Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block

Since its founding in 1924 as the Tucson Fine Arts Association, the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) has served Tucson and the Southwest region through art exhibitions, educational programs, and community engagement. Today, the museum encompasses an entire city block in historic downtown Tucson and is committed to developing quality exhibitions, caring for its collection, providing arts education opportunities, and presenting relevant and innovative programs while broadening public access to the arts. 

In 1973, the museum became the caretaker of five historic properties, firmly rooting TMA as a cultural and artistic steward. TMA’s historic block consists of buildings that trace Arizona architectural development from the Sonoran Row House La Casa Cordova, the Fish and Stevens/ Duffield Houses in the Territorial style, Leonardo Romero House as an example of the Early Commercial style, the Mission Revival Corbett House, and the Modern museum building. Part of TMA’s duty in preserving these historic buildings is to contextualize the structures with the stories of those who lived and worked in them.

At present, the collections encompass nearly 11,000 art objects that span 3,000 years of human history with a collecting focus in the areas of Art of the American West, Indigenous Arts, ancient to contemporary Latin American Art, and Modern and Contemporary Art. As this institution enters its second century of serving communities of Southern Arizona and beyond, its varied collections, interpretative programs, and exhibitions exemplify the museum’s regionality, reflecting multiple perspectives, histories, and cultural intersections as well as highlighting global influences and ideas. The collection is dynamic, continually guided by practices that respond to the needs of visitors, communities and the objects themselves, working to expand nuanced concepts in art for now and in the future.  

Education has been central to the mission, vision, and programmatic activities of the TMA since its inception. Through field trips, tours, family programs, community partnerships and specialized group activities, TMA engages audiences of all ages in participatory, accessible arts education that promotes critical thinking. Docents are integral to TMA’s education programming—after completing a nine-month extensive education these trained volunteers facilitate tours, offer lectures, and conduct outreach. Additionally, TMA partners with several local organizations to develop collaborative arts programming consisting of gallery conversations and art-making to foster confidence, empathy, and creativity as well as support life and interpersonal skills. These community partnerships build long-term relationships that extend beyond a field trip or single visit to the museum. 

The museum has steadfastly harnessed the power of community engagement and collaboration to connect with new audiences while broadening the museum’s institutional voice. TMA occupies multiple borderlands by its proximity to the original territories of the O’odham as well as the U.S.-Mexico border and is situated within a culturally diverse region. This unique location pushes the museum to develop experiences that engage a broad range of Southern Arizona residents to build access to the arts for all. To more fully reflect the linguistic diversity of the region, in 2017 TMA began presenting all exhibits bilingually (English-Spanish) and expanded its public and community programming efforts. From exhibitions, lectures and tours to workshops, pay-what-you-wish admission, and outreach efforts, the museum offers a variety of ways to explore, engage, and experience art, history, culture, and community. Through these activities TMA creates a space for its audiences to learn about the past while exploring possibilities for the future, and everything in between.

TMA also engages in deliberate collaboration with communities through focus groups, stakeholder meetings, convenings, and regular conversations beyond the institutional walls. In 2019 the museum began to develop a framework for community-based curation—a collaborative approach to interpretation and exhibition development that explores the overlap of communities, histories and culture, and the museum’s collection. This process activates a cohort of community curators, exhibition-specific consultants, who work with staff to determine themes and objectives as well as select artwork, identify curatorial strategies, author interpretative materials, and develop programs. This work has resulted in 46% of TMA’s exhibition space impacted by community-based curation practices. 

With this history, focus, and commitment, TMA strives to represent and collect a broad array of objects that amplifies the dialogue between local and global cultures, histories, and artistic practices.