jim Blackwood.
A first-of-its-kind exhibition is coming to the Tucson Museum of Art -- showcasing the diversity of art being created in Southern Arizona. Work from local artists Willie J. Bonner, Nazafarin Lotfi, Alejandro Macias, and Anh-Thuy Nguyen delves into personal identity, politics, and regional social issues. Their artwork will be on display at the museum until September 26, 2021. Look for extended radio versions of these conversations in upcoming episodes of Arizona Spotlight on NPR 89.1.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographers: Nate Huffman, Jordan Chin, John DeSoto Editor: Mya Long
Special Bonus Content
4x4: A Conversation Between Artist Willie J. Bonner & Curator Julie Sasse
"A lot of people like to associate me as a Black artist. Black is my culture. But I am American," says Willie J. Bonner. Tucson Museum of Art Chief Curator, Julie Sasse speaks with Bonner about how his paintings represent the layers of humanity. "When I'm painting, I'm just gaging the sensibility of being human," he says. Bonner's artwork inspired the 4x4 exhibition.
4x4: A Conversation Between Artist Nazafarin Lotfi & Curator Jeremy Mikolajczak
Iranian-American artist, Nazafarin Lotfi speaks with museum director and exhibition curator, Jeremy Mikolajczak about representation in art. "I don't have a very strong sense of place usually," Lotfi says. "I've been trying very hard to make connections to Tucson, particularly." Lotfi explores how she, as an immigrant and a brown body, fits in within the place and politics of the Southwest, and how the experience has shaped her art and practice.
4x4: A Conversation Between Artist Anh-Thuy Nguyen & Curator Marianna Pegno
From photography, to video, to performances and installation art, Nguyen's focus is on the experience of being an immigrant - the personal politics and cultural differences. Nguyen talks to curator Marianna Pegno, Curator of Community Engagement at the Tucson Museum of Art about the ten-year body of work on display within the space. "It's all about the struggle and conversation I had with myself," Nguyen says. One of the pieces in the exhibit was created earlier this year while the U.S. witnessed a rise in hate and violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
4x4: A Conversation Between Artist Alejandro Macias & Curator Kristopher Driggers
Alejandro Macias moved from South Texas to Southern Arizona and the 4x4 exhibit is his Tucson debut. His work often features brightly colored portraits with visual divides. The division serves as a metaphor for cultural assimilation. Macias says that the work is critical of assimilation as an erasure of history and culture, but also celebratory of dual representation. He speaks with curator, Kristopher Driggers, Assistant Curator, Schmidt Curator of Latin American Art about the role of visual art in conversations about how we relate to the places where we live.
NOTE: Tune in to Arizona Spotlight on NPR 89.1, Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to hear extended versions of these conversations throughout the month of June.
The artist Pia Camil has still never been to Tucson but her exhibition “Three Works” is on display at MOCA until September 2021. During the course of the pandemic, the artist worked remotely with MOCA’s team to transform the main gallery into a large-scale interactive sculpture and site-specific installation from discarded fabric and materials. There will be several opportunities for the public to participate and interact with “Autonomous Space Rug” and the “Air Out Your Dirty Laundry” flag in front of the museum over the course of the exhibition…follow @MOCATucson for updates.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographer: Martin Rubio, John DeSoto Editor: Gage Judd
Karlito Miller Espinosa is an interdisciplinary artist bursting with ideas, living and working in Tucson, Arizona. He explores themes of politics, migration, regional history, capitalism, and institutional violence through sculpture, traditional oil painting, and muralism. His work intertwines field research, personal narratives of a multinational upbringing with representations from the visual canon of art history to expose contradictions of power, authority, and social structure. Miller Espinosa graduated from the MFA program at the University of Arizona in 2019 and was a studio program resident for the prestigious Whitney Independent Studies Program in 2019-2020. You can see his work on the north side of the Joseph Gross Gallery at the University of Arizona and in the Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art at the Tucson Museum of Art.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Andrew Brown, Jordan Chin
Muralist Johanna Martinez talks about three unique Tucson murals that resonate with her. Martinez grew up in Long Island surrounded by New York City’s colorful graffiti explosion of the 1970s and 80s. Her thirty years of calling Tucson home have been fueled by a passion to honor its history and culture.
Bringing the culture, traditions and high-quality teas from China to Tucson has been the mission of Austin and Zhuping Hodge for almost two decades. Co-owners of Seven Cups Fine Chinese Teas, they share their passion for the most consumed beverage in the world.
Producer: Nina Shelton Videographers: Martin Rubio, Nate Huffman Editor: Charlene Bonwich Additional footage/photos: Seven Cups Fine Chinese Teas
Muralist and community organizer Alfonso Chavez shares his three favorite murals in Tucson. They come from different eras and have different styles but all tell stories that challenge the dominant cultural narrative.
Muralist and community organizer Allison Miller talks about three of her favorite murals in Tucson and what makes them unique. Miller runs Alley Cat Murals, a grassroots organization that aims to revitalize community spaces through public art.
Deidra Peaches has been a filmmaker for 15 years. Her work has shown at film festivals around the world including the Sundance Film Festival. She has created documentaries, fiction films, and music videos. Deidra guides us through her filmmaking life in her own words and images.
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s 2020-2021 season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic but the music hasn’t stopped. The TSO created a digital stage where select musicians are performing for virtual audiences. While it’s not the same as performing in person, musicians and organizers are thrilled by adapting to the new challenges and want to stay connected to their Tucson audience.
The artist, Jessica Gonzales, painted her first large-scale public mural in 2016. Since then, she’s churned out a seemingly endless cascade of instantly recognizable, colorful, murals all over Tucson in public locations, private business, and homes, making her one of the most prolific muralists in the region.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Gage Judd, Martin Rubio, Bob Lindberg, Sandra Westdahl, Andrew Brown
This summer’s waves of protests calling for racial equality, and continuing calls for social justice have prompted some to wonder ‘when will the protests end’? And perhaps more importantly, ‘what will it mean when they do’? Community leaders Sam Brown and Debi Chess share their experiences and have pondered…will it matter?
Producer: Cáit NíSíomón Photographers: Bob Lindbergh, Matt Potwardowski Editor: Nate Huffman
In May, the death of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sparked protests across the country. Then we learned of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and the shooting of Jacob Blake. All this and more have drawn justified public attention, widespread outcry, and reignited crucial and centuries-long conversations around racism in America.
Producer Cáit NíSíomón reached out for perspective from Sam Brown and Debi Chess, two cultural leaders in Southern Arizona’s black community, who explore race, class, and what is needed in order to broaden our basis of unity and progress to a more just and equitable future for everyone.
Just Listen is a 3 installment mini-series.
Producer: Cáit NíSíomón Photographers: Bob Lindbergh, Matt Potwardowski Editor: Nate Huffman
Tucson has been without a consistent drive-in theater since the De Anza Drive-In closed in 2009. But, during the summer of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic shutdown conventional movie theaters and physical distancing made it difficult to people to gather, the drive-in theater made an unlikely comeback. Locations opened up across Tucson to show old movies, concerts and live sporting events. The interest from the public has drive-in operators planning to keep these theaters open even as life returns to normal.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographers: Andrew Brown and Jordan Chin Editor: Andrew Brown
Many cultural institutions are designed around community interaction and physical presence. People specifically go see plays instead of watching movies or television because of the live experience. So, what happens when physical distancing prevents us from gathering? We check in with The Rogue Theatre, Borderlands Theater, Arizona Heritage Tours and the Jewish History Museum to see how they are innovating to stay connected to their audiences during uncertain times.
There is a sign on the road to Mount Lemmon that reads Gordon Hirabayashi. During World War II the site where that sign stands was a prison camp. Gordon Hirabayashi was an inmate. Hirabayashi was one of only three Japanese Americans to openly defy the U.S. government when it forcibly interned nearly 70,000 American citizens of Japanese descent into harsh and isolated detention camps. This is the story of how he went from prisoner to civil rights hero.
Traditionally, powwow categories are listed with the gender binary “Women” and “Men”. However, many tribes recognize more than two genders. The 2nd Annual Two Spirit Powwow took place in Phoenix last February and the powwow committee decided to remove gender from all categories. The Two Spirit Powwow is hosted by Native PFLAG, an organization with the goal to keep families together and foster the traditional teachings of what it means to be LGBT and/or Two-Spirit. They envision a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected, valued, and affirmed inclusive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Producer/Videographer/Editor: Andrew Brown & David Fenster
The Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts spring shows are some of the most anticipated, and important events of the year for students at the University of Arizona School of Art. In many cases these exhibitions are the culmination of years of work. In 2020, like everything else in the world, the spread of the coronavirus abruptly forced museums and studios to close, putting plans in jeopardy and forcing young artists to adapt and reflect on the importance of art in society at large. As of May 2020, both the BFA and MFA shows can be seen online and the MFA show is still planning on a physical exhibition at some point in the future.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted every corner of the world. In one way or another, every human life has felt the effect of this new disease. For artist Matthew Cole, being an artist-in-residence at Tucson’s Museum of Contemporary Art brought with it unexpected isolation and an opportunity for reflection.
In March 2020, concerns over the coronavirus’ potential spread caused major disruptions to daily life for large part of American society, Tucson was no exception. We went around on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day to ask local business how they were adapting. This day ended up being the last day restaurants, bars and all places where groups of people congregate were open in Tucson for at least forty days. But, social distancing did not keep Tucsonans apart, a wave of creative energy, entertainment and innovation happened online as people adapted to their new realities.
The Pascua Yaqui Festival of the Arts combines art, live music, food, community and lowriders for one of the most unique happenings in Southern Arizona. The festival was originally designed to showcase Native American artists but has evolved into an event for the whole family to enjoy.
Producer: Andrew Brown Photographers: Jordan Chin, Matt Potwardowski Editor: Mya Long
The Santa Cruz Catholic Church on 6th Ave and 22nd Street in Tucson celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019. The Spanish colonial revival building and its distinctive 90-foot bell tower were designed by Bishop Henri Granjon, who reportedly chose the location because he liked to hunt rabbits in the area. When construction began the church was on the southern edge of Tucson’s city limits and was meant to serve the growing Hispanic population on the south side. The church has a deep architectural, spiritual and cultural history that charts Tucson’s growth over the last century.
La Iglesia Católica de Santa Cruz en 6th Ave y 22nd St en Tucson celebro su aniversario de 100 años. El edificio del renacimiento colonial y su distintivo campanario de 90 pies fue diseñado por el Obispo Henri Granjon, quien según los informes eligió la ubicación porque le gustaba cazar Conejos en la zona. Cuando empezó la construcción la iglesia estaba ubicada en el extremo sur de los limites de la ciudad y estaba destinada a servir a la creciente población hispana. La iglesia tiene una profunda historia arquitectónica, espiritual y cultural que traza el crecimiento de Tucson en el siglo pasado.
Spanish subtitles available
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Jordan Chin, Gage Judd, Bob Lindberg, Andrew Brown
The Colorado Plateau Foundation is a Native-led organization created to protect sacred places, Native languages, and sustainable community-based agriculture. These are some of the voices involved in this effort.
Producer: David Fenster Videographers: David Fenster, Nate Huffman Editor: David Fenster
Tucson-based artist Kate Meyer creates paintings and performances that highlight the lasting impacts of sexual harassment and assault, intimate partner violence, and post-traumatic stress. On October 24, 2019, she staged the live collaborative painting/performance piece “Our Bodies Become These Vessels” in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The piece also featured artists Eva Alcalde, Dante Celeiro, Avai D'Amico, Kate Selby Nierenhausen, Shannon Moran, and Ruben Moreno.
Producer: Gisela Telis Videographers: Steve Riggs, Bob Lindberg Editor: Gage Judd
“We’re still here and we’re not going anywhere,” says Ryan Pinto of the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders. Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day on the second Monday in October is a growing movement across the United States. We went to an event in South Tucson by and for, but not limited to, indigenous people of the border region.
‘Crafting My Story’, a new exhibit at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, exudes kindness and authenticity. The group show was created by the ArtWorks community to explore grief, loss and spiritual life among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We went to the moving opening of the show and visited the artists in their outreach space housed in the UA Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities at the University of Arizona, Department of Family and Community Medicine.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographers: Bob Lindberg, Martin Rubio Editor: Mya Long
Douglas, Arizona was established as a mining operation in the early 1900s but has struggled economically since the smelter closed in the 1980s. Now, promoters are hoping a pilot program can boost some spirits and the economy.
Monsoon Chocolate is Southern Arizona’s first ‘bean to bar’ chocolate factory. From their small shop on 22nd Street, a committed group of artisans take on the labor-intensive process of turning cacao into chocolate bars, confections, and visually-striking bonbons.
Monsoon Chocolate es la primera fábrica de chocolate “frijol a barra” del sur de Arizona. Desde su tienda pequeña en la calle 22, un grupo comprometido de artesanos se encargan del proceso laborioso de convertir el cacao en barras de chocolate, dulces y bombones visualmente impactantes.
Producer: Andrew Brown Editor: Mya Long Photographers: Bob Lindberg, Gage Judd, Nate Huffman
In this day and age of streaming video, Netflix, HBO GO, and Hulu you might think the video rental store was dead, well, think again. Casa Video, as one of the largest video stores left in the country, is both staying the course and reinventing itself, by providing a community-oriented movie experience to Tucson.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Photographer: Nate Huffman
Graphic Artist: Charlene Bonwich
Wendy Garcia grew up in Alamos, Sonora. She learned from her father and grandmother how to cook traditional Mexican food, with lots of meat. After moving to Tucson at the age of 17, Garcia started working in restaurants around Tucson, ranging from Taco Bell to Feast. After a decade of working late nights and multiple jobs, she decided to start her own business selling vegan tamales at farmers' markets. That grew into Tumerico, an extremely popular and nationally recognized restaurant in the heart of Tucson.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Photographer: Nate Huffman
Every June the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson offers kids a respite from the heat and a chance to learn about and experiment with installation art. During this innovative summer camp students work with local artist to bring their visions to life by transforming entire rooms into works of art using recycled and reclaimed materials. The experience and results were nothing short of rad(ical).
Producer: Andrew Brown Photographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
Tucson-based poets Brandon Shimoda and Dot Devota explore the North Campbell Street Bridge and offer poems to its non-human inhabitants. At dusk, the shadows of the bridge emerge in the form of thousands of bats.
Producer/Editor: David Fenster
Videographers: Gage Judd, Robert Lindberg, David Fenster
As a child growing up wedged in the middle of a large Catholic family in 1960s New Jersey, Tucson painter Chris Rush was given LSD by his older sister. He was 12. Nearly 50 years later, he published his first book, The Light Years, with the venerated publishing house Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A memoir, the book follows Rush across the country to Tucson, telling a beautiful, often violent story of drug trafficking, gay youth, homelessness, sins of the fathers, and the search for personal freedom in America, in strikingly evenhanded prose. Near the end of the book, he turns 20.
Producer: Mike Powell Photographer/Editor: Andrew Brown
B.A. Van Sise explores photography and poetry’s relationship with the image in his show A Portrait of Poetry at the Center for Creative Photography. In 2015, Van Sise set out on a portrait project to document many of the most notable names in contemporary American poetry. The resulting images are acts of collaboration, giving a likeness of the individuals behind these poems while evoking their narratives visually. The show itself is a collaboration between the University of Arizona Poetry Center and the Center for Creative Photography, where it will be on display until November 23, 2019.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographer: Nate Huffman Editor: Charlene Bonwich
“The Lung” at the Biosphere 2 was designed to compensate for changes in pressure inside the enclosed structure. Choreographer Nathaniel Myers and musician Karima Walker recently reimagined this quasi-futuristic space through sound, projections and movement during their performance installation diøscuri.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Martin Rubio, Gage Judd, Arlene Islas
Tucson based artist Xinyu Zhang prepares for her show ‘Wander Around’ at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. Zhang combines digital and traditional art tools and practice to create works that question our relationship to reality in an increasingly digital world.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Photographers: Nate Huffman, Martin Rubio
Tucson’s Poet Laureate, TC Tolbert reads a recent poem for the ‘Far Afield’ performance series, recorded on location at the Snake Bridge over Broadway Boulevard.
The Binational Encuentro was a nine-day event highlighting struggles of female identified migrants in the current moment. Roundtable discussions and performance art events were held in an effort to encourage collaboration between artists, activists, and scholars who are working with these topics to help imagine new ways of thinking about them.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Photographers: Bob Lindberg, Martin Rubio, Andrew Brown, Arlene Islas
Spend an afternoon wandering around with Tucson-based photographer Dan Schumann-Mraz. Since 2016, he has developed a unique visual style that is simultaneously void of humans and full of their presence.
An in-depth look at local photographer Patricia Carr Morgan’s exhibition 'Blue Tears' at the Tucson Museum of Art. The installation features seventeen-foot-tall translucent panels with images captured on Morgan’s travels to Antarctica and Greenland. One by one, they are slowly detached from the ceiling over the course of the show, falling to the floor in mounds of silk.
'Blue Tears' runs through April 21, 2019 at TMA.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Nate Huffman, Bob Lindberg, Gage Judd
Special effects creator Quin Davis represents an endangered type of cinematic artist. In a cluttered warehouse studio on Tucson's West side, he crafts bone-chilling illusions by shaping latex and greasepaint using his hands and an abundant imagination. Movies have always depended on special effects to bring thrills and excitement to audiences. The artists who create these effects have much in common with magicians, sharing secret methods and time-honored techniques that, when skillfully applied, are invisible to the untrained eye.
Producers: Mark McLemore and Andrew Brown Photographer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Jude Cook, owner of Cook & Company Signmakers, has been in the sign business for over 40 years; restoring, designing, fabricating, building and installing many of Tucson’s most iconic signs. He has turned his private collection into the new Ignite Sign Art Museum.
One way to decrease our carbon footprint is by recycling, reusing and refurbishing the material objects we bring into our lives. Pop Cycle is one local vendor who has taken this approach to heart, breathing life into abandoned items that might otherwise be considered junk.
Producer: Mark McLemore Photographer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Martin Fontes has been a mainstay on 4th Avenue for nearly 18 years, making healthy Mexican food from scratch in his luchador-themed restaurant. After years of surviving on word of mouth, Martin is adapting to changing demographics and customer demands in an evolving Tucson restaurant scene.
When Tucson-bred, Portland-based chef Kusuma (Kumi) Rao announces she's hosting one of her popup dinners, it's best to RSVP immediately. Although she hasn't lived here in years, Kumi has so many dedicated Tucson disciples, it's hard for newcomers to elbow a spot at the table. Kumi calls her company Ruchikala, The Art of Taste, and most people who've tasted her food probably would describe her as an artist. She blends the south Indian flavors of her heritage with the Sonoran flavors of her upbringing. And just like her food, Kumi's story is a quintessentially Tucson one – a fusion of different ideas and cultures that meld into something uniquely her own.
Producer: Vanessa Barchfield Videographer: Andrew Brown Editor: Mitchell Riley
In less than seven years, Tucsonan Sean Parker went from novice to internationally celebrated photographer and cinematographer. He now has an online audience of over 600,000 followers. His fascination with photography has taken him all over the globe, from Iceland to Australia, working with some of the most recognizable media companies and brands in the world.
Producer/Videographer/Editor: Andrew Brown Production Assistant: Gage Judd
Life can be full of unexpected twists and turns. For Martio Harris, his path lead him to create The Dunbar Barber Academy, a place where his experiences help him to teach and mentor the next generation of barbers.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Videographer: Bob Lindburg Videographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
Tucson Weekly columnist, Brian Smith, seems to have lived multiple lives, traveling one path and then another. He was a nationally-ranked cyclist as a kid. He was the lead singer of The Pills, the Beat Angles, and Gentlemen After Dark, before becoming a full-time writer. After stints as a writer and editor at the Phoenix New Times and Detroit’s Metro Times, he came back to Tucson, where he was born. He draws upon his rich life experiences and battles with depression to tell the stories of often-marginalized people in Tucson.
Rollies Mexican Patio has been open less than a year and is already making waves on one of Tucson best food corridors, South 12th Avenue. Chef and Owner, Mateo Otero, uses classic Sonoran-style recipes with a modern twist to create one of Tucson’s most interesting new spots.
Hospitals are usually associated with medical emergencies, doctors, and nurses, but what about artwork, music and decorated patios? At Tucson Medical Center, officials have implemented a Healing Art Program which displays photographs and paintings in a massive growing gallery: TMC has miles of hallways which are being populated with a diversity of donations.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Videographer: Robert Lindberg Editor: Nate Huffman
Borderlands Theater continues to create some of the most moving, culturally diverse and regionally relevant work in the Southwest. During their 2018 production of Barrio Stories in Barrio Anita, we spoke with Virginia, a young Tucson poet who wrote this poem.
Trains have been a big part of Tucson’s history since 1880. The tracks run through downtown and are part of everyday life for those who live and work there. The sound of train horns and traffic interruptions are distracting to some, but not for local artist Dirk Arnold. His studio is located right next to a railroad crossing—and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Producer: Mitchell Riley and Sandra Westdahl Videographer: Steve Riggs and Sandra Westdahl Editor: Sandra Westdahl
Avai d'Amico was living in a "typical, suburban" large house in Rochester, Minnesota when he lost his job a few years ago. After thinking about the long, dreaded winters in his state and wanting to change his life, he decided to sell most of his possessions- including the five bedroom, 2K square foot house- and purchase a 180 square foot "tiny house" on wheels. He moved to Tucson and says it's one of the best decisions he's ever made. D'Amico has a business degree but he's found his calling in cinematography and is currently working on a pilot comedy about life in a tiny house: The Tiny House Movie.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Videographer: Sandra Westdahl Editor: Sandra Westdahl
Rarely do you find art described as NOT intended for mature audiences, but that description perfectly fits "Oaf", a new play at The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre.
Watercolor is a painting technique in which the color pigments are suspended in water-based solution. It’s one of the most ancient forms of human expression, but gained popularity as a medium in the Renaissance. In Tucson, the Southern Arizona Watercolor guild is dedicated to advancing the artform regionally. The group has over 350 members and celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2018. It offers pleinair painting outings, group painting sessions, educational outreach and even has a public gallery where members can show their work.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Nate Huffman and Andrew Brown
Robert Keith De Armond has been a ceramic artist for more than 40 years. During that time he estimates that he's painted over a million bowls, plates, pitchers and mugs. He says he started ceramics because he liked the quiet solitude of working alone, but he's changed.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Photographers: Steve Riggs, Nate Huffman Editor: Steve Bayless
Mid-Century Perspectives is a temporary exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art focused on the paintings of Andy Burgess. The vibrant light of the American Southwest along with the modern architecture in the region has had a noticeable impact on the subjects and color palette of Burgess’s paintings. The painter had an international reputation when he moved from London to Tucson in 2009. “His work has become a sustained meditation on the relationship between architecture and art,” say Julie Sasse, Chief Curator of the Tucson Museum of Art. The opening coincides with the TMA’s free first Thursday program.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Galen McCaw, Mitchell Riley Live Music by: Naim Amor, Thøger Lund, Benjamin DeGain
Jocelyn Valencia and Pike Romero are Co-Directors of the Tucson Hip Hop Festival. The 2nd Annual THHF went down on Saturday Feb. 24th with a diverse line-up of more than 150 performers and more than 1800 attendees. The University of Arizona College of Humanities has been a title sponsor from the very beginning.
Producers: Mitchell Riley and Andrew Brown Editor: Mitchell Riley
Scott Girod had a dream. He traveled the world to learn more and experience life. After marrying his bride Shuko in Japan, he returned to Arizona. He took all of the skills he learned from the Italian kitchens and the wisdom he gained from working alongside world-famous Chef Chris Bianco and created his own place, with his own style. This is Scotty's journey to Anello.
When people hear about the “desert museum” in the Tucson area, they usually think of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, but southern Arizona also has the “Tucson Desert Art Museum.” It is a nonprofit organization that opened in 2013 with more than 20,000 square feet of of space for exhibits, classes and other activities. It has a large collection of Navajo and Hopi textiles and blankets, and paintings from renowned artists. It was established by the founder of "Tucson Lifestyle" magazine which was started by Jim Conley Jr 35 years ago from his garage.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Videographer: Tony DiRusso Editor: Bob Lindberg
The story behind Tucson’s exceedingly popular holiday market, Cultivate Tucson. Visit artists Ursula Basinger and Quinlan Wilhite in their studios as they prepare for the one-day market, and discuss marketing, branding and mission with co-founders, Kristin Tovar and Claire Seizovic.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Sandra Westdahl, Steve Riggs
The University of Arizona Poetry Center is one of Tucson’s most valuable cultural resources. Founded in 1962, the center has hosted many of the most influential names in poetry and has one of the largest collections of poetry in the United States. In 2017, the center acquired its 50,000th book and received a $500,000 grant from the Art for Justice Fund, the largest in the center’s history.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographer: Sandra Westdahl, Nate Huffman, John Casamasa
Creating fleeting art is the passion of Tom Gerlak and Pat Caffrey. They have been carving ice in the desert for more than 30 years and enjoy making sculptures that bring happiness to others. The art won’t last forever, but the artists hope the memories will.
Carmen Baron fell in love with folklorico while growing up in Altar, Sonora. That’s where as a young girl, her mother placed her on her lap while she worked at a sewing machine. But Carmen didn’t start learning about her Mexican heritage until she moved to Tucson in 1973. Since then, she has been dedicated to passing on her knowledge and the tradition of folklorico to the next generation.
Explore the sights, sounds and characters of the 2017 Tucson Meet Yourself, a folk life festival. The multicultural celebration of food, art and music started in Downtown Tucson 1974,and now hosts over 100,000 attendees each year.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Sandra Westdahl, Andrew Brown Audio: Galen McCaw
Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is punishable by death in ten countries. In an effort to expand its mission to include contemporary human rights issues, The Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum in Tucson recently opened “Invisibility and Resistance: Violence Against LGBTQIA+ People.”
The exhibit was introduced at a gallery chat with Tucson’s Poet Laureate, TC Tolbert, who spoke about this ongoing struggle for acceptance and systemic violence toward LGBTQIA+ people.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographer: Nate Huffman
The Rogue Theatre opens its 2017-18 season with an ambitious world-premiere play. ‘Celia, A Slave’ by local playwright, Barbara Seyda, won the prestigious Yale Drama Series playwriting competition in 2015. The story is based on actual court records from a 1855 trial and tells the story of a young woman on trial for the murder of her slaveholder. While set in the past, this unflinching, brutally honest play is relevant to many of the issues facing our nation to this day.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Andrew Brown, Martin Rubio, Mitchell Riley
Each year, on June 24, the Tucson community comes together to celebrate the Monsoon and the birthday of St. John the Baptist. Celebrants and performers gather at Mission Garden on Tucson’s west side for the procession that leads to Mercado San Agustin where the festivities begin. The El Dia de San Juan Fiesta is a community celebration complete with food, drink, song and dance... and prayers for the rains to come.
Everybody is a new and unique contemporary art gallery in Tucson, Arizona. Founders Andrew Shuta, Christian Ramirez, and Alex Von Bergen are presenting thoughtfully curated, small-scale shows of new and emerging artists with a clean, professional aesthetic.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Sandra Westdahl, Arlene Islas
There is a new mural in Tucson and it will talk to you. The Talking Mural is a collaboration between artists Alex Jimenez and Johanna Martinez that celebrates the rich cultural history of South 12th Avenue. The mural illustrates interviews Jimenez conducted with local business owners as part of her long-term project Abecedario Del Sur. The mural was sponsored in part by a New Works Grant from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. The Unveiling Pachanga was sponsored by the Southwest Folklife Alliance. You can go see the mural itself at Oasis Fruit Cones on South 12th Avenue or learn more and listen to all the interviews at www.alexclamation.com.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Mitch Riley, Bob Lindberg, Arlene Islas, Sandra Westdahl, Andrew Brown Drone Footage Courtesy: Mike McKisson
The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures is one of Tucson’s most bizarre and delightful attractions. Over the summer of 2017, the museum is exhibiting “Rudy Flores and Teresa Estrella: Cultural Army of Tucson” a collection of hundreds of Army Men with a local twist. The couple uses modern technology by three dimensionally scanning and printing miniature likenesses of Tucsonans. Flores is also using what he learned to create 8-bit renderings of some of Tucson’s most iconic landmarks.
Bill Mackey is an architect, artist, and educator living and working in Tucson. He received a “New Works” grant from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona in 2016 to work on a project about the “Old Nogales Highway.” The road was once a direct route to the town of Nogales and the international border, but I-19 now takes over near Green Valley. This story documents Mackey’s trips down the road and his investigations into it’s landscape over a six-month period. The text is a collaboration between Bill Mackey, Tracy Pitt, Nancy Pitt, Mike Powell and Neil Saunders.
President Donald Trump became the first American president to propose eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts since it began in 1965. This story takes a look at what the NEA is, how it funds projects and what the potential impacts to Southern Arizona might be. In 2016, The NEA had an annual budget of 147 million dollars which is roughly .004 percent of the federal budget. Many conservatives think funding the arts is not a core function of the government and that it is best left up to the private sector. The agency cost less than fifty cents per American citizen per year, supporters say the cuts aren’t worth the savings.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
Shooting Columbus is a new Borderlands Theater production, but it’s more of an experience than it is a play. Visually stunning and at times overwhelming, this beautiful new work asks a simple question, “If settlers never arrived in this land, how would your life be different?” The creators of the play, the Fifth World Collective, are a group of indigenous and non-indigenous artist. Together they explore this question through installations, movement, dance, video projection, audio recordings and performance. At the center of the production are often overlooked struggles of Native Americans, expressed in their own voices. Shooting Columbus advances the mission and the vision of Borderlands Theater in impressive fashion.
Producer: Andrew Brown Editor: Sandra Westdal Videographers: Sandra Westdahl, Arlene Islas
Terrol Dew Johnson is a complex figure living in multiple intersecting realities. He is perhaps most well known for his grassroots community activism with the group Tohono O’odham Community Action, which he helped found over 20 years ago. Johnson is also an accomplished artist with work in the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Heard and the Smithsonian. This story catches up with Johnson in October 2016 after returning from Standing Rock as he prepares for a new exhibition with architecture and design firm, Aranda/Lasch for the Museum of Contemporary art in Tucson.
Producer: Andrew Brown Videographer/Editor: Sandra Westdahl Music: Anthony Sanchez, benbi
Filmmaker Genevieve Anderson's career has not followed a traditional path, but she doesn't make traditional films. Using individually designed puppets and miniature sets, Anderson makes movies that explore themes of loneliness and compassion, qualities that she has time to reflect on in her home studio space. She has settled down in Tubac, Arizona, with chickens, a duck, a very large dog, and her 8-year old son Roman.
Producers: Mark McLemore & Sandra Westdahl Videographer/Editor: Sandra Westdahl
Pulitzer finalist, Tucson native and occasional lightning rod David Fitzsimmons is the editorial cartoonist and humor columnist for the Arizona Daily Star. For more than thirty years, he’s been in the public eye, entertaining, surprising, and provoking those of us in southern Arizona and beyond. Love him or hate him, you can’t be neutral on Fitz.
Producer/Editor: Mitchell Riley Videographers: Arlene Islas, Bob Lindberg
The Tucson Jazz Festival is in it’s third year. This young festival brought 17,000 people to downtown Tucson last year and is expected to draw even more people in 2017. This story takes a look at the Downtown Jazz Fiesta, the festival’s signature event. The all-day event is free to the public and takes place on seven different stages throughout the downtown.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor:Nate Huffman
Tom Ziegler aka Tiger has been working as a bartender at Hotel Congress since 1959. In that time, he has seen it all including many changes to downtown Tucson, but Tiger and the Tap Room remain ageless.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographer: Nate Huffman
Tucson Botanical Gardens is holding an exhibition that was hugely popular at The New York Botanical Garden. “Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life” is opening in the Old Pueblo on Monday 10 October 2016 and will run until May 30, 2017, with cultural celebrations and educational programming throughout the exhibit. The display is part of a cooperative effort that includes New York, Pima Community College, the University of Arizona, and other organizations. It is said that residents will feel transported to the home of the famous artist in Mexico City.
Producer: Tony Paniagua Videographer: Nate Huffman, Timothy Munjank Editor: Nate Huffman
A mysterious mural in a Tucson backyard turns out to be the largest Ted DeGrazia mural still in existence. It was originally painted by the artist in 1948 or 1949 and gives us a glimpse into DeGrazia’s mind before his fame and fortune. Nearly 70 years later, the mural had started to succumb to the elements. Fine Art conservator, Charlie Burton was brought in to restore it. She worked on the mural three days a week for six months and logged 240 hours bringing it back to life.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Photographers: Steve Riggs, Sandra Westdahl, Omar Lopez
Performance artist Kimi Eisele organized an “old fashioned” ball on the eve of the National Park Service Centennial celebration. The idea was to explore the idea of “how does one duet with a different species?” Around 40 participants dress up and met at sunrise to dance with and among the cactus in Saguaro National Park West. This was just part of Eisele’s larger project, Standing with Saguaros which was sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Story: Andrew Brown
In the summer of 2016, Arizona Theatre Company said if they couldn’t raise two million dollars they would have to cancel their upcoming fiftieth anniversary season. This story looks back at the financial crisis and ahead towards the future for Arizona’s only fully professional theatre company.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown Videographers: Arlene Islas and Sandra Westdahl
Adela Antoinette has been making a name for herself in the Tucson arts scene for the last few years. She is an illustrator and prolific face painter. This story focuses on a series of work that made up her first solo art show. Less than a year after graduating from the University of Arizona, Antoinette is showing The Historic Artist Self-Portrait Face Painting Project at Tiny Town Gallery. The show is comprised of images that recreate famous artist self-portraits. She used her skills as a face and body painter and technical skills to create unique renderings of these works.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor:Sandra Westdahl
Eight colorful new murals were painted in Downtown Tucson recently. These murals were part of the City of Tucson Mural Program sponsored primarily by the Tohono O’odham Nation through an economic development grant. The city partnered with Tucson Arts Brigade who managed the project. This story takes a look at a few of the artist who were chosen to paint the murals and the city employee who initiated the project.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Sandra Westdahl
Of all of the hundreds of appraisals done on Antiques Roadshow, there is one that is seared into the memory of fans and roadshow staff alike: the Navajo blanket.
Producer: Gisela Telis
Videographer: Nate Huffman
Editor: Steve Riggs
We take an intimate look into three artist’s work and studios to preview 2016 Tucson Artists’ Open Studios. Jessica Van Woerkom, Ron Nelson and Illene Hurley are just three of over 90 artists who will open their studios to the public over two weekends this may. Their artwork and processes couldn’t be more different, but all of their studios seem fitted to their creative processes. The tour give a artists and fans a unique opportunity to interact and learn a little more about each other.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
In 2015, Tucson Arizona was designated as world city of Gastronomy by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Though others have applied, it was the first city in the United States to receive the designation. It sounds important, but what does it really mean, and why Tucson? Producer Andrew Brown takes us on a journey to discover the meaning and significance behind this designation.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographers: Andrew Brown, Steve Riggs
Editor: Nate Huffman
On February 28, 2016, world famous artist Kenny Scharf painted cars in the Hotel Congress parking lot for his Karbombz ! art project. Scharf has made a living as an artist for decades but paints cars for free. He views them as forms of public art and as a way to put the focus on the art instead of money.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
Pauly Casillas is one of the funniest people in Tucson. He started standup comedy at the age of 28, and only five years later is opening up for some of the biggest shows in Arizona. This story follows Pauly through his comedy, work, personal life and obsession with shoes and hair.
Story by: Andrew Brown
Teré Fowler-Chapman describes herself simply as a poet, but believes that role involves “wearing a lot of hats” in the 21 century. She is a writer, teacher, lecturer, performer and organizer. Teré founded Words on the Avenue, a unique community open mic night for poetry, and is the first African-American Executive Director for the Tucson Poetry Festival. This story attempts to capture a snapshot of Teré’s busy life and beautiful words.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Sandra Westdahl
Music by benbi
Two artists who also love nature are joining forces in the desert west of Tucson to provide a gigantic outdoor space for sculptures and other exhibits. Ted Springer and Kate Hodges earned their masters of fine arts at the University of Arizona at different times and met in Tucson after Springer had graduated. By then, he had started to buy some property for a dream project in the desert and was later joined by Hodges. Now they own 25 acres. They call their land, “The Land With No Name Sanctuary for Homeless Sculpture."
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer: Bob Lindberg
Editor: Sandra Westdahl
A visit with the StoryCorps mobile recording team as they arrive in Tucson and begin recording the stories of Southern Arizona residents.
Videographer/Editor: Sandra Westdahl
Producer: Mark McLemore
Diana Madaras is on of the most recognizable and most successful names in the Tucson Art scene. She owns two popular Galleries in Tucson, is a very prolific painter and raises thousands of dollars for charity. Diana became a fulltime artist after a successful career in sports marketing. She describes being able to sell and market her own work as “Living a dream.” This story takes you behind the scenes of Diana’s work and passion for painting.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
Tucson-based performance artist Laura Milkins has been living with depression since the deaths of her father and step-father in 2011. Now she’s found a unique way to cope with her mental illness—talking about it live on the air.
To learn more about The Depression Session, visit [thedepressionsession.com](http://www.thedepressionsession.com)
Producer: Gisela Telis
Videographer: Bob Lindberg
Editor: Nate Huffman
The Green Valley Camera Club is teaching in members the difference between taking pictures and taking photographs. This local camera club has well over 800 members and believes itself to be one of the largest anywhere in the country. It has a variety of activities for beginners to very advanced photographers.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographer/Editor: Nate Huffman
Nika Kaiser is a working artist who lives in Tucson Arizona. She started in photography but is most prolific in video art and installations. She has directed music videos for many local bands and showcases her video installations all over Tucson. This story takes a look at her creative process and inspirations as well as how she balances art and life in the desert.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Videographer: Nate Huffman, Omar Lopez
There are dozens of Japanese gardens in the United States, and Tucson has its own version thanks to a European woman who has lived on three continents. When Patricia Deridder was 18 years old she left her home country of Belgium so she could pursue her passion for the Japanese culture and language. Fifteen years later she moved to Wisconsin with her American husband where they raised their two children. Later, Deridder started a new chapter in Tucson where she opened Yume Japanese Gardens in the city’s midtown. Yume is the Japanese word for dream and Deridder says the facility is a dream come true.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer: Bob Lindberg, Steve Riggs, Sandra Westdahl
Editor: Sandra Westdahl
A behind the scenes look at what it takes to put on a professional fashion show in Tucson. Paula Taylor and Melanie Hebron Sutton are in their third year of running Tucson Fashion Week, an annual three day multi-disciplinary fashion event in Tucson. This story was all shot on the day of the 2015 Premiere Runway event, which focuses on regional and industry professional designers.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Videographers: Mitch Riley Omar Lopez Andrew Brown
The Center for Creative Photography is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary. The CCP was founded in 1975 by Ansel Adams and then UA President Dr. John P. Schaefer as a way to collect and care for photographic archives. The exhibit, The Lives of Pictures takes a look back into the archives to show the vast depth of the collection at the CCP. There are many well know photographers on display, but some photos that are on display have never been exhibited before.
Story by Andrew Brown
Cowboy poet Baxter Black rode bulls in high school and college. He went on to become a large animal veterinarian for ranchers and cowboys across the west. For two decades he was a regular on NPR's Morning Edition and still hosts his own radio show. He also hosts the TV show "Out There with Baxter Black" on RFD-TV. He's sold more than million copies of his cowboy poetry and philosophy.
Mukhi Singh moved to the United States from India 15 years ago, along with his wife Roop and daughter Shireen. Together they launched The Twisted Tandoor, an authentic Indian food truck that rose to the top of the Tucson foodie scene. After two and a half years on the truck, they planned to open their own brick and mortar version of The Twisted Tandoor. On the day they were to open, the unexpected happened.
Producer/Editor: Mitchell Riley
Photographers: Sandra Westdahl, Omar Lopez, Nate Huffman, Andrew Brown
The TMA biennial exhibit will be on display through the beginning of October. This year the curator of Site Santa Fe, Irene Hofmann, made the selections for the show. She put together a show that is markedly different from past biennials. The show is separated into four different categories that show the themes that are arising from artists in the area. Past biennials tended to be a broad survey of what was happening in the arts in the state and didn’t quite feel as cohesive of a show as this one does. This show is a deeper look into the psyche of people practicing art in the area.
Producer: Andrew Brown
Videographers: Bob Lindberg & Nate Huffman
Editor: Nate Huffman
Tucson is considered by many to be the Lightning Photography Capitol of the World. Producer Andrew Brown follows Tucson based lightning photographers Tom Willett and Jeff Smith over the course of the Monsoon in their efforts to capture photographs of lightning.
Story by Andrew Brown
Music by Ryan Chavira
Still Photography by Jeff Smith, Tom Willet
81 year-old Ray Campas owns and operates Hollywood Barber College. He’s been barbering for over 50 years and teaching young people how to cut hair for more than two decades. Born and raised in Barrio Hollywood, Ray is an accomplished hairstylist, winning more than sixty state and national awards for his “razor only” haircuts.
Producer/Editor: Mitchell Riley
Videographer: Bob Lindberg
Mission San Xavier del Bac, sometimes called The White Dove of the Desert, sits ten miles south of downtown Tucson on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation. Patronato San Xavier, a nonsectarian nonprofit organization, has launched the ‘White Dove Campaign’ to restore the East Tower of San Xavier del Bac. It is a major project in the continued effort to restore and preserve the structural integrity of this 200-year old National Historic Landmark.
This is a simple profile on a complex character. Howard Curtin was a builder in Tucson who built exactly 100 homes in his lifetime. He decided to call it quits when he hit his goal of 100 houses. Retired, with a lot of energy Howard has put his energy into woodworking. He has designed 100 different commodes, a in a transitional contemporary style and is planning on building all 100 to mirror his efforts in homebuilding.
Videographer: Sandra Westdahl
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Many of the native trees in Tucson bear edible beans. Brad Lancaster and the Desert Harvesters host annual native tree tours to educate Tucsonans on how to locate edible and tasty legumes. Desert Harvesters also hosts an annual mesquite bean milling to help turn mesquite pods into flour that can be used in modern kitchens. Their long term efforts include trying to get to people to think about native foods on a daily basis.
Producer/Editor: Andrew Brown
Videography: Andrew Brown and Nate Huffman
Business’ use many means to attract the attention of potential customers: billboards, neon, blow-up animals. One of the latest are sign spinners. Colorful and theatrical, for the spinners, it is serious business. In addition to the smiles they bring, there can be a lucrative income.
But who are these sign spinners? What is their background and why are they attracted to this line of work?
What are the origins of this latest trend in marketing? And is sign spinning an effective way of reaching out to customers?
Producer/Editor – Steve Bayless
Videographers – Steve Riggs, Bob Lindberg, Andrew Brown, Steve Bayless
Just managing to pay the bills as an artist can be a challenge, but what happens when you add kids to the mix. This story takes a very personal look into three Tucson based artists' lives with children. Natalie Brewster Nguyen, Shannon Smith and Catherine Eyde all give us their perspectives on being a Mother and an artist in the 21st century.
Local television ads, past and present, have an uncanny way of making an impact. Campy humor and appearances by hometown business-owners looking to connect with customers, are par for the course.
Produced by Luis Carrion
Edited by Steve Bayless
Robert Barber’s art is a hidden treasure in Tucson. At least until now. When two MOCA curators opened the door to Barber’s garage studio in 2013, they found hundreds of Barber’s artwork—reflecting work of 75. After carefully restoring and selecting over 200 pieces of artwork, Robert Barber’s work is now shared for the very first time with the public at a exhibit called “Robert Barber Retrospective” at MOCA. Barber’ work and style is described as a rarity. His classical techniques aren’t being taught much in art schools today. At age 92, the artist, World War II vet and a sixth grade TUSD teacher for 30 years still paint everyday.
Examining various aspects of romantic love. UA Professor of Psychiatry, Charles Raison will help us understand the science, psychology and evolutionary aspects of this uniquely human phenomenon. Some of the science: The hormone oxytocin, sometimes known as the “hug drug”, plays an important role in what is known as “pair bonding.” We will also hear about the demise of romantic love and how it can mature or fade away.
Producer/Editor – Mitchell Riley
Videographers – Steve Riggs & Andrew Brown
In the Tohono O'odham Nation, two men are turning recycling into an act of redemption. They've found a way to build beautifully and sustainably—with glass.
Producer: Gisela Telis
Videographer: Andrew Brown
Editor: Andrew Brown
This is the time of year for gathering with friends and family. Inevitably, those gatherings will center around food 'Breaking Bread' explores just what it is about food that brings us together.
Producer/Editor – Mitchell Riley
Videographers – Andrew Brown & Nate Huffman
You wouldn’t expect to find a bookstore out in the remote desert near Benson, Ariz. But The Singing Wind Bookshop, tucked away on Winn Bundy’s 660+ acre ranch, is a hidden jewel, attracting visitors from around the world.
Producer: Gisela Telis Videographer: Steve Riggs Editor: Nate Huffman
Sharon Kha is a former broadcast journalist and UA public information officer who uses rap to build detours around the failed pathways in the brain caused by Parkinson’s. She attends functions in person and has posted rapping videos on YouTube to help others affected by this devastating disease.
Producer: Tony Paniagua
Videographer: Steven Riggs
Editor: Andrew Brown
You can walk into any business in Tucson and you never know what stories you might find. Take a trip inside a seemingly nondescript liquor store on South 6th Ave in Tucson and hear the story of the Laos family. They have been running a truly local business in that location since 1956 and there are items from every decade since still be discovered in the shop. At 85 year of age Annie Laos still holds down the shop with the help of her son Roy and she is as feisty as ever.
Just managing to pay the bills as an artist can be a challenge, but what happens when you add kids to the mix. This story takes a very personal look into three Tucson based artist’s lives with children. Donovan White, Naim Amor and Tom Walbank all give us their perspectives on being a Dad in the 21st century.
John Royal Medley Jr. has collected more than 280 citrus crate labels that create a unique lens through which to view over a century of Arizona’s history. Themes include Victorian, tourism and cowboy and there is a surprising story involving a Sun Devil.
More and more mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities are turning to traditional American Indian ceremonies and practices, yet researchers are still trying to figure out why they help people heal.
If you have ever walked down Fourth Avenue, been to Hotel Congress or seen the Tucson mural on Stone and Speedway, chances are you have seen his work. Meet local artist Danny Martin whose new goal is to hand draw over 100 iconic Tucson landmarks on the spot.
Vail resident Nina Roosevelt Gibson shares memories of travelling the world alongside her famous grandmother Eleanor, and discusses her family's cultural legacy.
Also on Arizona Spotlight: UA receives a historic donation of WWII memorabilia; visitors to the 2024 Tucson Festival of Books share "A Book I Love"; and an essay about the beauty of Agua Caliente Hill.
Also on Arizona Spotlight: The International Uranium Film Festival returns to Tucson; the comedy of Elliot Glicksman; and "Stories That Soar!" looks at how children cope with depression.
Also on Arizona Spotlight: "A Conversation with Edith Head" returns to Invisible Theatre; the founder of Odyssey Storytelling on building community for 20 years; and Luis Alberto Urrea remembers giving his first autograph.
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