Two-Steppin' for a Cause
TROT Fundraiser
2 to 7 p.m., Sunday, June 30
The Maverick
6622 E. Tanque Verde Road
749-2360; trotarizona.org
With 20 acres, 20 horses and 250 volunteers, Therapeutic Riding of Tucson has offered horseback riding as therapy for people with special needs for 40 years.
To raise awareness of its efforts and needs, TROT is hosting a fundraiser that will be an afternoon of dancing to country music. Four bands will be on the bill at the Maverick, and tickets for a raffle will be for sale.
TROT has four programs: therapeutic riding, outpatient care, equine-facilitated psychotherapy and a veterans program. In a semester, TROT could have up to 130 riders and it relies on a lot of volunteers. As many as three volunteers are needed for each rider.
"All kinds of people with special needs benefit from these riding lessons," said Ali Boelts, executive director of TROT. "They gain strength and balance; they gain coordination. And, frankly, the experience of being outside on a horse, having that movement, is just an element of happiness and joy for them."
Although TROT charges tuition to riders based on a sliding scale, that does not cover the cost of the program, Boelts said. And it gets no government funding, which means TROT has to do lots of fundraising and grant writing.
"My goal is to get the word out and to increase our outreach," Boelts said. "That is why it is important to have events like this and others where we reach out to the public and say, 'We're here and this is what we're doing.'"
Admission to the fundraiser is $10.
—N.H-G.
A Trip Back to 1940's Mexico
Maclovia
2 p.m., Sunday, June 30
The Fox Theatre
17 W. Congress St.
547-3040
The Cine Plaza series, named for a Tucson Spanish-language theater that was leveled in the '70s, has been bringing films and documentaries in Spanish to town, weaving them back into Tucson culture since 2010.
This month's screening features Maclovia, a 1948 Mexican romantic drama acclaimed at the Venice Film Festival in 1949.
The action takes place on the small Mexican island of Janitzio, home of Tarascan Indians. The community is small and independent, always wary of outsiders. The community leader's daughter, Maclovia, is in love with poverty-stricken Jose.
Her father sees the match as unsuitable and refuses to allow them to get married, eventually banning them from communicating at all. Jose works to educate himself and earn enough money to purchase his own fishing boat, to seem like a more suitable match for Maclovia. Meanwhile, a battalion of soldiers is stationed on Janitzio and a vicious sergeant has his eyes on Maclovia. Admission to the showing is free, but there is a suggested donation of $3.
Cine Plaza is also in the process of producing a documentary celebrating how Tucson has been affected by its mariachi and folklórico cultures. The documentary is scheduled to be released in early 2014.
—C.G.
Traveling History
The Ballad of Arizona: History Through Story and Song
2 p.m., Saturday, June 29
Arizona Historical Society
949 E. Second St.
arizonahistoricalsociety.org; enlightenmentproductions.org
As Arizonans celebrated the centennial of statehood in 2012, it occurred to musician and writer Jay Cravath that there weren't any traveling shows or programs that celebrated the history of the state.
So Cravath got together with author Dan Shilling to co-write and co-produce The Ballad of Arizona: History Through Story and Song. With a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council, Cravath and Shilling were able to develop the show and hold performances that feature music, storytelling and videos.
"We chose about three different venues, which would be major towns or cities, and then put together a list of scholars who we felt would be able to present compelling stories that had not been necessarily told," Cravath said.
The participants include Lynn Downey, a musician and actor; Peter Iverson, an ASU professor who will explain why the rodeo is important to Native American communities; ASU professor Christine Marin, who will talk about Miami High School's 1951 state basketball championship; and Navajo poet Laura Tohe, who will speak about the Navajo code talkers who helped win World War II.
Cravath hopes the show will be successful enough to be able to make it an annual event, with new material each year.
"We put this together in hopes that there will be other venues other museums, other places who would be interested in having this as well, so we have been looking at the long term ... because we feel this is a strong way to get people interested in their state history," Cravath said.
The show is free and open to all ages.
—N.H-G.
Piecing It Together
Piece by Piece—An Exhibit of Mosaics
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, June 28, through Sunday, Oct. 20
Tohono Chul Park
7366 N. Paseo del Norte
742-6455; tohonochulpark.org
Making a mosaic involves a lot more than smashing up some tiles and calling it a day.
Tohono Chul Park is opening a mosaics exhibit in the Entry Gallery, but they aren't necessarily your ordinary mosaics.
There will be traditional mosaics on view, but others feature rough edges, glass pieces, handmade tiles and even photographs.
Carol Hegedus makes all of her tiles herself.
"Every little piece," she said. Her mosaics, which tend to depict nature scenes, are always inspired by an emotional situation.
One of her show pieces, "Under the Mesquite Tree Shade There are no Strangers," was inspired by a neighbor's tree that was struck by lightning during the monsoon. "The whole thing had to be taken down," she said.
Karen Strom also takes her inspiration from nature, but her mosaics have a twist. They're made from a set of photographs pieced together by mathematical tile patterns.
"I always feel that an individual photograph leaves something to be desired," Strom said. "I would like to do something that more completely represents my feelings about the things that I'm photographing."
Strom has faced some challenges with categorizing her work, with other photographers being especially critical of her pieces.
"I'm only interested in making an image. I don't care what they call it," she said.
Admission to the exhibit is included in the park admission, which is $8 for adults and $2 for children ages 5 to 12. The park will host a reception with the artists, but officials are holding off until it cools down a bit outside. The reception will be held Friday, Sept. 13, in conjunction with a Dia de los Muertos exhibit.
—C.G.
