Tucson Museum of Art facts for kids
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| Established | 1924 |
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| Location | 140 N. Main Street Tucson, Arizona |
| Type | Art museum |
The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) is an exciting art museum and art education center. It is located in the Presidio District of downtown Tucson, Arizona. The museum covers a large area, about four acres, and has 74,000 square feet of space to show art.
This space includes a modern main museum building and historic homes from the 1800s. One of these is the Cordova House, built in 1848. These old homes have been updated to be a museum restaurant, a pottery school, and more art galleries.
The museum usually has eight to nine art shows happening at the same time. These shows include art from around the world and special exhibits created by the museum. They also show art from their own large collection. TMA has over 8,000 art pieces. These pieces focus on modern and contemporary art, as well as art from Latin America, the American West, Native American cultures, and Asia.
Since it started in 1924, the museum has been a place for art education in the community. Teaching about art is still a very important part of what the museum does. Museum staff and volunteers called docents lead many education programs.
The museum's outdoor areas, with their beautiful gardens, are used for many community and private events. These events include markets for artists, festivals, and live performances. They also host an annual Día de los Muertos event, weddings, and school proms. The museum has a special area called Creative Space, which is an interactive place for kids and families to explore art.
You can also find Cafe a la C'Art at the museum. It's a full restaurant and bakery that Food & Wine Magazine once called one of the best museum restaurants in the United States. There's also the Museum Store, where you can buy unique art and crafts made by local artists. In 2015, True West magazine named the Tucson Museum of Art one of the Top Western Art Museums in the United States.
Contents
History of the Museum
The Tucson Museum of Art started on March 20, 1924. It was first called the Tucson Fine Arts Association (TFAA). It was created by members of the Tucson Women's Club and about 50 other people from Tucson. One of the first board members was Louise Norton.
At first, TFAA was a gallery and a place for monthly talks. In October 1927, the group moved to the upstairs gallery of the new Scott Avenue Temple of Music and Art. They started having more art shows. In 1941, TFAA showed Southwestern Oils, which featured art and talks by the famous artist Maynard Dixon. This show hinted that the group would soon grow into a major art museum.
In 1947, local artists and craftspeople put on a show called A New Look at Art. This was the city's first art show where anyone could enter their work. It attracted a lot of people, with 7,412 visitors!
The Craft Show began in 1950. This show later became the Arizona Biennial, which is now the longest-running art show of its kind in Arizona.
In 1967, the organization that would become the Tucson Museum of Art started its own permanent art collection. This happened because of several big donations. These gifts included important collections of pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, and Western American art. These were given by families like the Locketts, the Frikarts, and the Petersons.
The biggest donation came from Frederick R. Pleasants. His pre-Columbian collection has almost 600 objects. These include jewelry, special pots, small figures, masks, sculptures, and textiles. These pieces show about 3,000 years of history from many different cultures. They come from areas like Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), the Intermediate Area (Panama, parts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador), and the Central Andean region (Peru and Bolivia).
The main museum building was designed by Andy Anderson. It opened on May 1, 1975, with a show called Tucson Collects. This show featured art borrowed from 43 personal collections in Tucson. The art covered 2,000 years of history, from Spanish Colonial times to paintings by famous artists like Picasso, Renoir, and Monet. In its first year, the museum had 50,000 visitors! The main galleries are designed like a spiral going downwards, similar to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
TMA has created its own unique art shows using local collections, local artists, and regional history. They also host modern traveling exhibitions. In 2014-2015, a show called The Figure Examined: Masterworks from the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation broke all previous attendance records. More than 30,000 people visited this show. It featured works by famous artists like Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and Henri Matisse.
Art Collections
The museum's permanent collection has more than 8,000 art pieces. These include modern and contemporary art, Latin American art, Western and Native American art, and Asian art.
Latin American Art
The Latin American collection includes pre-Columbian art. This art was made by Native Americans before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. The pieces cover about 2,000 years, from 500 BC to 1500 AD. Some examples are the Stela from Central Mexico, made between 100 BC and 250 BC, and the Feline Head Fragment from Peru, made between 500 BC and 300 BC.
Modern and Contemporary Art
The museum started collecting modern art in the early 1970s. A gift of ninety-two objects from the Lawrence J. Heller collection added works by European and American modern artists. These included pieces by Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Max Weber.
The contemporary collection has works by artists like John Chamberlain, Chuck Close, and Jasper Johns. It also features art by modern artists from Arizona, such as Barbara Rogers and James Pringle Cook.
Art of the American West
The Art of the American West Collection began in the 1980s with a donation from Ileen B. and Samuel J. Campbell. This collection spans 200 years of art. It includes works by Native American artists like Maria Poveka Martinez and Fritz Scholder. You can also see paintings by late 19th and early 20th century American West painters such as Charles Marion Russell and Maynard Dixon. Contemporary Western artists like Howard Post are also featured.
Research Library
The Research Library at the museum has over 13,000 books and other materials. You can search for them using the Pima County Public Library online catalog. You cannot check out these items, but you can use them at the library.
The collection includes art magazines, museum publications, and materials about visual arts and Arizona artists. There is also information about the museum's history, the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson, and the historic block. The library has materials on the Art of the American West, Latin American art, modern and contemporary art, and general art history. They also have books on American, Oceanic, African, and Asian art, plus art education materials. The library staff can help you find information and suggest other places to look.
The Research Library has some very important and rare books. For example, from Frederick Pleasants, a curator from the Brooklyn Museum, the library has early research on Native American, African, and pre-Columbian art. It also has many copies of ancient pre-Columbian books called codices. From art historians Lee and Pam Parry, the library has books about 18th and 19th century American art, especially landscape and portrait paintings.
