Open Studio Tours in Tucson and in Other Cities

Fall Open Studios in Tucson

Keep in mind that Sonoran Arts Network has a new page called Open Studios with all the news about studio tours forming for this fall. Currently we have two tours scheduled:  Art Trails (October 24-25) in west and northwest Tucson, Marana, and Oro Valley; and Heart of Tucson Art (October 31-November 1) which covers mid-town Tucson.

I received an email this week from Alec Laughlin who was the designer and manager of Tucson Pima Arts Council's (TPAC) 2014 Open Studios Tour website.  Laughlin met with TPAC administrators this past week. He says, “…things are a go for me to take over coordination of the tour to make it happen.” He and TPAC are researching dates in November, and Laughlin added that they will make an official announcement soon. Laughlin will inform Sonoran Arts Network about the dates and times of this tour when it is settled. I asked him to provide the zip codes covered by his tour as we have done with Art Trails and Heart of Tucson Art.

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Open Studios Tours in Other Cities:

As we organize for the fall, it seemed like a good idea to see how other cities handle their Open Studios tours.  I mentioned in an earlier posting that both Portland, OR, and Santa Fe, NM have tours on more than just one weekend. So I did some research on several cities, and here are the results I found for 2014 or upcoming 2015 tours.  Thanks go out to Jerry Peek for alerting me to Santa Cruz, CA.

Let’s start first with the Old Pueblo.

Tucson, AZ
Population:   526,116
Fall Open Studio Tour in 2014:  
one weekend (second weekend in November)
200+ artists (184 studios, several with multiple artists)

Portland, OR    http://www.portlandopenstudios.com/
Population: 609, 456
2 weekends, October 10, 11, and 17, 18
105 artists

Santa Cruz, CA     http://www.artscouncilsc.org/open-studios/
Population 62, 864 and metro 262,382
The city of Santa Cruz and the county coordinate on tours.
2 weekends plus an encore:  
    North County October 3 and 4;
    South County October 10 and 11;
    Encore October 17th & 18th
286 artists

Northern Colorado cities of Boulder (pop. 103,116), Nederland (pop. 1,491), and El Dorado Springs (pop. 585)  http://www.openstudios.org/
2 weekends:  October 3-4 and Oct 10-11
124 artists

Santa Fe, NM  Studio Tour  http://santafestudiotour.com/
Population: 67,947
2 Weekends (last two weekends in June)
68 Artists (44 studios)

Austin, Texas
Population 885, 400
Austin has divided into two regions, West Austin and East Austin

West Austin Studio Tour   http://west.bigmedium.org/
2 weekends: May 19-20 and May 16-17
199 artists

East Austin Studio Tour  https://www.facebook.com/bigmedium
2 weekends: November 14-15, Nov. 21-22
487 artists so far, tour is still being organized at this time
A note about Austin:  your editor went to undergrad school at the University of Texas at Austin (bachelor’s in Journalism and history). At that time, East Austin was a rundown and very poor part of town east of Interstate 35. East Austin was inhabited by a few poor Anglos and many poor and not so poor blacks and Mexican-Americans (race was an issue here, too – not just income).  Artists moved into East Austin because studio space was cheap.  Over time, East Austin became the hip, cool place to go, according to media reports. Looks to me like East Austin needs to add a third weekend if they have 487 artists signed up! I must admit I gasped when I read about what’s happened in East Austin.

And now we have to conclude that the City of Tucson with half a million people (over a million in the metro area) featuring 200+ artists in its tour last fall really needs to extend Open Studio Tours to more than one weekend.

Right now for the first time ever, Tucsonans have two weekends scheduled for studio tours: one for the west and northwest, and a second for mid-town. If downtown and south of downtown join in with a third weekend, we’ll finally be caught up with most of these American cities. We’ll even be getting a tad bit closer to Santa Fe with its two weekend tours for 68 artists. How lovely that must be.

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