Jul, 01, 2025
Media Alerts
Phoenix Art Museum summer discounts days, July events provide access to dynamic lineup of exhibitions, including new 2024 Arizona Artist Awards exhibitions
PHOENIX (June 26, 2025) – In July, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) will celebrate the premiere of the 2024 Arizona Artist Awards exhibitions. In his solo exhibition Safwat Saleem: The Unrequited Love Institute, Scult Family Artist Awardee Safwat Saleem will showcase his latest works in an immersive installation that centers on immigrant narratives and the cultural loss that results from assimilation. In a group exhibition, Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients Elizabeth Z. Pineda and Omar Soto will explore themes of migration, displacement, gender, identity, and more. As part of the opening celebrations on July 23, visitors can attend a reception with a cash bar beginning at 5 pm, before enjoying an artist talk at 6:30 pm with Safwat Saleem, as he discusses his work and process. Additional programming during the month includes special summer discount days, film screenings, Storytime, and more.
Charles Gaines: Numbers and Trees (Arizona Series) will close to the public on July 6. On July 27, the Museum’s Thorne Miniature Rooms and Art of the Americas + Europe galleries will close to undergo renovations, with new installations and refreshed gallery spaces opening in November 2025.
SUMMER DISCOUNT DAYS + ACCESS PROGRAMS
Family Funday
June 29 | 10 am – 5 pm
Free general admission
Visitors of all ages can enjoy a free Family Funday at PhxArt inspired by The World of Anna Sui. Tickets are available here. Special programming throughout the day includes:
- Art + fashion + science activities with the Arizona Science Center
- The exploration of Anna Sui patterns and their connection to nature’s microscopic worlds
- DIY fashion accessories workshop with ThereSpace (@there.space)
- Outfit design with Angela Johnson (@tshirtballgown)
- DIY slap bracelets and custom buttons
- Perfume bottle design with the Gene and Cathie Lemon Art Research Library
- Early Learners Storytime with Childsplay (@Childsplay)
- A fashion inspired scavenger hunt
- Zine-making with Wasted Ink Zine Distro (@wastedinkzinedistro)
- Specialty food and beverages with ARTenders, Mustache Pretzels (@mustachepretzels), El Fogon de Joy (@elfogondejoy), and Crete Tea Room (@crete.tearoo)
- Docent-led public tours
PhxArt Family Fundays are made possible by Men’s Arts Council, with additional support from Applied Materials Foundation and Desert Diamond Casino.
PhxArt + Sol Pass
Limited-time discounted access pass | Valid through August 31, 2025
The PhxArt + Sol Pass is designed to get families out of the heat and into great art, all summer long. For just $75, two adults and unlimited youth under 17 can gain unlimited admission to the Museum during the Valley’s hottest months. Passes can be purchased here or on-site and come with a free kid-friendly swag + activity bag!
Access passholders can enjoy every exhibition in our core collection galleries as often as they’d like between now and August 31.* After August 31, passholders can apply the cost of their access pass to an annual Membership and gain full access to every gallery and exhibition, plus special discounts, for a full year.
*Pass excludes special-exhibition tickets on Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays and First Fridays, as well as in-store/café discounts.
First Fridays
Every First Friday of the month | 5 – 8 pm
Voluntary-donation general admission
$10 off Memberships when purchased on-site
SPECIAL-EXHIBITION TICKETS: $10 for adults | $5 for youth under 17 | FREE for Museum Members
First Fridays are made possible by APS and Lexus.
Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays
Every Wednesday | 3 – 8 pm
Voluntary-donation general admission
$10 off Memberships when purchased on-site
SPECIAL-EXHIBITION TICKETS: $10 for adults | $5 for youth under 17 | FREE for Museum Members
Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays are made possible by SRP and City of Phoenix.
Military Discount
Active-duty U.S. military personnel and their families enjoy free admission from Armed Forces Day (May 17, 2025) through Labor Day (September 1, 2025) as part of the Blue Star Museums program. The Museum also extends the benefit to veterans with a valid ID.
The Blue Star Museums program at Phoenix Art Museum is made possible by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and Shamrock Foods Foundation.
FEATURED JULY EVENT
Arizona Artist Awards Opening Celebration + Artist Talk
July 23 | Artist Reception @ 5 pm // Artist Talk @ 6:30 pm
Free for Members and the general public
Celebrate the exhibition openings for the 2024 Scult Family Artist Award and the 2024 Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients with a reception in Cummings Great Hall that includes a cash bar. Following the reception, enjoy an artist talk with the 2024 Scult Family Artist Award awardee, Safwat Saleem, as he discusses his work and process. Tickets are free and can be reserved here.
The Arizona Artist Awards are made possible by the Scult Family Artist Award; Sally and Richard Lehmann; and the Cohn Fund for Arts and Culture, a founding gift of the Phoenix Art Museum Education and Engagement Excellence Fund.
OPENING SOON
2024 Arizona Artist Awards
July 23, 2024 – January 25, 2026
Safwat Saleem: The Unrequited Love Institute and the 2024 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards Exhibition feature works by Arizona-based contemporary artists. The 2024 Scult Family Artist Awardee Safwat Saleem will showcase his latest works in an immersive installation that centers on immigrant narratives and the cultural loss that results from assimilation.
The 2024 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards Exhibition features works by emerging artists Elizabeth Z. Pineda and Omar Soto. Originally from Mexico City, Elizabeth Z. Pineda is an emerging artist whose practice using historical and untraditional photographic, printmaking, papermaking, and book-art processes explores issues surrounding immigration, identity, displacement, and migrant deaths that occur in the Arizona desert. Omar Soto is a DACAmented Phoenix-based photographer who creates surreal imagery that explores queer joy and escapism to navigate the marginalization they endure while living at the intersection of race, gender, and social class.
The Arizona Artist Awards are made possible by the Scult Family Artist Award; Sally and Richard Lehmann; and the Cohn Fund for Arts and Culture, a founding gift of the Phoenix Art Museum Education and Engagement Excellence Fund. Safwat Saleem: The Unrequited Love Institute is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Christian Ramírez, the Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement. The exhibition is made possible through the generosity of the Cohn Fund for Arts and Culture, a founding gift of the Phoenix Art Museum Education and Engagement Excellence Fund. Additional support is provided by the Rob Walton, Jordan Rose and Rose Law Group Fund for Contemporary Art. The 2024 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Christian Ramírez, the Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement. The exhibition is made possible through the generosity of the Cohn Fund for Arts and Culture, a founding gift of the Phoenix Art Museum Education and Engagement Excellence Fund. Additional support is provided by the Rob Walton, Jordan Rose and Rose Law Group Fund for Contemporary Art. 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.
UPCOMING RENOVATIONS
Thorne Miniature Rooms // Art of the Americas + Europe Galleries
Closing July 27, 2025 | Re-opening November 26, 2025
This July, PhxArt will close the second floor of its North Wing, featuring the Art of the Americas + Europe galleries and the Thorne Miniature Rooms, for a major renovation of the spaces. Refreshed galleries will open in late November with all new installations showcasing old favorites from and new acquisitions to the Museum’s American, Western American, Latin American, and European art collections. The popular Thorne Miniature Rooms will also undergo conservation work and gallery renovations. More information coming soon at phxart.org.
ON VIEW NOW
Funny Business: Photography and Humor
Through January 4, 2026
Spanning nearly the entire history of the medium, Funny Business: Photography and Humor offers a compelling view into the ways artists have utilized visual humor not only to provoke laughter and delight, but also as a means of resistance, an antidote to the heaviness of the world, and a way to interrogate and subvert norms and hierarchies. Drawn primarily from the collection of the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the exhibition presents 70 photographs that showcase the mechanics of photographic humor, while examining the reasons why artists throughout time have employed it as a strategy in their work. Featured artists include Liz Cohen, Steffi Faircloth, Jeff Mermelstein, Bucky Miller, and Reynier Leyva Novo, among others.
Funny Business: Photography and Humor is co-organized by Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography. The exhibition is curated by Emilia Mickevicius, PhD, the Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography. 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.
CLOSING SOON
The Collection: Keith Haring
Closing July 20, 2025
Celebrating the impactful relationship between the Pop artist and Phoenix Art Museum in the 1980s.
The Collection: Keith Haring is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Christian Ramírez, the Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement , with Aspen Reynolds, Archivist, and Charlotte Quinney, Interpretation Manager. 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.
Charles Gaines: Numbers and Trees (Arizona Series)
Closing July 20, 2025
Debuting the complete series of the most recent body of work by renowned conceptual artist Charles Gaines and featuring eight large-scale triptychs depicting cottonwoods that were photographed along the San Pedro River outside Sierra Vista, AZ.
Charles Gaines: Numbers and Trees (Arizona Series) is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. It is made possible through the generosity of Men’s Arts Council, Carl and Marilynn Thoma, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Exhibition Endowment Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Hauser & Wirth, Ellen and Howard Katz, Jane and Mal Jozoff, Ten Figures, and Avnet. Thank you to community members who contributed to exhibition interpretation and content: Bryan Beckon, artist and PhxArt gallery attendant; Raquel Gomez, founder of Atabey Outdoors; Ashley LaRae Sampson, image and brand consultant, business and spiritual advisor, and art advocate; Rashaad Thomas, poet, freelance journalist, scholar, activist, and genre-fluid artist; and Rashad Shabazz, Associate Professor of Geography and African American Studies, Arizona State University. 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.
The Collection: Dutch Art Expanded
Closing July 27, 2025
Highlighting the PhxArt European art collection alongside contemporary works by Arizona-based artists to create conversations across cultures and time periods.
The Collection: Dutch Art Expanded is organized by the Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Rachel Sadvary Zebro, Associate Curator of Collections, with Destiny Montoya, Association of Art Museum Directors Curatorial Intern. The Collection: Dutch Art Expanded is made possible through the generosity of FOCUS on European Art and an anonymous donor. 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.
For a full list of exhibitions on view now at Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org/art/exhibitions/.
OTHER JULY EVENTS
KIDS // Storytime
July 3 | 10:30 am
Free for Members | Included in general admission for the general public
Advance registration recommended.
For more information, click here.
Storytime is made possible by the Angela and Leonard Singer Endowment for Performing Arts, The Discount Tire Endowment for Children’s Art Programs, the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs, and First Things First.
LEARN // Object of the Month: Tomorrow’s Monsoon by Eamon Ore-Giron
July 3, 5, 17, 24, 31 | 11:30 am
Free for Members | Included with general admission for the general public
For more information, click here.
July 4 | 5 – 8 pm
Voluntary-donation general admission
SPECIAL-EXHIBITION TICKETS: $10 for Adults | $5 for Youth (6-17)
Tickets available here.
July 5, 12, 19, 26 | 11 am – 3 pm
Free for Members | Included with general admission for the general public
For more information, click here.
Create Playdate is made possible by First Things First, The Discount Tire Endowment for Children’s Art Programs, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs.
FILM // Now Showing: The 400 Blows
June 18 | 6 pm
Free for Members | $8 for the general public
Presented in Whiteman Hall. Limited capacity. Tickets are available for reservation here.
Films@PhxArt is made possible by Fit Via Vi Films.
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 design, 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, an art+music festival, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.