Congrats are in order, Arizona. On the evening of March 23, the 2016 Arizona Governor’s Arts Award winners were announced in a ceremony at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Since 1981, the awards have recognized creatives and organizations who have made a positive impact on the state’s arts and culture…
Walk into Jarrod’s Coffee, Tea & Gallery in downtown Mesa on any given day, and you’re likely to find an eclectic crew of patrons sipping lattes and perusing the art. Tattooed bikers sprawl on couches near mothers minding fussy toddlers. A woman wearing a hijab pops in for a coffee…
Capes. Powers. Brawls. Everyone has a favorite superhero, maybe even more than one. And while it’s fun when they take down the latest Big Bad, there’s something both hair-raising and sometimes heartbreaking about seeing iconic good guys face off against each other. Movie studios are making the fans pick a…
The Phoenix arts scene is humming along. Creative types are opening new venues, artists are collaborating across disciplines, and First Friday art walks are bustling. Art is popping up in all sorts of unconventional places – including bars, churches, and hair salons. And public art, from murals to light rail…
Curious types, take note. More than three dozen students with ASU’s School of Art are opening the doors of their studios in the Phoenix warehouse district this weekend for all to explore. Which means you can check out work spaces of some serious creatives and talk with them about their…
The ASU School of Art now ranks 20th in the country among fine arts graduate schools, according to the 2016 U.S. News & World Report rating of best colleges and universities in the U.S. Last year, it ranked 22nd. Based on the 2016 report, ASU School of Art now ranks…
New Times picks the best arts and culture events in metro Phoenix from March 18 through 20. Nikki Glaser Nikki Glaser is NSFW. And we mean that outside the standard “not safe for work” acronym. The comedian, a veteran of Last Comic Standing as well as numerous late night shows and…
Mesa is making a strong showing in the local mural scene, thanks to a newly commissioned piece by Miles MacGregor, or El Mac, one of the world’s most noted street artists. The Los Angeles-based artist with Phoenix roots just finished a towering mural depicting a woman holding a rose at…
It’s abundantly clear each time First Friday rolls around that spending one evening each month exploring Phoenix arts and culture just doesn’t cut it. There’s too much art out there, and it takes more than a few hours to see even a fraction of it. But once a year, there’s Art…
Just inside the front door of my house is a small library table that’s home to a short stack of books I have no intention of ever reading. I am not interested in Hendrik Willem Van Loon’s handsomely bound memoirs, published in Bombay in 1942. I don’t care to read…
New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from Monday, March 14, to Friday, March 18. Downtempo’s Date with Tempe Phoenix Downtempo Ride takes to the streets on two wheels in search of bike-friendly destinations and perfect Phoenix patios. Downtempo’s Date with Tempe, the latest ride in the…
On Friday, March 11, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2440, which killed the Roosevelt business improvement district created by the Phoenix City Council on January 20. The district would have taxed property owners in a specified area to fund services beyond those already provided by the City. Ducey had…
El Peezo’s newest public piece — his first in more than a year — depicts GOP front-runner Donald Trump as Jabba the Hutt, and makes an aside to the Trump family’s ancestral name. Peezo, a wheatpaste artist and former New Times Big Brain finalist, hasn’t produced any public work in…
There’s a long wall running along the south side of Bentley Projects in the Phoenix warehouse district. Topped by barbed wire, it once looked like a stark separation point between the neighborhood it borders and the arts and event venues operated by Bentley Calverley. But now, Calverley says, it feels…
Visitors who take a left after walking into a new gallery space in Mesa will encounter iconic images created by William Wegman, an artist renowned for using his own Weimaraners in his compositions. They’re displayed across from Red Vapor for Ripe Strawberries, a 2013 oil-on-panel piece by Phoenix artist Rachel Bess. Nearby,…
On a palm-lined street in a pastoral Tempe neighborhood sits an attractive, split-level home. At first glance, it bears a resemblance to the house inhabited by one of the favorite television families of the 1970s. You know, the one with the lovely lady, the fellow, and the six children? “The…
Maybe you’ve wondered how much of what you read on Wikipedia is actually true or wished there was a way to make Wikipedia content more accurate and comprehensive. If the topics near and dear to your heart include art or feminism — or both, then you can help to make…
What happens in the studio shouldn’t always stay in the studio. Studio Visit is a monthly series that profiles artists in their studios. We ask them questions, they provide answers, and then we have a nice discussion about their work. This month: Christine Cassano, whose most recent exhibition featured 330…
Is it possible to have too many good choices? Some people surely thought so during this month’s First Friday, when art was on view at dozens of Phoenix venues. Getting to each and every one of them during the course of just a few hours was impossible, but that’s not…
New Times picks the best arts and culture events in metro Phoenix from March 7 through 11. “Hierogliffic and Other Stories” Turner G. Davis’ “Hierogliffic and Other Stories” borrows from history in form and inspiration. The noted fine artist put pencil and pen to paper daily, creating images reminiscent of cave…
Museums traditionally acquire objects in two ways — via donation or purchase. As a general rule, museums show only 2 to 4% of their collections at any given time. That means their vaults are brimming with hidden gems that don’t always make it to the gallery floor. We asked five…
“Confluence: Inter-generational Collaborations” at the Heard Museum bursts at the seams with bright hues, nods to urban culture, and a strong thematic undercurrent of environmental sustainability. Rainbow-colored butterflies hang on wires from the ceiling amid glass raindrops suspended above a pond, all created from recycled materials. The piece, called Butterfly…
