The Exhibits Program at Tohono Chul presents visual stories linking the nature, culture and arts of the Southwest. Focusing on the work of regional artists, we display vibrant works of art in a diverse array of thematic group exhibits. The charming adobe Exhibit House, built as a private home in 1937, is an ideal environment for visitors to view Southwestern artworks. Galleries in the Exhibit House are open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily.
Exhibitions currently on display:
PERMANENT COLLECTION | New Perspectives V
April 25 – July 31, 2019 | Welcome Gallery
Reception with the Curators | Thursday, April 25 | 5:30 – 8:00 pm
NEW PERSPECTIVES is the fifth survey of objects from Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection curated by Tohono Chul’s valued Docents and Volunteers. Serving as Guest Curators for 2019 are Midge Berlowe, Jane Fairchild, Priscilla Herrier and Jim Karp.
The permanent collection was started in 1986 with a donation of sixty-five objects from the Estate of Mrs. Robert Wilson. Mrs. Wilson was the mother of Tohono Chul founder, Dick Wilson. The desire to preserve and exhibit objects is deeply rooted in the Wilson family. Dick’s great, great, great-grandfather was Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), a portraitist of the Federalist Era and founder of Philadelphia’s Peale Museum, one of America’s first major museums. Roughly a century and a half later, Harold S. Colton and Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton (Dick’s uncle and aunt) founded Flagstaff’s Museum of Northern Arizona. Today, Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection has grown to include over 350 regional objects ranging from basketry, textiles, and ceramics to sculptural works and paintings.
All of the guest curators have dedicated themselves to Tohono Chul and jumped at the opportunity to explore the Permanent Collection and share their knowledge and appreciation of the objects they have chosen.
CALL AND RESPONSE IV
July 26 – September 29, 2019 | Entry Gallery
Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection is a wonderful introduction to the cultures and traditions of the region. With over 350 objects created primarily by indigenous people of the Southwest, the collection is small enough to become familiar with quickly yet broad enough to capture and hold the imagination. Culled from the modern era, the early 20th century to the present, the objects in their beauty, craftsmanship, and function are reflections of tradition, ceremony, and assimilation.
The idea behind Call and Response IV comes from the world of music in which a call and response is a sequence of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians; where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or a response to the first. This exhibition presents a visual call and response to the objects of the Permanent Collection. Five Tucson artists from different backgrounds and disciplines were invited to visit the collection and to select work that called to them and then respond to it through the contemporary filter of personal experience. Paul Anders-Stout, Annie Gordon, Susan Hildreth, Kate Long Hodges and Guna Mundheim have created intriguing conceptual, formal, and aesthetic dialogues that move back and forth between the function and utility of tradition and the modern notion of beauty and concept as the endgame.
Image left| Annie Gordon | Tobacco Flower Katsina | cotton and thread with acetate ribbon and rick rack
Image right| Gerry Quotskuyva | Tsitoto Tobacco Flower Katsina | cottonwood root and acrylic paint | ACNO 2008.3.1
Art du Jour | William Lesch
December 2018 – August 2019 | Garden Bistro
Art du Jour features artwork by local and regional artists displayed throughout the dinning rooms of the Garden Bistro. The work of longtime Tucson artist, William Lesch is currently featured in the Bistro. Lesch is one of the region’s most recognized artists. He is an extraordinary photographer and a meticulous craftsman. He finds this world a miraculous place, and photography a means to explore it. More works by William Lesch are on exhibit in the Welcome Gallery of the Tohono Chul Exhibit House – he is the Featured Artist through February 6, 2019.
Sculpture in the Gardens | On the Grounds
Sculpture from Tohono Chul’s Permanent Collection by Mark Rossi, Fred Borcherdt, Kioko Mwitiki, David Weinert, Greg Corman, Ned Egan and others can be discovered throughout the Park. Works by Tucson artists Phil Lichtenhan, Tidhar Ozeri, and Stuart Ross Snider are on loan from the artists as part of the project Art in the Gardens.
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