DeGrazia & Native American Events Today Through Weekend
by Ben McNitt on Jun. 12, 2009, under Uncategorized
You’ve got a wonderful choice of Tucson arts events beginning today through the weekend.
Sunday is the 100th anniversary of Tucson’s artist Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia’s birth and the Tucson Pima Arts Council is sponsoring a series of Native American performances, workshops and poetry readings.
First, DeGrazia.
The artist’s doe-eyed children rendered in lyrical pastels live in a world of romantic imagination that suits some tastes and rankles others. There’s no doubt his prolific output brought DeGrazia fame and fortune. He savored both and was legend for his generosity. Bonnie Henry wrote an excellent backgrounder on him for last Sunday’s Star.
Today from 5:30 to 7:30 pm the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main, will hold a reception for “DeGrazia: A Modernist Perspective,” featuring many of his lesser-known pieces. $10 fee for nonmembers. The exhibit runs through Oct. 25.
Saturday from 6 to 9 pm the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, 6300 N. Swann Rd., will hold an outdoor music festival, free to the public, including the Ellington Big Band playing DeGrazia compositions from the 1930s and 40s. The gallery is also displaying a “DeGrazia: 100 Years, 100 Works” centennial retrospective.
Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm, the Gallery in the Sun will be open with cake and ice cream to celebrate the 100th anniversary of DeGrazia’s birth.
Also today, the Tucson Pima Arts Council sponsors an appearance by Native American performance artist James Luna at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen St., beginning at 7 pm.
At the same location Saturday there’s a 2 pm presentation by Estevan Rael-Galvez, New Mexico state historian, on the importance of working in multiple histories; a 3:15 pm panel on Native American artists working in contemporary rather than traditional mediums and a 5:30 pm poetry reading by Leslie Marmon Silko and Sherwin Bitsui.
Lots to enjoy.
