A New Art Fair Debuts in the Southwest—Is It a Hit or a Miss?
Local artists and gallerists weigh in on Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week’s debut—and its efforts to bust regional stereotypes and elevate the Southwest on a global stage.
April 03, 2025
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Southwest Art News: April 2025
Meow Wolf announces New York project, Georgia O'Keeffe protégé Juan Hamilton dies, and more top Southwest art news headlines for April 2025.
April 01, 2025
Decades After the Creative Class Arrived, Small Arizona Town Confronts Dual Realities
Local artists and art-world power players are next-door neighbors in Winslow, Arizona. Everyone and the mayor is weighing in on the town's creative direction.
March 27, 2025
Spring Forward: 14 Time-Bending Southwest Art Shows for Spring 2025
Catch these must-see spring art shows across the Southwest, featuring artistic time travelers Kent Monkman, Jorge Rojas, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and more.
March 25, 2025
Ex-Employees Shed Light on CCA Santa Fe’s Bitter Unionization Battle
Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe kicked off the year with a labor organizing win for staff, but not without union-busting allegations and three staff departures.
March 20, 2025
Are an Arizona Museum’s Changes to Transfeminisms Exhibition “Violent” or Pragmatic?
The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art made last-minute revisions to a traveling show of women, queer, and trans artists. Museum leadership and a co-curator differ on what happened.
March 13, 2025
FeatureTexasVol. 11 The Hyperlocal
Can Art Stave Off Gentrification? San Antonio Cultural Spaces are Preserving the Westside
Three San Antonio arts organizations leverage a land trust and other strategies to literally hold space on the rapidly growing city's Westside.
March 07, 2025
FeatureNew MexicoVol. 11 The Hyperlocal
For Futuros Ancestral, Cultural Preservation is Synonymous with Innovation
New Mexico's fiber artists at Futuros Ancestral are weaving technology with tradition to preserve heritage textile practices for future generations.
March 07, 2025
FeatureColoradoVol. 11 The Hyperlocal
Future Town Tour Uses Art to Create New, Shared Cultures in Rural Colorado
The Future Town Tour, an ongoing series hosted by Warm Cookies of the Revolution, brings residents together throughout small-town Colorado to reflect on shared cultures and create new rituals.
March 07, 2025
PhotographyNew MexicoVol. 11 The Hyperlocal
Impact Storytelling: Shayla Blatchford’s Anti-Uranium Mapping Project
With a keen eye and a bold approach, Shayla Blatchford’s Anti-Uranium Mapping Project confronts the damaging impact of unethical mining on Southwest Indigenous lands.
March 07, 2025
Southwest Art News: March 2025
Santa Fe mourns Gene Hackman, Austin's Big Medium closes, another staff departure from CCA Santa Fe, and more top Southwest art news headlines for March 2025.
March 04, 2025
As Another Denver Art Project Goes Fugitive, Co-Director Counts “A Hundred Reasons Why”
"You can’t show art if no one can afford to make it," says Brett Matarazzo of BRDG Project, an arts nonprofit that just left its second location—with nowhere else to land.
February 25, 2025
In a Slash-and-Burn Era for Federal Funding, Here’s How Texas Arts Advocates Angle for State Support
Over 200 arts leaders descend on Austin's Capitol to dispense Texas charm—and return-on-investment pitches—for state funding at Texas Arts Advocacy Day.
February 20, 2025
Hopi Artist Mavasta Honyouti Carved a Chronicle of His Grandfather’s Abduction—and Return
Mavasta Honyouti debuts sixteen remarkable panels bearing ancestral memories of the Native American boarding school system at Wheelwright Museum.
February 13, 2025
Southwest Artist and Writer Residencies with Spring 2025 Deadlines
Apply for artist residencies with spring 2025 deadlines in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, California, and beyond.
February 10, 2025
This Utah Curator Launched Her Career with a Treatise on Artistic Rebellion
Nancy Stoaks of Park City's Kimball Art Center wrote her thesis on artistic rabble-rouser Niki de Saint Phalle, sparking a career-long fight for the underdogs.
February 06, 2025
Southwest Art News: January–February 2025
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith dies, Texas officials seize Sally Mann photos, and more top Southwest art news headlines for January and February 2025.
February 04, 2025
Keith Haring’s City-Spanning Phoenix Takeover Almost Didn’t Happen
Keith Haring was a Phoenix teacher's second choice for a 1986 art workshop, but the invite made a major mark on the city.
January 14, 2025
Books + LiteraryInside Southwest Contemporary
Our Favorite Books (and One Epic Article) of 2024
The Artist's Way for werewolves, a guide to forgetting the Alamo, and other compelling reads from the Southwest Contemporary editorial team.
January 06, 2025
Inside Southwest ContemporarySouthwest
The Top 10 Southwest Contemporary Stories of 2024
Southwest Contemporary's most widely read stories of 2024 reflect some of the most urgent issues within the arts.
January 02, 2025
Karima Walker’s “Grief Rituals” Seek the Non-Linear Wisdom of Walking in Circles
The Arizona-born artist’s MOCA Tucson exhibition draws inspiration (and soil) from the Santa Cruz River, melding body and land.
December 23, 2024
“The Doors Were Breaking, Things Were Moving”: Inside the Roswell Museum After Disastrous 500-Year Flood
Museum insiders offer firsthand accounts of the flash flood that breached Roswell Museum in October—and an update on the uphill battle for remediation.
December 19, 2024
Darkest Days: 11 Urgent (and Uplifting) Art Shows to See This Winter
Catch these must-see art exhibitions across the Southwest for winter 2024–25, featuring Richard Avedon, Nancy Hemenway Barton, Charles Ross, and more.
December 17, 2024
Southwest Art News: December 2024
MCA Denver director to lead ICA Boston, Utah artist who formed 21st-century art salon dies, and more top Southwest art news headlines for December 2024.
December 03, 2024
Southwest Artist and Writer Residencies with Winter 2024–25 Deadlines
Southwest artist residencies with deadlines falling in winter 2024-25 in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
November 18, 2024
Evans School Exodus: Denver Artists Prepare to Leave the Historic Former Elementary School
Investors are finally redeveloping Evans School in Denver—and displacing nearly sixty artists from their low-cost studios in the process.
November 12, 2024
Former Curator of Mesa Art Museum Files Federal Lawsuit Alleging Censorship and Discrimination
Tiffany Fairall, former chief curator of Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Arizona, sues the City of Mesa in the aftermath of censorship allegations.
November 05, 2024
Southwest Art News: November 2024
The Roswell Museum floods, artist Danielle SeeWalker sues Vail, and more top Southwest art news headlines for November 2024.
October 31, 2024
“This is our power”: Afrofuturists Imagine Radical Futures in Reclaiming Hope: Afrofuturist Visions
Black artists imagine radical futures through hope, healing, and history in Reclaiming Hope: Afrofuturist Visions.
October 29, 2024
Reclaiming Space through Technology: Santa Fe Uncovers Hidden Histories Through Augmented Reality
The City of Santa Fe’s ArcGIS Storymaps, and its AR component, Ojos Diferentes, peel back the layers of Santa Fe history to tell underrepresented stories with new technologies.
October 15, 2024
