This weekend, Tucsonans will get a chance to see local artists’ talent and works for free at the 26th annual Open Studio Tour.
Color-coded maps to guide participants through the art district will be distributed at locations including Hotel Congress, the Tucson Museum of Art, Hippie Gypsy, Barnes & Noble, the Loft Cinema and Main Gate Square. The maps will show the locations and types of art on display at each studio, and can also be found on the Tucson Pima Arts Council website.
The event features 224 Tucson and Pima County artists, whose media include glass blowing, hand-made jewelry, mixed media art, steel welding, photography and classic paintings.
Emily Düwel, communications manager for the Tucson Pima Arts Council, said that last year’s Open Studio Tour drew approximately 10,000 people. This year, the event is expected to gain just as much support from the community.
“We have a very large number of artists versus the average population living here,” Duwel said, referencing a study that the council participated in with Americans for the Arts, “so lot of artists are attracted to the Tucson region.”
Open Studio Tour participant and local artist Hollis Fingold will show her artwork in the Splinter Brothers and Sisters Warehouse this weekend at 901 N. 13th Avenue.
As a specialist in mixed media, such as sculptures pieced together from a variety of everyday items, Fingold said that she is excited for the growth in contemporary art and the shift away from traditional Southwestern themes in the Tucson community.
“I’m glad to see that things are changing, and I support everyone who is doing something new in Tucson in terms of art and culture,” Fingold said. “Tucson is definitely coming out of the ‘coyote with the bandana on’ stage.”
Fingold went to art school in Buffalo, N.Y., and Chicago, and later became a designer for Eaton’s, a Canadian department store retailer.
Since then, she’s owned her own design company in Denver, designed for Disney and created a line of functional art that included clocks, boxes and picture frames. Several of her telephones ended up in the hands of celebrities, she said, including Eddie Murphy, Roseanne Barr and Randy Travis.
Fingold said that she is thankful to have sold her works to prominent figures and organizations, and to have been accepted into the art world.
“I felt very fortunate and grateful that I could make a living doing artwork,” she said. “It made me feel really good, and it made my mom really happy.”
Fingold said she was originally skeptical of the art community in Tucson, but has seen it grow firsthand.
“[The art community] gets better and better here,” she said. “When I first came here I thought, ‘Oh my god. How the hell did I get to Tucson?’ It’s come a long way in terms of culture and art, absolutely.”
Her studio will have works including functional art, clocks, a steel sculpture and maquettes on display. She said that this weekend, she will sell anything that people want to buy.
“It is clearance time,” she said. “I want to clear out some things. The studio looks like mixed media itself. … You just never know what you’re going to find.”
