Arizona Arts, the University of Arizona umbrella organization for performing and visual arts on campus, is presenting a monthlong Signature Series in October as part of the National Arts & Humanities Month.

The series highlights UA academic and arts programs. It kicked off Wednesday, Oct. 5, with “An Evening with the Creative Class” presented by the UA School of Dance. In all, the series will present eight events that highlight each aspect of the Southwest art scene.

Here’s a little of what to expect.

“An Evening with the Creative Class”

7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, at the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, 1737 E. University Blvd., on the UA campus. Admission is free. For more information, click here.

Presented and moderated by Duane Cyrus, the UA School of Dance director, the program aims to take an inclusive approach to the artists’ creative process.

“I was thinking of it at first as a kind of artist salon,” Cyrus said. “It costs so much money to produce live performance, and it takes so much time, and I was like, ‘Wow, could there be a way that dance could be available to people?’”

While dance is a core principle of the class, Cyrus said he wants to make sure the “collateral damage” of dance is accessible to audiences, too.

“The costume design, the music, all the other parts of dance, could that be accessible to audiences in an easier-to-get way?” Cyrus said.

Cyrus, who was appointed in early September to head the UA Dance school, hosted a similar event for over a decade while he was teaching at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

“I would offer it twice a year at the least, and we had all kinds of topics. We looked at artists responding to war. We looked at gender and sexuality. We’ve highlighted women artists,” he said. “There’s just been all kinds of topics.”

“It’s not politicized; it’s about art. But it’s about how dance and art are really a part of the thread, the fabric of our culture,” he said. “Dance doesn’t just live remotely on a stage … It’s an interwoven part of our culture, and that’s what ‘Evening with the Creative Class’ is about.”

“Impulse”

Oct. 5 – Nov. 8 in the Student Success District on the Mall, near the Student Union; free. Details here.

“Impulse,” presented by Arizona Arts Live, is an installation of 15 glowing and harmonizing seesaws set up on UA mall and free for anyone who wants to jump on.

The display uses repetitive lights and sounds to transform the area into a space of urban play, according to the event page on the Arizona Arts website.

RELATED: Arizona Repertory Theatre kicks off the season with ‘Legally Blonde the Musical’

“The Thief Collector” and “Restored: The Return of Woman-Ochre”

Exhibit opens Oct. 8 and runs through May 20 at the UA Museum of Art, 1031 N. Olive Road; movie will screen at Centennial Hall on Thursday, Oct. 6. Admission is free by reserving tickets through arizonaartslive.com.

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 1985, Willem de Kooning’s “Woman-Ochre,” one of the most valuable pieces in the University of Arizona Museum of Art’s collection, was cut from its frame and stolen from the museum.

Nearly 37 years after the painting was stolen, the “Woman-Ochre” is coming home. 

An opening reception for the painting’s return will be held Oct. 8 and the exhibit at the University of Arizona Museum of Art will continue through May 20. The exhibition will include conversations with folks involved in the recovery and restoration of the painting, which has been estimated to be worth as much as $160 million. 

Starring Glenn Howerton, actor, writer and executive producer of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The Thief Collector” is a 2022 film based on the real-life theft at the UAMA. 

On Oct. 6, Arizona Arts Live will host a free screening of “The Thief Collector,” a docudrama based on the theft, at Centennial Hall ahead of the painting’s return home. 

“Musical Murals”

5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, at Maynards, 400 N. Toole Ave., Downtown Tucson. Admission is free; details here.

Organized by the Fred Fox School of Music in collaboration with Meet Me at Maynards, “Musical Murals” will have student chamber ensembles perform along a route “that connects the colorful walls of art in downtown Tucson,” according to the event page. 

“Musical Murals” began in 2021 and attracted hundreds from the community to participate in the walk. The weekly Meet Me at Maynards urban trek has been a Tucson tradition for 14 years.

“32 Sounds” at the Marroney Theatre

8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, and Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Marroney Theatre, 1025 N. Olive Road. Tickets are $40, $5 for students with ID through the Fine Arts box office. 

The film from JD Samson, Michael O’Neill and Sam Green “weaves 32 specific audio recordings into a cinematic meditation on the power of sound,” according to the Arizona Arts event page.

Audience members will receive headphones for the experience, and while the film plays on screen, Samson and O’Neill compose the score together live while Green narrates.

“Sama Alshaibi: Generation After Generation”

Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central Ave., Downtown Phoenix. Admission is $20 for adults, $15 for students through the museum.

Sama Alshaibi, recipient of the 2021 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award, has her own exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum that also is featured in the Arizona Arts 2022 Signature Series.

“Generation after Generation” opened on Sept. 17 and continues until May 2023 and explores the themes of dispossession, ecological entropy and historical imaginings.

“Embodying Self as Subject” with Sama Alshaibi and Deborah Willis

5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at the Center for Creative Photography Auditorium, 1030 N. Olive Road. Admission is free. Click here for details.

“Embodying self as Subject” is the final event of Arizona Arts’ 2022 Signature Series. The discussion will be hosted by University of Arizona School of Arts Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi, and will feature Dr. Deborah Willis, a professor from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

“Embodying Self as Subject” takes a look at the ethical and political challenges photographers face when photographing subjects and will present audience members with ways for photographers to make real change.

*El Inde Arizona is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.

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