Tucson, Arizona is home to an incredible community of creative people. Southwest Contemporary visited in November 2023 to discover the local art scene.
TUCSON, AZ—It was a maxim that came up often that night: support comes from people.
With the theme of Southwest Contemporary’s most recent issue, Medium + Support, I thought we could discuss the varied relationships artists held with their media while also considering different forms of support, and not just the substrate of the artwork itself, but the varying support structures that artists rely on: grants, residencies, fellowships, academic and degree-granting institutions, etc.
However, a different emphasis emerged when we held a panel discussion at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson in November 2023 with several of the artists—alejandro t. acierto, Lizz Denneau, and Safwat Saleem—selected for Medium + Support by juror and MOCA director Laura Copelin. When we discussed “support,” they all repeated a common refrain: they found the most support not from institutions, but from the people they surrounded themselves with.
Denneau illustrated the fact with a piece of advice she received during her first studio visit in grad school, with artist Glenn Ligon. “You need a posse,” he said.
Denneau, who is a biracial Black woman, did just that when she returned to Tucson from Chicago. Along with artists Alanna Airitam and Elizabeth Burden, Denneau co-founded the Southwest Black Arts Collective, which now operates a space in downtown Tucson, called The Projects.
We heard about the Collective on our first day in Tucson, when we visited Airitam’s studio, which happened to be right in the neighborhood of our home rental, in the charming and convenient Iron Horse neighborhood. Airitam, who creates photographs reminiscent of Dutch Masters while subverting their colonial subject matter, told us how important it was for her to connect with other Black artists in the area.
The Projects, which rotates exhibitions by collective members, is located next door to another important art space for the community in Tucson: Snakebite Creation Space. We met with founders Geneva Foster Gluck and Racheal Rios later on that day, and were impressed with their dedication to fostering a space for young artists to experiment. Likewise, nearby Blue Lotus Artists Collective, a space dedicated to showing Black artists in Tucson, which we visited the following day, had come together based on a community-driven initiative.
Community also came through en force at the Tucson Museum of Art, which we happened to visit during their annual Fall Artisans Market, with its multitude of colorful local arts and crafts vendors. Inside, we learned that the Museum’s collection of Southwest Art had been newly rehung, based on input and curatorial decisions offered by members of Tucson’s many diverse communities. Even in exhibitions whose subject matter wouldn’t seem to lend itself to local community representation—the exhibition of Andean textile arts, Cumbi, for example—we found work by Peru-born Tucson-based artist Perla Segovia.
Commercial galleries in Tucson that we visited also demonstrated strong ties to and cultivations of the local community of artists. Everybody Gallery, where we caught the last day of their show with Tucson-based Nika Kaiser and Tucsonian-turned-Denverite Adán de la Garza, alternates between showing local artists and bringing artists to Tucson. Untitled Gallery is devoted to showcasing local artists and is situated in the Warehouse Arts District, a landscape that is rapidly shifting. Untitled was brought to our attention by Emily Hallowell, who joined our editorial board in 2023 and is a consummate cheerleader for the Tucson arts scene. Etherton Gallery, where we met with New York-(re)turned-Tucson artist Kitty Brophy who had a show of text-based works on view, hosted our Critical Commons panel on art criticism. We were absolutely blown away by the packed audience of curious and invested art folks in the room that night. The community investment in matters relating to their local art scene (and how it is represented in the media) was palpable.
The artist studio complexes we visited also demonstrated the power of finding an art posse and strength in numbers. Some of these studios, unfortunately, are under threat by the tide of gentrification in the downtown area. Nick Georgiou’s impressive high-ceilinged brick warehouse studio, in the same building as Denneau, harkened to a romantic ideal for an artist studio—but neighboring studio buildings had been closed off due to construction in the area.
Other artists have found spaces in odd spots. Like converted medical offices, where Nicole Antebi and David Taylor, both professors at the University of Arizona, have set up shop. Or Millville Studios, located in an industrial section of town, which houses affordable studios with communal vibes and an event-based gallery space downstairs. We took two trips to Millville, visiting artists Sara Hubbs, C. E. Fitzgerald, Yuyu Shiratori, Susanna Battin, Katarina Riesing, and Ryan Hill. Outside, the train ran just a few feet away from the back of the building, periodically interrupting studio visits with its rhythmic, soothing clatter.
Hubbs, who works in mold-blown glass, had come back to Tucson from New York, and was looking for a studio space that could be her own but also in conversation and community with other contemporary artists. She ended up purchasing the Millville building in 2021, with plans to develop it further, enlisting architects Sharayah Jimenez and Oscar Lopez for the design and permitting process. Hubbs envisions Millville as a hub for artists that facilitates sharing space, ideas, and work, concentrating artists together for things like events and studio visits. “I felt like when I moved [back] here it was difficult to get connected to people,” she says. “When you’re in a studio with a lot of other artists, you can feel a little more like you’re a part of something that more people [are] working on or towards.”
We found the arts community in Tucson that Hubbs is a part of, along with the many other artists, curators, and gallerists that we met, robust and full of vitality. Leadership at the museums like MOCA Tucson and the Tucson Art Museum are clearly investing in the local arts community, but the artists are also supporting each other, showing up, and making space.