PHOENIX (October 27, 2025) – On November 28, 2025, Phoenix Art Museum premieres George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings as part of the reopening celebrations of the institution’s Art of the Americas + Europe galleries in the newly dedicated James K. Ballinger Wing. Featuring 50 outstanding prints from the Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, the exhibition examines Burr’s practice and legacy, grounded in a commitment to depicting the high desert landscapes of Arizona, Colorado, and Southern California.  

“Phoenix Art Museum is excited to present an incredible selection of works by George Elbert Burr as part the historic renovation of the James K. Ballinger Wing,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings will be presented in the Museum’s Orme Lewis Gallery, which is now dedicated to ongoing installations of prints and drawings—considered one of the largest yet least exhibited parts of the PhxArt Collection. Fittingly, the exhibition honors not just the desert landscapes of our region and the American West but also the legacy of an artist with deep ties to the history of Phoenix Art Museum.”

American painter and printmaker George Elbert Burr (1859–1939) was born in the Midwest and moved to New York City in 1888 to establish his career as a traveling illustrator. His work was published in popular magazines such as  Harper’s and  Frank Leslie’s Weekly, and in 1891, he served as illustrator and photographer on President Benjamin Harrison’s Western tour of the United States. After extensive travels in Europe, health challenges in 1906 led Burr to Denver, where he devoted himself to printmaking. In the winters, however, the artist visited the Southwest to make sketches, from which he produced his acclaimed “Desert Set.” In 1924, Burr moved to Phoenix and over time became deeply involved in the arts community. He eventually served as an instrumental figure in the founding of the Phoenix Fine Art Association and the community-building efforts that led to the establishment of Phoenix Art Museum in 1959. 

Throughout his prolific career, Burr created approximately 25,000 works from an estimated 367 plates. Despite such an extensive body of work—demonstrative of technical innovation and mastery—the artist remains less recognized than his European predecessors, including Albrecht Durër and Rembrandt van Rijn. George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchingsoffers Arizona audiences the opportunity to discover a wide selection of Burr’s finely detailed prints that skillfully render resolutely American subjects.

“Burr was a technical genius capable of creating myriad effects through a variety of printmaking techniques,” said Olga Viso, the Museum’s Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, who curated the exhibition. “He could render the tiniest burrs and spikes of a barrel cactus or ocotillo branch with mind-bending exactitude while capturing the ethereal atmospheric conditions of a twilight sky, a sandstorm, cumulous clouds, or dirt devils moving slowly across the landscape. Visitors will be able to see the vast range of Burr’s impressive production as well as get up close to inspect individual prints with a magnifying glass.” 

For high-resolution imagery and to request interviews, please contact the Communications Office at press@phxart.org. 

About the Exhibition

The inaugural installation of the James K. Ballinger Wing, an initiative honoring the historic collections of Phoenix Art Museum and the visionary leadership of Director Emeritus James K. Ballinger, was made possible by generous gifts from the Virginia M. Ullman Foundation and the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Cathie Lemon, the Men’s Arts Council, and Harry and Rose Papp. 

George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, the Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs.

All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin. 

Entrance into George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings  is included in general admission for the public. Admission is free for Museum Members and youth aged 5 and younger. Visitors may also enjoy reduced admission to the exhibition during voluntary-donation times on Wednesdays from 3 – 8 pm, made possible by SRP and City of Phoenix, and First Fridays from 5 – 8 pm, made possible by APS and Lexus, with additional support from Arizona Community Foundation. For a full breakdown of general admission prices and hours, see phxart.org/visit/.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, a monthly live-music series, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

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PHOENIX (October 20, 2025) – On November 28, 2025, Phoenix Art Museum premieres Ed Mell: In the Studio as part of the reopening celebrations of the institution’s Art of the Americas + Europe galleries in the newly dedicated James K. Ballinger Wing. Offering unprecedented insight into Mell’s process as well as the artist’s final paintings, the exhibition presents for the first time a selection of oil studies and works on paper made by the beloved Arizona artist from 1974 through 2023, many of which have never been on view to the public.   

“Phoenix Art Museum is thrilled to unveil a remarkable selection of works by Ed Mell, bringing his vision to our audiences at the Museum,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Throughout his illustrious career, Mell has captivated art lovers by masterfully portraying the breathtaking landscapes of Arizona, leaving an indelible mark on a generation of artists. This exhibition invites visitors to explore the intimate evolution of his artistry within the studio. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Edmund Paul Mell, Jr Trust, gallery, and family for their invaluable partnership in presenting this extraordinary display to our community.”

Born in Phoenix, Ed Mell (1942–2024) graduated from the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles in 1967 before moving to New York, where he worked as an ad agency art director and, in partnership with Arizona artist Skip Andrews, formed a freelance illustration studio called Sagebrush Studios. In 1973, Mell permanently relocated to Phoenix in 1973 and, by 1978, had fully devoted himself to landscape painting. For more than 50 years, he immersed himself in Arizona’s arts community, establishing his studio just blocks away from Phoenix Art Museum. Throughout his career, the artist became known for his use of vibrant color and angular compositions, and while his paintings of monumental cloud formations, geologic strata, and distinctive desert life have been extensively collected and viewed nationwide, he chose to retain many small paintings and works on paper for his personal collection, rarely selling or exhibiting them.

Ed Mell: In the Studio publicly showcases for the first time many of these oil studies and works on paper, including those left behind in Mell’s studio at the time of his death in 2024. The works in small scale served as preludes to larger studies and even larger finished canvases, and presented alongside select archival materials, including personalized insight from Ken Richardson, the Ed Mell Gallery Director, audiences experience the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the artist’s intent, evolution and resolute commitment to abstraction and capturing the desert environs of Arizona. 

“This mini survey, which focuses on Ed Mell’s process studies, offers museumgoers an unprecedented opportunity to see how Mell created his compositions,” said Olga Viso, the Museum’s Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs who curated the exhibition. “Visitors will be able to view multiple states of the same composition side-by-side and observe striking connections between some of Mell’s earliest experiments from the 1970s and his final canvases. The retrospective look affirms Mell’s lifelong commitment to abstraction and reveals a more minimal and abstract artist than audiences familiar with Mell might recognize.”

For high-resolution imagery and to request interviews, please contact the Communications Office at press@phxart.org. 

About the Exhibition

The inaugural installation of the James K. Ballinger Wing, an initiative honoring the historic collections of Phoenix Art Museum and the visionary leadership of Director Emeritus James K. Ballinger, was made possible by generous gifts from the Virginia M. Ullman Foundation and the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Cathie Lemon, the Men’s Arts Council, and Harry and Rose Papp. 

Ed Mell: In the Studio in the Woodyard Gallery is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, the Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. It is presented by the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. 

All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin. 

Entrance into Ed Mell: In the Studio is included in general admission for the public. Admission is free for Museum Members and youth aged 5 and younger. Visitors may also enjoy reduced admission to the exhibition during voluntary-donation times on Wednesdays from 3 – 8 pm, made possible by SRP and City of Phoenix, and First Fridays from 5 – 8 pm, made possible by APS and Lexus, with additional support from Arizona Community Foundation. For a full breakdown of general admission prices and hours, see phxart.org/visit/.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, a monthly live-music series, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.##

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PHOENIX (October 10, 2025) – On November 28, 2025, Phoenix Art Museum reopens its Art of the Americas + Europe galleries in the newly dedicated James K. Ballinger Wing, named in honor of the institution’s Director Emeritus who served in the leadership role for four decades until his retirement in 2014. Home to 10 gallery spaces, the Ballinger Wing houses outstanding examples of historical American, Western American, Viceregal Latin American, and European art from the PhxArt Collection, presented in conversation with contemporary works by Amalia Mesa-Bains, Virgil Ortiz, and Federico Solmi, among other new acquisitions and significant loans. Alongside thematic installations, special exhibitions titled “Curated Encounters” offer focused explorations on individual artists, strengths of the PhxArt Collection, and more. The space also showcases special presentations of work by Arizona artists Ed Mell and George Elbert Burr, the renovated Thorne Miniature Rooms, and the relocated and reimagined Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis.

“Phoenix Art Museum is excited to honor James K. Ballinger’s incredible legacy with the naming of our Art of the Americas + Europe Wing, which reopens this fall with more than 250 outstanding works from the Museum’s Collection and beyond,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “This first comprehensive renovation of these gallery spaces in nearly a decade, with their new installations and interpretative texts and materials, is a testament to the Museum’s curatorial team and our commitment to engaging audiences with our collections in new, accessible, and thought-provoking ways that extend beyond traditional art historical narratives.”

The historic renovation and new installations mark the culmination of a year-long curatorial collaboration among five PhxArt curators, including Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO; Olga Viso, the Selig Family Chief Curator; Rachel Sadvary Zebro, Associate Curator of Collections; and JoAnna Reyes, PhD, Adjunct Curator for Art of the Americas, with special advisement from Betsy Fahlman, PhD, the Museum’s former Adjunct Curator of American Art. 

Art of the Americas Galleries 

The renovation of the newly named Ballinger Wing enables PhxArt to present its Art of the Americas collection from a fresh, hemispheric perspective. Rather than viewing the geographies and cultures of the Americas as separate and exclusive of each other, installations will consider the history of the region in the context of exchange, migration, and cultural interplay among Indigenous, European, African, African American, Hispanic, Latine and Asian traditions that have shaped the art of the Americas across centuries.

Landscapes of the American West

The Art of the American West collection at PhxArt is distinguished by outstanding holdings of landscape painting, including desert Southwest landscapes. Works by featured artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, Maxfield Parrish, Thomas Moran, and Emil Bisttram demonstrate the ways artists across centuries depict the region’s dramatic light and color, vast geologic forms, flora and fauna, and human-made dwellings.

Life and Legend in the West

This installation investigates the layered and dynamic narratives of the American West, a region characterized by distinctive lifestyles and cultural histories rooted in the influence of Latin American and Hispanic cultures, as well as the rich traditions of Indigenous peoples such as the Diné (Navajo), Apache, Hopi, Pueblos, Pima, Havasupai, and Tohono O’odham. In addition to historical work by artists including Joseph Henry Sharp and E. Irving Couse, visitors discover contemporary perspectives from Ivan McClellan, Otis Kwame Kye, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Grace Kennison, and Virgil Ortiz that challenge common perceptions of the American West by centering Black cowboy culture, Indigenous futurism, cowgirl culture, and more. 

18^th– and 19^th-century American Art 

The Museum’s 18^th– and 19^th-century American Art collection is home to nearly 450 works that trace the artistic and cultural development of the United States, anchored by iconic portraits and landscapes. Portraits such as John Singleton Copley’s John A. Graham (c. 1798) and William Merritt Chase’s The White Rose (c. 1886) reflect America’s formative years and the transatlantic traditions that shaped early painting, while later portraits by John Singer Sargent, Julius LeBlanc Stewart, and more reveal the growing sophistication of American art as it balanced European influence with a distinct national identity. Landscape paintings by Alexander Helwig Wyant, George Inness, Elihu Vedder, and other artists signal the traditions of the Hudson River School, Tonalism, and American Impressionism.

Art and an Evolving Nation

Throughout history, art has been used to examine issues of power, sovereignty, justice, identity, nation-building, protest and dissent, and more. Placed in dialogue, historical and contemporary works from the PhxArt Collection reflect how artists throughout the history of the United States have used their practices to document and engage with moments of social change, highlighting the power of art to spark discussion, deepen understanding, promote resilience, and inspire hope for a greater future. Featured artists in this installation include Fritz Scholder, Ali Dipp, William Henry Powell, Gilbert Stuart, and Federico Solmi. 

Viceregal Art of Latin America 

Drawn primarily from the PhxArt Collection with select loans including work by local artist Gennaro Garcia, this installation highlights tradition and innovation in the art of Latin America during the 16^th through the 19^thcenturies, when territories in the Americas and Asia were governed by viceroys, or Spanish administrators. Visitors discover how the Latin American viceroyalties were important hubs of cultural and economic exchange. Featured works demonstrate the various ways local artists of the time adapted to the tastes of an increasingly globalized clientele, reinterpreting traditional media like lacquerware and ceramics from China and Japan, and how they developed new religious imagery in place-specific contexts. 

Amalia Mesa-Bains: In Dialogue

A highlight of the renovated Art of the Americas galleries includes a large-scale installation by Amalia Mesa-Bains, who throughout her five-decade career has become a central scholar, artist, and writer in Chicana feminist art and established altar-making as a cornerstone of Chicana/o artistic practice. Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead: Homenaje a Tonatzin/Guadalupe (1992) is an offering to the divine mother goddesses from three cultures that shaped Mexico—the Indigenous Nahua, or Aztec, represented by the goddess Tonantzin; the Spanish, represented by the Virgen de Guadalupe; and West African culture, represented by the Queen of the Waters, Yemayá. An important objective of Chicana/o art is recovering history and cultural connections that Mexican-descended people lost through assimilation into U.S. society. Mesa-Bains’ altar counters the erasure of cultural intermixing in Mexico, providing a more nuanced understanding of Chicana/o’s rich heritage.

European Art Galleries 

European art has been at the heart of the Museum’s Collection since 1959, beginning with the acquisition of a major painting by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) and today is home to more than 1,200 paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Focused presentations investigating a range of art historical traditions and movements, including the Renaissance, the Baroque era, and Impressionism, span three dedicated galleries in the Ballinger Wing, highlighting the development and evolution of techniques that allowed artists to depict three-dimensional space on two-dimensional surfaces in new ways. Featured artists in these installations include Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, Master of Astorga, Camille Pissarro, Gustave Courbet, Sean Scully, Pierre Augustin Renoir, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, and more, including a new acquisition to the PhxArt Collection by Farraday Newsome. 

Curated Encounters

Throughout the Ballinger Wing, Curated Encounters sections offer deep insight into the work of Arizona artist Ed Mell and George Elbert Burr—both of whom had strong ties to Arizona and Phoenix Art Museum—as well as the Museum’s collection of prints and drawings. 

Ed Mell: In the Studio

Born in Phoenix, Ed Mell was engaged in Arizona’s arts community for more than 50 years, establishing his studio blocks away from Phoenix Art Museum. He became known for his use of vibrant color and angular compositions depicting monumental cloud formations, geologic strata, and desert life of the Colorado Plateau and Sonoran Desert. At the time of his death in 2024, Mell left behind a studio filled with small-scale paintings and works on paper. Ed Mell: In the Studio presents for the first time a selection of oil studies and works on paper made from 1974 through 2023 that have never been on view to the public, offering unprecedented insight into Mell’s process and his final paintings.

George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings

The Museum’s Orme Lewis Gallery reopens in the Ballinger Wing as a dedicated space for the presentation of prints and drawings, one of the largest yet least exhibited parts of the PhxArt Collection, which includes nearly 5,000 original sketches, watercolors, ink and paint on paper, and editioned prints by artists working in a wide range of media and printmaking techniques. 

The reopened Orme Lewis Gallery premieres a Curated Encounter highlighting the prolific career of American painter and printmaker George Elbert Burr, who is best known for his depictions of high desert landscapes across Arizona, Colorado, and Southern California. During his lifetime, Burr made approximately 25,000 prints from an estimated 367 plates, and nearly 500 of his prints and watercolors are in the PhxArt Collection. George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings features more than 50 prints by the artist, who was instrumental in founding the Phoenix Fine Art Association and in the community-building efforts that led to the establishment of PhxArt in 1959. Although less recognized than his European predecessors, Burr’s etchings have been exhibited alongside those of revolutionary printmaker Albrecht Durër and revered Golden Age artist Rembrandt van Rijn, presenting resolutely American subjects that prompt close observation.

The Art of Philip C. Curtis

Philip C. Curtis (1907–2000) is one of Arizona’s most celebrated artists. After helping establish the state’s first art center through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and making Scottsdale his lifelong home, Curtis created dreamlike narratives inspired by the circus, entertainment, and his turn-of-the-century childhood.  

In the late 1990s, PhxArt established the Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis, which opened in 2001 as a permanent space to celebrate the artist’s work. Today, the Museum continues to honor and steward his legacy. Newly relocated to the Ballinger Wing, the reimagined Ullman Center features paintings from the PhxArt Collection alongside archival materials from Curtis’ personal archives to deepen understanding of the artist’s process.

Thorne Miniature Rooms

The Thorne Miniature Rooms are created at an exact scale of one inch to one foot. Conceived by Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882–1966), who created nearly 100 miniature rooms in her lifetime, they present living spaces rooted in the traditions of 18th-century Europe and the simplicity of the American colonial period. The first set of rooms were exhibited at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. In the 1960s, Thorne’s son Niblack, a Phoenix-based civic leader, facilitated the collaborative restoration and donation of 16 original rooms to PhxArt. With the Ballinger Wing renovation, Museum guests can once again explore these captivating worlds in miniature, with new interpretative texts and a refreshed modern design aesthetic that revitalizes the visitor experience.

For high-resolution imagery and to request interviews regarding the James K. Ballinger Wing, please contact the Communications Office at press@phxart.org. 

About the Exhibitions

The inaugural installation of the James K. Ballinger Wing, an initiative honoring the historic collections of Phoenix Art Museum and the visionary leadership of Director Emeritus James K. Ballinger, was made possible by generous gifts from the Virginia M. Ullman Foundation and the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Cathie Lemon, the Men’s Arts Council, and Harry and Rose Papp. 

The installation in the Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. It is made possible by the Virginia M. Ullman Foundation.

Installations of American Art and Art of the American West in the Tooker and Wayland galleries are organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. 

The installation in the Kemper & Ethel Marley Gallery for Art of the American West is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. It is made possible by the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. 

Ed Mell: In the Studio in the Woodyard Gallery is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, the Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. It is presented by the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. 

George Elbert Burr: The Desert Etchings is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, the Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs.

The installation of Viceregal Art of Latin America in the Astorga Gallery is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by JoAnna Reyes, PhD, Adjunct Curator for Art of the Americas. It is made possible by the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation.

Installations of European Art in the Harrington, Sukhman, and Stegall galleries are curated by Rachel Zebro, Associate Curator of Collections.

All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin. 

Entrance into the James K. Ballinger Wing is included in general admission for the public. Admission is free for Museum Members and youth aged 5 and younger. Visitors may also enjoy reduced admission to the exhibition during voluntary-donation times on Wednesdays from 3 – 8 pm, made possible by SRP and City of Phoenix, and First Fridays from 5 – 8 pm, made possible by APS and Lexus, with additional support from Arizona Community Foundation. For a full breakdown of general admission prices and hours, see phxart.org/visit/.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, a monthly live-music series, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

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PHOENIX (July 2, 2025) – Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) announces the appointment of two new curators: Colin Pearson as the institution’s Curator for Asian Art and Dr. JoAnna Reyes as its new Adjunct Curator for Art of the Americas. Reyes’ role is a collaborative appointment between Phoenix Art Museum and the School of Art in Arizona State University’s (ASU) Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. In their respective roles, Pearson will develop exhibitions that draw from and highlight the Museum’s expansive Asian art collection, and Reyes will curate exhibitions across the Museum’s American, Western American, Latin American, and Spanish Colonial art collections. Both Pearson and Reyes assume their roles effective immediately. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Colin Pearson and JoAnna Reyes to the outstanding curatorial team at Phoenix Art Museum,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Both Colin and JoAnna have deep expertise and significant experience within their respective fields and bring fresh, innovative perspectives to the presentation of the PhxArt Collection’s rich holdings. We are excited to see how their exhibitions engage and educate our audiences in new ways, reaffirming the Museum’s role as a space of belonging that reflects the breadth of experiences represented across our community.”

“I am both excited and humbled to be appointed as Phoenix Art Museum’s third curator of Asian art, and I look forward to sharing this incredibly rich collection with audiences in a variety of new ways,” said Pearson. “I feel passionately that the physical distance between Arizona and the places where these wonderful artworks originate does not need to be a barrier to the appreciation of their beauty. By approaching the collection with an open mind, I seek to help audiences discover what makes the artistic traditions of Asia distinct, highlight the intercultural exchanges that have always connected us, and make Asian art accessible and relevant for the diverse and family-oriented audiences here in the Valley of the Sun.”

“I am excited to join the curatorial team at Phoenix Art Museum and explore the Museum’s incredible collection of art from across the Americas,” said Reyes. “By taking a hemispheric approach, I hope to create exhibitions that highlight the migrations, exchanges, and shared stories that have shaped the region, with the goal of sparking new conversations and understanding of the art of the Americas.”

About Colin Pearson

Colin Pearson assumes his new role as PhxArt’s Curator of Asian Art, bringing over a decade of experience curating collections of Asian artworks, ceramics, craft items, musical instruments, and ethnographic artifacts, with expertise on the effects of maritime and Silk Road trade routes on the arts of Tibet, China, and India. He previously served as the Museum’s adjunct curator of Asian art since 2024, overseeing the refresh of the Art of Asia galleries and curating exhibitions such as Chardi Kala: Rising Above Adversity, a presentation of Sikh artworks exploring the concept of unwavering optimism in the face of hardship. This year, Pearson will serve as coordinating curator for the Museum’s presentation of Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, and lead curator for the exhibition Flowers of the Punjab: Textiles of India and Beyond, both opening in September 2025.

In addition to his work at PhxArt, Pearson has collaborated on curatorial projects at Arizona State University (ASU) and catalogued a collection of nearly 200 textiles, artworks, and ethnographic objects for ASU’s Center for Asian Research. From 2020 to 2022, Pearson served as a curator for the Zayed National Museum in the United Arab Emirates, cultivating and sharing his extensive knowledge of ceramics and other export goods traded along overland and maritime routes from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and India. As a curator at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix from 2009 to 2020, Pearson organized special exhibitions of custom-inlaid guitars and Chinese antiquities. He also expanded the institution’s collection of instruments and artifacts from Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, as well as instruments from Europe and North America. 

Pearson has delivered public talks and lectures on a wide range of topics relating to Asian art, including the musical and artistic cultures of Asia, connoisseurship and classification schemes, and the global legacies of cultural interactions throughout history. He earned his Bachelor of Music at California State University, Long Beach and his Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from the University of California at Riverside. He is currently working toward his PhD in Asian Art History at Arizona State University.

About Dr. JoAnna Reyes

Dr. JoAnna Reyes’s collaborative appointment as the Adjunct Curator for Art of the Americas at Phoenix Art Museum and Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at Arizona State University (ASU) further deepens the collaboration between the leading art museum in the Southwest and one of the largest comprehensive arts programs at a public research university in the U.S. In her new role at PhxArt, Reyes will curate exhibitions across the Museum’s American, Western American, Latin American, and Spanish Colonial art collections, expanding opportunities for audiences to consider connections across borders, time periods, and cultures.

Reyes’ first curatorial project at the Museum will be a collection installation in the institution’s newly renovated Art of the Americas and Europe galleries, which are re-opening in November 2025. Drawing from the Museum’s Spanish Colonial and Latin American art collections, Reyes will highlight the traditions and innovations in the viceregal art of Latin America, and how artists of the period drew inspiration from Asian art objects and prints from Northern Europe to create innovative, sophisticated, and nuanced works imbued with traditional Indigenous techniques, Catholic devotional imagery, and new iconographies invented to honor local saints and miracles. The installation will also showcase contemporary works that exemplify how Latin American artists today reference this period in their practices. 

In addition to her curatorial work, this fall Reyes will teach an ASU art history seminar, located in the Museum’s Education building. Reyes will use the PhxArt collection and new North Wing collection galleries to focus on a period between the 15^th and 16^thcenturies often referred to as the Age of Discovery, when Europeans developed a growing fascination with collecting a wide array of antiquities, natural specimens, books, prints, drawings, paintings, and other projects, largely influenced by the exploration and colonization of the Americas. Students will examine the practices and theoretical frameworks that informed early modern collecting and how they evolved into contemporary museological contexts, particularly around topics of repatriation, restitution, and deaccessioning.

A specialist in the visual and material culture of viceregal Latin American and contemporary Chicana/o America, Reyes explores identity, art patronage, and how images and symbols, particularly from border regions, shape our understanding of place and culture. She developed the 2025 exhibition Agua es Vida at the Rio Salado Audubon Center and Samouraï: Armure du Guerrier (2011) at the musée du Quai Branly with the Barbier-Mueller Museum (Dallas), published an entry in Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500-1800 (Delmonico, 2022), and co-authored an article in Feminist Formations (John Hopkins University Press, 2022), among other ongoing writing and book projects. 

Reyes, who earned her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, worked at the Getty Research Institute and served as the curatorial assistant at LACMA (2013-2015) and Mellon Fellow (2016-2017). Previously, she worked at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library (NY) and the Barbier-Mueller Museum, and from 2016-2019, she served as the book review editor for Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. 

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art and fashion of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and art experiences. Each year, more than 250,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions, as well as the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion. The Museum also presents vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson and is home to The Gene and Cathy Lemon Art Research Library, The Thorne Miniature Rooms, The Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis, and Arizona Costume Institute (ACI). For the community, PhxArt hosts lectures, live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education workshops, family-focused programs, and more. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880. 

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PHOENIX (September 21, 2021) –Phoenix Art Museum announces the reopening of The Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis on the first floor of the Museum’s North Wing. The reinvigorated gallery will open on October 23, 2021 and is dedicated to featuring the works of Philip C. Curtis, the Arizona-based artist who founded the Phoenix Federal Art Center, the first iteration of Phoenix Art Museum. Beginning with Philip C. Curtis and the Landscapes of Arizona, rotating exhibitions in the gallery will continuously showcase paintings by the beloved artist in conversation with other works from across the Museum’s American art collection to foster greater understanding of and provide meaningful art-historical context to the Museum’s Curtis collection.

“Phoenix Art Museum is proud to re-open The Ullman Center to continue honoring the work of Philip C. Curtis,” said Mark Koenig, the Museum’s Interim Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “The gallery will provide a unique opportunity for members of our community to discover more about one of our region’s most celebrated artists who played a crucial role in the Museum’s history. We are grateful to The Virginia M. Ullman Foundation and the Philip C. Curtis Charitable Trust for their support in reinvigorating this space.”

Originally created in 2001, just one year after the artist’s passing, The Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis was designed to feature the works of Curtis while honoring his pivotal contribution in establishing Phoenix Art Museum. Beginning in 2017, the dedicated gallery was relocated to the second floor of the Museum’s North Wing to make space for a long-term loan of paintings from the London-based Schorr Collection. Since then, Curtis works have been on view continuously throughout the Museum, and this fall, the institution will re-open The Ullman Center in its original and permanent location on the first floor of the Museum’s North Wing.

Born in 1907 in Jackson, Michigan, Curtis began painting as a child after suffering a serious accident when he fell through the icy surface of a frozen lake. During his lengthy recovery period, he took comfort in sitting at his easel. Curtis eventually went on to study art at Albion College and, afterward, studied law at the University of Michigan before returning to art as a graduate student at Yale University. In 1937, President Roosevelt appointed Curtis to establish the Phoenix Federal Art Center, an early forerunner of Phoenix Art Museum, as part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. In 1939, Curtis left Arizona to also establish the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa.

Following his service with the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C., part of his war service during World War II, Curtis returned to Arizona in 1947 and began to work full-time as an artist. Once Phoenix Art Museum opened in 1959, Curtis maintained a close relationship with the Museum he had helped to establish until his death in 2000. Today, the Museum retains more than 100 works by Curtis in its collection, including many donated by the artist himself. His paintings of self-described “gentle surrealism” focus on themes of loneliness, isolation, and magical realism.

Beginning October 23, 2021, Museum visitors will have the opportunity to experience Philip C. Curtis and the Landscapes of Arizona, the first exhibition in the newly re-opened Ullman Center. Although Curtis was not traditionally identified as a landscape artist, the exhibition includes a number of the artist’s interpretations of western landscapes, which will be displayed alongside works by Lew Davis, Ed Mell, and others. In this context, the fantastical elements of Curtis’s work are amplified and starkly contrast the realism of other featured paintings, providing the chance to contemplate how differently artists of the same region may interpret and portray similar scenes and vistas.

“It will be wonderful to see Philip Curtis’ cherished works in a familiar space and in conversation with other works from the Museum’s American art collection,” said Betsy Fahlman, PhD, the Museum’s adjunct curator of American art. “Through this first exhibition and others, our community will gain a deeper understanding and learn about the richer context of the Museum’s Curtis collection, an opportunity and a gallery for which we are very grateful.”

The reopening of The Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis is made possible through the generosity of The Virginia M. Ullman Foundation and the Philip C. Curtis Charitable Trust. For more information on The Ullman Center and Phoenix Art Museum, contact the Museum’s Communications Office at samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org or 602.257.2105.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 300,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

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PHOENIX (December 16, 2020) – From January 2 through April 25, 2021, Phoenix Art Museum will present a new selection of long-term loans in the exhibition Out of Print: Innovations of 19^th– and 20^th-Century Printmaking from the Collection of Phoenix Art Museum and the Schorr Collection. Featuring more than 50 individual works spanning 200 years by both European and American artists, the exhibition will feature some of the most revered names in art history, including Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Paul Klee, Louise Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg, and many others. Out of Print includes long-term loans from the U.K.-based Schorr Collection, amassed by collectors David and Hannah Lewis, who previously lent a number of Old-Master paintings to the Museum beginning in 2017. The exhibition will also showcase works from the Museum’s own American and European art collections to reveal the 19^th-century rebirth of printmaking as an art form, while underscoring the important contributions and role of women artists in that history.

“We are excited to present works on paper from the renowned Schorr Collection—all of which will be on view in Arizona for the first time—to our audiences in the upcoming exhibition Out of Print: Innovations of 19^th– and 20^th-Century Printmaking from the Collection of Phoenix Art Museum and the Schorr Collection,” said Tim Rodgers, PhD, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “We are grateful to the Lewis family, who established the Schorr Collection more than four decades ago with the goal of increasing access to Old-Master paintings and unique works of European art, including these prints. In addition, we thank our generous local donors who have entrusted outstanding works of American and European art to Phoenix Art Museum, many of which will be placed in conversation with works from the Schorr Collection beginning this January.”

In 2017, Phoenix Art Museum became the proud recipient of long-term loans from the Schorr Collection. Considered one of the most important collections of Old-Master and 19^th-century paintings in the world, the Schorr Collection was established by U.K.-based collectors David and Hannah Lewis and includes more than 400 works, including tender 15th-century devotional images, 19th-century French Impressionist landscapes, works by 20th-century Modern Masters, and a wide selection of prints. The collection is named in honor of the family of Hannah Lewis, many of whom were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust; Hannah Lewis is herself a Holocaust survivor. The Lewis family often loans artworks from their collection on a long-term basis to museums all over the world, including those in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, in an effort to increase access to these outstanding paintings, prints, and more across diverse cultures.

Presented in the Museum’s Harnett Gallery, Out of Print presents prints from the Schorr Collection, on view in Arizona for the first time, alongside works on paper from the Museum’s own collection of more than 20,000 objects to explore the history of printmaking in Europe and the United States, with a particular focus on the 19^th– and 20^th-centuries. Works on loan from the Schorr Collection include those by Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Jean-François Millet, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and others, while prints from the Museum’s American and European art collections include those by Paul Klee, Louise Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg, Käthe Kollwitz, Mary Cassatt, and more, many of which have never before been exhibited. The dialogue between these collections will help to broaden viewers’ understanding of the history of printmaking, highlighting its transformation from a utilitarian process into a form of artistic expression.

“The first mass-produced metal prints and woodcut prints on paper originated in the 15th century in Germany, and the process was considered a reproductive art form to bring art to the widest possible audience through early devotional woodcuts, playing cards, books, and engraved plates that were collected and shared among the masses,” said Rachel Sadvary Zebro, assistant curator at Phoenix Art Museum who curated Out of Print. “Then in the 19th century, avant-garde artists reclaimed the process of printmaking as they openly rejected academic, classical styles of painting. By creating original printed designs and compositions with formal, distinctive qualities similar to paintings and drawings, these artists, building upon earlier generations of printmakers, made printmaking into a legitimate form of art itself.”

In addition to exploring the evolution of printmaking, Out of Print also underscores the role women artists have played in that history, particularly over the past two centuries. The majority of works by American artists in the exhibition were created by women, including Käthe Kollwitz, Clare Leighton, Lee Bontecou, and Isabel Bishop. Out of Print also features work by Mary Nimmo Moran, the wife of Hudson River School painter and printmaker Thomas Moran, who began her work in printmaking as a hobby while she traveled across the United States with her husband as he painted vast American landscapes. The exhibition also features works by Mary Cassatt, who made her first prints in the late 1870s. Despite the often placid, domestic nature of her subjects, Cassatt, who was invited to join the Impressionist group by Edgar Degas, was fearless in her approach to printmaking, experimenting with a wide variety of materials to create stunning color prints of technical mastery.

Out of Print culminates with etchings and lithographs by contemporary artists such as Maria Baca, Raymond Saunders, and Fritz Scholder. By including these works alongside historical examples, the exhibition illuminates how the art of printmaking continues to evolve into the present day.

About the Exhibition

Out of Print: Innovations of 19^th– and 20^th-Century Printmaking from the Collection of Phoenix Art Museum and the Schorr Collection will be on view from January 2 through April 25, 2021 in the Lila and Joel Harnett Gallery. It is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and was made possible through the generosity of David and Hannah Lewis. The long-term loan of the Schorr Collection was made possible through the generous support of Friends of European Art, a former support group of Phoenix Art Museum; Nancy R. Hanley Eriksson; and Mary and Bill Way. For more information visit phxart.org/exhibition/out-of-print/.

Admission is free for Museum Members; veterans and active-duty military; and youth 5 and younger. Entrance to the exhibition is included in general admission for the general public. During voluntary-donation times, the exhibition is offered to the general public with pay-what-you-wish admission. Voluntary-donation times include Wednesdays from 3 – 7 pm and the first Friday of each month from 3 – 7 pm. For a full breakdown of general admission prices and hours, seephxart.org/visit/.

To request more information, interviews, and high-resolution photography, contact the Communications Office of Phoenix Art Museum at 602.307.2003 or samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 300,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

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PHOENIX (October 16, 2020) –Phoenix Art Museum has launched Reframed, a new and ongoing initiative supported by the Henry Luce Foundation that invites artists and scholars from communities historically underrepresented in museum spaces to contribute their perspectives and knowledge on works in the Museum’s American art collection. To inaugurate the project, commissioned gallery labels authored by Ninabah Winton (Diné/Navajo), current Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at The Heard Museum, and Velma Kee Craig (Diné/Navajo), weaver and former Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at The Heard Museum, have been installed in the Museum’s American art galleries to provide Indigenous perspectives on works in the collection. Some of these works include Diego Rivera’s Hilando (Winding Thread) (1936) and Raymond Jonson’s Canyon de Chelly (1928 and 1972). A poem by local writer Anna Flores also appears in the galleries alongside a painting of Christopher Columbus to prompt deeper consideration on traditional narratives regarding the European conquest of the Americas.

“The Reframed project is an important part of the Museum’s ongoing efforts to welcome underrepresented voices into our galleries while invigorating and contextualizing an important collection area to help expand our audiences’ understanding of the Southwest,” said Tim Rodgers, PhD, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “It is also a significant opportunity for Phoenix Art Museum to continue using its platform to increase the visibility of communities that have long been excluded from museums and various art histories.”

Reframed was conceptualized by Betsy Fahlman, PhD, the Museum’s adjunct curator of American art, who joined the Museum in 2016 and immediately began thinking of ways to offer different interpretations on the Museum’s collection. “I knew I could not make immediate changes to the types of works in the collection, which largely represent perspectives of European-North American male artists who worked in the 19th and 20th centuries,” Fahlman said, “but what I could do was offer and make space for new perspectives on what those artworks acknowledge, what they neglect to portray, and what they provide from a historical standpoint.”

After the Museum received a prestigious grant from the Henry Luce Foundation in 2018 in support of American art initiatives, Fahlman saw the opportunity to bring to life an idea she had first had when visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). At the time, DIA had a Hudson River School landscape on view that featured an Indigenous person, and alongside the painting were three interpretations—one written by the museum’s curator of American art, one by the curator of European art, and one by the curator of Native-American art. Fahlman further developed her idea to bring more diverse voices into the galleries in 2019, after visiting the exhibition Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles at The Heard Museum, curated by a team including Ninabah Winton and Velma Kee Craig, both of whom are Diné/Navajo. With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, Fahlman invited Craig and Winton to write the first set of commissioned labels for the Reframed project at Phoenix Art Museum.

Craig and Winton were given the opportunity to interpret any four works of their choice from the Museum’s American art collection. Craig’s interpretations, now on view in the Museum’s North Wing, offer perspectives on Diego Rivera’s Hilando (Winding Thread) (1936); Willard Franklin Midgette’s Processing Sheep (1976); Joseph Henry Sharp’s Studio Interior (A Corner of My Studio) (c. 1925); and Native Son (2019), a video on the life of Indigenous rodeo star Derrick Begay. While her texts on three of the four works draw on her personal experience as a Navajo weaver and teaching artist, as well as her memories attending the rodeo with her father when she was a young girl, Craig’s perspective on Sharp’s Studio Interior (A Corner of My Studio) explores stereotypes of Indigenous peoples propagated through the centuries and the artifice often present in the depiction of Native Americans in works by non-Indigenous artists.

“I’ve always known that specific misinterpretations of Indigenous peoples have occurred because of propaganda and the U.S. government’s desire to portray us in a certain manner so that the overtaking of our cultures is validated,” Craig said. “In a lot of photographs, an Indigenous person has been put in front of the lens and captured in a way that makes people assume that individual is in their natural, normal state. Sharp, however, reveals that there was staging going on, that his work is a presentation and something performative.”

Winton’s interpretations, also on view in the Museum’s North Wing, instead offer deeper context to John Mix Stanley’s Chain of Spires Along the Gila River (1855); Albert Groll’s Painted Desert—Arizona (1915); Harry B. Wagoner’s Squaw Peak (20^th century); and Raymond Jonson’s Canyon de Chelly (1928 and 1972). Jonson’s work in particular holds personal meaning for Winton.

“The painting portrays an ancestral homeland for us,” she said. “It’s a place my mom has many stories about, including when one of the women in our family—Greasewood Woman—was abducted by Mexican raiders in the 1860s and escaped. There’s just a lot of personal history there.”

In addition to new interpretations by Craig and Winton, Phoenix-based writer Anna Flores contributed a poem entitled “1492” to the Reframed initiative. The written work accompanies the painting Columbus Before the Council of Salamanca (1847) by William Henry Powell and encourages reflection on the ramifications of colonial expansion and conquest.

“Reframed would not be possible without the generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which has given me the opportunity to rethink how we interpret and talk with our audiences about work from the Museum’s American art collection,” said Fahlman, who plans to expand the scope of Reframed. “My hope is to continue commissioning labels by other scholars from underrepresented groups—to keep adding necessary voices to the conversation—so that more members of our community can visit the Museum and recognize themselves here in some way.”

The Reframed project at Phoenix Art Museum is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. To request interviews or high-resolution photography, please contact the Museum’s Communications Office at 602.307.2003 or samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 300,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

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PHOENIX (October 2018) – Phoenix Art Museum has been named the recipient of one of eight grants in support of American art from the Henry Luce Foundation, which will enable the Museum to reinstall its American art collection dating prior to 1945. Founded in 1936, the Henry Luce Foundation is focused on broadening knowledge through eight key grant-making program areas, and nearly all grants awarded to arts institutions focus on permanent collections. Over the next three years, the Museum will present a series of exhibitions that will showcase the strength of its historical American art holdings. Beginning in six months, the $100,000 grant will fund gallery enhancements, education and programming materials, and improved signage for the Museum’s North Wing. 

“We are thrilled that the Henry Luce Foundation has selected Phoenix Art Museum for this notable grant,” said Amada Cruz, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “We are pleased that this award will enable us to engage our audiences in new ways.”

The Museum’s American art collection contains approximately 2,700 works and includes a recent acquisition, an oil painting by Emil Bisttram (c. 1937) depicting the most painted and recorded building in the southwestern United States—the Ranchos de Taos Church in New Mexico. The artwork was purchased with funds provided by Western Art Associates, a support group of Phoenix Art Museum, and Men’s Arts Council in honor of Western Art Associate’s 50^th anniversary. Over the years, Western Art Associates, along with the Museum’s growing Membership and Circles of Support, have contributed generously to the Museum’s collection of American, Western American, Latin American, Asian, modern and contemporary art and fashion design.

“The Luce grant will support the ongoing reinvigoration of the American galleries, enabling the Museum to bring works long in storage out on view,” said Betsy Fahlman, PhD, adjunct curator of American art at Phoenix Art Museum. “Old favorites will be showcased in new contexts, and the Museum will be able to present two collection-based exhibitions annually. In addition, thanks to the help of Vanessa Davidson, PhD, the Museum’s Shawn and Joe Lampe Curator of Latin American Art, Mexican historical works will be presented with examples of Euro-North American art from the United States to broaden our guests’ understanding of the Americas. The Luce grant represents a truly dynamic opportunity for Phoenix Art Museum, and we are excited for the support from one of the most important foundations for American art.”

Phoenix Art Museum is among several institutions who received the Henry Luce Foundation Grant, including the Center for Curatorial Leadership (New York, NY), Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE), Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT), and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT).

The Museum’s American art collection returned to the galleries on September 15, 2018, and the first Luce-supported special installations will open in late March 2019 with a focus on the Transcendentalists in the collection.

About the Henry Luce Foundation

Founded in 1936 by the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc. Henry R. Luce, in honor of his parents’ passion for education. The Foundation is focused on broadening knowledge through eight grant-making programs, including one for American art. For 72 years, the Foundation has bequeathed grants to institutions and 501(c)(3) organizations or their international equivalent.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Phoenix Art Museum has provided access to visual arts and educational programs in Arizona for nearly 60 years and is the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions are shown alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of more than 19,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents festivals, a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed to enlighten, entertain, and stimulate visitors of all ages. Visitors also enjoy vibrant photography exhibitions through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visitphxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

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PHOENIX (January 25, 2018) – Phoenix Art Museum has purchased its first acquisition from the James K. Ballinger American Art and Education Fund, established in honor of director emeritus Jim Ballinger to strengthen the Museum’s collection of American art made before 1950. Deer in the Forest is a painting from 1914 by Marguerite Zorach, who was an early exponent of modernism in the United States. This acquisition represents a significant addition to the Museum’s holdings of American art, which has historically lacked equitable representation of women artists.

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