Art Tours

TPAC’s Open Studio Tour is up and running this weekend

Art fans can travel to the far corners of Tucson this weekend on a hunt for artists’ studios.

Susan Adler is the northernmost of the 200 artists on this weekend’s 28th annual Open Studio Tour, sponsored by Tucson Pima Arts Council. Working way up near Tangerine Road and La Canada Drive, this Farthest North artist paints, among other things, rhythmic close-ups of desert plants.

Painter and printmaker Tom Bergin gets the Back East prize: his studio is practically in Saguaro National Park East. A good thing too, since Bergin paints soft-edged paintings of the Southwest wilderness.

The Out West nod goes to Candace Greenburg, who makes bronze sculptures of beautifully realized hands and feet way out on Sunset Road. And Deep South would be Michael Cajero, the genius outsider artist whose wrenching installations, paintings and burnt papier mâché sculptures are on view at The Process Museum, at Kolb Road and I-10.

But most of the participating artists can be found downtown and midtown, the hot spots for the self-guided free tour. Downtown Linda Rosenfield is on South FifthAvenue , where she’ll display mixed-media images of downtown buildings, including the beloved Ugly but Honest car dealer at Five Points.

Moving into midtown, you’ll find Ben Johnson “behind a barbershop” on West Prince near Flowing Wells. It’s worth hunting for him. Johnson’s oils of birds and grasslands are exquisite—and haunting.

The Open Studio Tour almost didn’t happen this year. Citing budget woes, TPAC cancelled the popular tour in August. Artists banded together into regional groups and pulled off two independent tours last month—Art Trails 2015 showcased artists in the West and Northwest and Heart of Tucson Art focused on midtown. But donations brought the Open Studio Tour back to life, and TPAC reverted to an all-city tour for this weekend. Some artists liked the smaller-scale format—and geographic unity—of the DIY tours. Stay tuned to see what happens next year.

The free tour runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14 and 15. You can find a map, lists of artists and exact addresses at www.tucsonpimaopenstudiotour.org. ■