Thirty days has September, April, June, and Hispanic Heritage Month.
Although the 30-day period would nestle nicely into September, instead it starts September 15 and spills further into fall, ending on October 15. Getting into the celebratory spirit, Phoenix Art Museum will expand on those slightly askew month boundaries by kicking off its Hispanic Heritage Month events early on Friday, September 6, and continuing them through October -- and beyond.
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Why tack on the extra days? Well, it's got a little something to do with how many events are packed into the museum's schedule.
First on the docket is September's First Friday, when Salsa y Salsa returns for a free evening of dance performance, salsa lessons, salsa-eating, and salsa music in the museum's great hall.
Cine Latino Film Festival is slated for a return, too. The third annual edition of the fest will screen Latin American films ranging from dramas and documentaries to shorts and comedies mostly on Sundays throughout September and October. Lucha libre documentary Tales of Masked Men opens the festival at 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 4. Admission will be free.
Hecho En Mexico closes out the showcase at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 27, when admission is $10 for non-museum members. Also on the schedule is 2013 Argentine drama Elefante Blanco, which finds two Buenos Aires priests working to help an impoverished community while dealing with their own inner turmoil.
Rounding out the month-plus of Hispanic-centric things to do are a duo of art exhibitions: "Rufino Tamayo: Master Printmaker" and "Xul Solar and Jorge Luis Borges: The Art of Friendship." The former collects the Mexican artist's print work -- particularly items created by using the printing method mixografia, which he invented in the 1970s. The show is presented in honor of the 50th anniversary of Friends of Mexican Art, a Valley organization that promotes the appreciation of Mexican art in Arizona. The Tamayo showcase opens Saturday, September 21.
The Solar-Borges show is a traveling exhibition and opens Wednesday, October 2. It explores the pair's friendship through paintings, publications, and other items. Together the works and items pull together a picture of two men who had a profound influence on one another personally and artistically.
Plenty to do; plenty more to see.
