For A Young City, Scottsdale’s Art and Culture Goes Deep
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The annual Arizona Indigenous Culinary Experience at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is an “Only in Scottsdale” event showcasing Arizona’s rich tapestry of 22 federally recognized Native Tribes and their creative contributions, and it’s one that begins before you’ve even entered the building. On a Saturday evening in November, a group of Indigenous models dressed in the patterned works of Native designer Joanne Miles-Long greeted attendees at the museum entrance, welcoming us to what would be an incredible evening of Indigenous food, arts, and culture.
Once inside, we made our way to the museum’s open air sculpture courtyard, where a range of Native American chefs were serving up bite-sized samplings of traditional foods, reimagined. I dined on a mouthwatering helping of Chef Denella Belin’s wild rice bison meatballs with cranberries, and a tasting of roasted Navajo squash on a bed of prickly pear white corn mush, then waited eagerly as Chef Mario Etsitty ladled a plate with pumpkin mole, placing a blue corn and lamb tamale on top, and passed it my way. There were ramekins filled with warming chili acorn stew, and slices of delectable bruschetta made from baked polenta crisps. In a neighboring space, a group of males donning masks and ornate wooden crowns performed a ceremonial dance that was quite simply, mesmerizing.
Above, explore Arizona’s Native American culture through Indigenous-produced crafts, arts and other experiences. Below, The Frybread Lounge, adjacent to the Native Art Market in Old Town serves Indigenous cuisine.
From iconic architecture to indigenous culinary traditions, Scottsdale's arts and culture scene is thriving
Back outside we enjoyed a walk among Scottsdale’s newly renovated Civic Center, a place brimming with public art, as well as an outdoor amphitheater, City Hall lagoons and a playground and splash pad for kids. A crowd gathered for pictures around LOVE, a legendary piece by American pop artist Robert Indiana. This bright red sculpture—with the letters L and O stacked atop the letters V and E, and the O slanted diagonal—is one of dozens of similar LOVE works existing worldwide, from Philadelphia to Tokyo.
As we continued strolling through Civic Center and towards the streets of Old Town, Bailey pointed out other impressive works. There’s Clyde "Ross" Morgan’s Mayor Herbert “Herb” Drinkwater and His Dog Sadie, a 7.5-foot-tall bronze sculpture of the four-term Scottsdale mayor donning a Stetson, ostrich boots, and a bola tie alongside his beloved German shepherd, and The Yearlings, George-Ann Tognoni’s bronze sculpture of three running foals. “Horses are a big thing here,” said Bailey, something that’s prominently displayed in the city’s public art.
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Scottsdale’s Indigenous Heritage
Scottsdale’s Indigenous community is a hallmark of the city’s distinct cultural tapestry. That same day I found myself pursuing the offerings at Scottsdale’s Native Art Market, the city’s first and only Indigenous owned shop in Old Town and the perfect place for satisfying any purchasable art cravings. Colorful artworks depicting bald eagles and women beneath tempestuous skies adorn the walls of the store alongside rich tapestries, while its shelves are brimming with bags of Navajo tea and handmade pottery. Co-owner Heather Tracy—the fourth generation of her family to make and sell native crafts for a living—explained that the colorful space is a co-op, with every section reserved for a different artist. They work with approximately 400 artisans, representing more than 32 tribes, including Canada’s First Nations. “The prices are better here than at a trading post,” said Tracy, “because here, you’re buying from the artisans directly.” As I browsed among woven dreamcatchers and spiny oyster necklaces, I also found myself relaxing to the soothing melodic tunes of Cody Blackbird, a Native American flute player who happened to be performing in-store that day. The space was buzzing with shoppers, as well as those wanting to hear the five-time Native American Grammy winner for themselves.
Still, a full delve into Scottsdale’s Native heritage involves sampling its Indigenous cuisine, which is a work of artistry in itself. Directly next door is the Tracy family’s newest venture, The Frybread Lounge, which is also the first and only Indigenous-owned restaurant in Old Town. In this cozy dining space Chef Darryl Montana—a member of the Tohono O’odham nation—delights diners with dishes like juicy bison burgers and frybread tacos that prioritize Indigenous food producers.
Left, stare into artist James Turrell’s Knight Rise at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Right, the museum is home to modern and contemporary art, architecture and design from across the globe.
Back outside we enjoyed a walk among Scottsdale’s newly renovated Civic Center, a place dotted with public art, as well as an outdoor amphitheater, City Hall lagoon and a playground and splash pad for kids.
More of Scottsdale
Two days only gave me a sampling of Scottsdale’s vast arts and cultural scene. Still, it was enough to have me wanting to more, including a visit to the Heard Museum—home to 12 galleries of American Indian Art such as baskets, beadwork, and textiles—on my next visit. “Scottsdale is a young city,” said Bailey, “but our culture is quite deep, and there’s a lot of it to experience.”
Above, a chef-prepared dish served at the Arizona Indigenous Culinary Experience.
“Indigenous communities are pretty off the hook when it comes to creativity,” Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns, a marketing consultant for the Arizona American Indian Tourism Association and the event’s host told me. He wasn’t kidding.
As it turns out, events such as this are just one of the many facets of Scottsdale’s unique arts and culture scene. This desert city is a place bursting with creative energy, from its plethora of public sculptures to its architectural wonders, not to mention its incredible Indigenous heritage. The vibe here is engaging, experiential, interactive, and unique. What’s more: both Scottsdale’s visitors and residents are embracing it.
The City’s Public Art Scene
In addition to its unique Indigenous offerings, Scottsdale’s creative energy extends into public art as well. This is something that Ace Bailey, the founder of Scottsdale’s Ultimate Art & Cultural Tours, so effortlessly conveyed to me on our afternoon walking tour.
“Scottsdale started out as one square mile in 1951,” said Bailey. Today the city stretches 31 miles from north to south, “and public art is everywhere.”
Our tour began just outside the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), where we skipped inside the museum’s free-to-enter Nancy and Art Schwalm Sculpture Garden and took in our first public artwork, artist James Turrell’s Knight Rise. Known for his work utilizing light and space, Turrell has been creating “skyspaces” like this one since 1975. There are now more than 90 of these freestanding installations—each one displaying the changing light of the sky, in this case through an elliptical light in the ceiling— in existence. However, only 14 of them are publicly accessible. “Many people will come here during their lunch hour and just sit,” said Bailey, referring to the gray and white circular room with nothing but a bench and a skylight. “There are very few places like this that have no distractions and let you empty your mind.”
The Streets of Old Town
George-Ann Tognoni sculpted the bronze Winfield Scott Memorial, a piece portraying Scottsdale founders Winfield and Helen Scott. It stands right out front of the Little Red School House. Built in 1909, this was the city’s first brick building and a classroom until the 1950s, though today it houses the Scottsdale Historical Museum.
After a brief step inside, we headed to Old Town’s Old Adobe Mission, a Spanish Colonial Revival style church built in the 1930s by a Mexican family who came here to work in the cotton fields. Inside, 15 handcrafted stained-glass windowpanes—brought over from Tucson’s Augustine Cathedral during the mission’s original construction—still decorate its walls, and a hand carved statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (a title of the Virgin Mary) hangs behind its altar.
Above, stop to learn about Indigenous crafts while exploring the streets of Old Town.
Downtown Artworks
Our stroll concluded with one last public artwork, Ed Mell’s Jack Knife—a geometrically shaped sculpture of a rider astride a bucking horse, which sits in the middle of an Old Town roundabout—then completed the rest of our tour by car. We visited Horseshoe Falls, a downtown sculpture by Michael Maglich that’s crafted out of actual stacked horseshoes. It features occasional dense fog, which cools the space and invites pedestrians and cyclists to linger upon its knee-high horseshoe-shaped wall. Diagonally across the street sits what turned out to be one of my favorite pieces, John Randall Nelson’s One-Eyed Jack. The 26-foot high steel jackrabbit, abstract-shaped and painted white, has an air of the “White Rabbit” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about him. From there we took a drive around Scottsdale’s Bronze Horse Fountain, a piece by former Scottsdale artist Bob Parks that features Arabian horses. “It’s one of the most recognized pieces of public art in the city,” said Bailey. “All people have to say is, ‘I’ll meet you at the horse statue,’ and everyone just knows.”
Above, Bob Park’s Bronze Horse Fountain is a mainstay of the Scottsdale public art scene.
We parked the car in Scottsdale’s Southbridge district, taking in sculptor Herb Mignery’s 20-foot-long bronze piece, Passing the Legacy, which depicts an almost in-motion exchange between a vintage 1860s horse and the modern-day Pony Express—a 200 mile trek on horseback from Holbrook Arizona to Scottsdale that’s been running since 1958. Next we moved on to sculptor Donald Lipski’s The Doors, an immersive three-story tall trio of doors leaning up against one-another and with just enough space between them to walk inside. Once you do, it’s like being within a giant kaleidoscope. With every turn you catch a new mirror image of yourself, ricocheting back at you from various panes of reflective steel.
Our tour concluded with a visit to the pedestrian Soleri Bridge. This stunning piece of functional artwork was designed by Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, a once-student of Frank Lloyd Wright whose home and studio in nearby Paradise Valley offers guided tours. Although Soleri was fascinated with bridges, sketching hundreds of different design proposals over his lifetime, this is the only one that was ever built.
Anchored by two 64-foot pylons, the bridge faces true north, so that daily at exactly solar noon the sun shines right between the towers and their six-inch gap. Behind a set of smaller bridge pylons hangs Soleri’s Goldwater Bell, a representative assembly of Soleri’s life work. The iconic piece was part of the artist’s first U.S. retrospective, and once hung in the city’s Goldwater’s department store.
Another “Uniquely Scottsdale” Experience
A look into Scottsdale’s surplus of art and culture offerings wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Taliesin West, an UNESCO World Heritage site that served as the winter encampment and desert laboratory of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright from 1937 until his death in 1959. The roughly 500-acre property features an array of low-slung buildings that meld easily into the local landscape and are interspersed with various gardens, terraces, pools, and walkways—the bulk of which Wright and his apprentices crafted entirely on their own.
The most popular way to experience the property is on one of Taliesin West’s self-guided audio tours, which are easily accessible via your own mobile device and headphones. Its 16 stops highlight Wright’s philosophy of organic architecture—the aim to create an almost seamless harmony between the buildings themselves and the outdoor environment—through everything from his opening up to property to light and air, creating the freedom to move about the complex easily, to considering the way the sun shifts, showcasing different points of Taliesin West throughout the day.
Above, Taliesin West’s building materials meld seamlessly into the natural environment.
Wright employed architectural techniques like compression and release—where he created smaller darker entryways that opened into larger, brighter spaces, giving the sense of expansiveness, while his devotion to natural materials is evident in the incorporation of local woods, boulders, and even concrete. It’s a building technique that the architect dubbed “desert masonry,” and one that’s become synonymous with the greater Scottsdale landscape.
The annual Arizona Indigenous Culinary Experience at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is an “Only in Scottsdale” event showcasing Arizona’s rich tapestry of 22 federally recognized Native Tribes and their creative contributions, and it’s one that begins before you’ve even entered the building. On a Saturday evening in November, a group of Indigenous models dressed in the patterned works of Native designer Joanne Miles-Long greeted attendees at the museum entrance, welcoming us to what would be an incredible evening of Indigenous food, arts, and culture. Once inside, we made our way to the museum’s open air sculpture courtyard, where a range of Native American chefs were serving up bite-sized samplings of traditional foods, reimagined. I dined on a mouthwatering helping of Chef Denella Belin’s wild rice bison meatballs with cranberries, and a tasting of roasted Navajo squash on a bed of prickly pear white corn mush, then waited eagerly as Chef Mario Etsitty ladled a plate with pumpkin mole, placing a blue corn and lamb tamale on top, and passed it my way. There were ramekins filled with warming chili acorn stew, and slices of delectable bruschetta made from baked polenta crisps. In a neighboring space, a group of males donning masks and ornate wooden crowns performed a ceremonial dance that was quite simply, mesmerizing.
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There are very few places like this that have no distractions and let you empty your mind.”
Above, explore Arizona’s Native American culture through Indigenous-produced crafts, arts and other experiences. Below, The Frybread Lounge, adjacent to the Native Art Market in Old Town serves Indigenous cuisine.
Above, explore Arizona’s Native American culture through Indigenous-produced crafts, arts and other experiences. Below, The Frybread Lounge, adjacent to the Native Art Market in Old Town serves Indigenous cuisine.
Scottsdale’s Indigenous Heritage
Scottsdale’s Indigenous community is a hallmark of the city’s distinct cultural tapestry. That same day I found myself pursuing the offerings at Scottsdale’s Native Art Market, the city’s first and only Indigenous owned shop in Old Town and the perfect place for satisfying any purchasable art cravings. Colorful artworks depicting bald eagles and women beneath tempestuous skies adorn the walls of the store alongside rich tapestries, while its shelves are brimming with bags of Navajo tea and handmade pottery. Co-owner Heather Tracy—the fourth generation of her family to make and sell native crafts for a living—explained that the colorful space is a co-op, with every section reserved for a different artist. They work with approximately 400 artisans, representing more than 32 tribes, including Canada’s First Nations. “The prices are better here than at a trading post,” said Tracy, “because here, you’re buying from the artisans directly.” As I browsed among woven dreamcatchers and spiny oyster necklaces, I also found myself relaxing to the soothing melodic tunes of Cody Blackbird, a Native American flute player who happened to be performing in-store that day. The space was buzzing with shoppers, as well as those wanting to hear the five-time Native American Grammy winner for themselves.
Still, a full delve into Scottsdale’s Native heritage involves sampling its Indigenous cuisine, which is a work of artistry in itself. Directly next door is the Tracy family’s newest venture, The Frybread Lounge, which is also the first and only Indigenous-owned restaurant in Old Town. In this cozy dining space Chef Darryl Montana—a member of the Tohono O’odham nation—delights diners with dishes like juicy bison burgers and frybread tacos that prioritize Indigenous food producers.
Above, explore Arizona’s Native American culture through Indigenous-produced crafts, arts and other experiences.
Above, stare into artist James Turrell’s Knight Rise at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
Scottsdale’s Indigenous Heritage
Scottsdale’s Indigenous community is a hallmark of the city’s distinct cultural tapestry. That same day I found myself pursuing the offerings at Scottsdale’s Native Art Market, the city’s first and only Indigenous owned shop in Old Town and the perfect place for satisfying any purchasable art cravings. Colorful artworks depicting bald eagles and women beneath tempestuous skies adorn the walls of the store alongside rich tapestries, while its shelves are brimming with bags of Navajo tea and handmade pottery. Co-owner Heather Tracy—the fourth generation of her family to make and sell native crafts for a living—explained that the colorful space is a co-op, with every section reserved for a different artist. They work with approximately 400 artisans, representing more than 32 tribes, including Canada’s First Nations. “The prices are better here than at a trading post,” said Tracy, “because here, you’re buying from the artisans directly.” As I browsed among woven dreamcatchers and spiny oyster necklaces, I also found myself relaxing to the soothing melodic tunes of Cody Blackbird, a Native American flute player who happened to be performing in-store that day. The space was buzzing with shoppers, as well as those wanting to hear the five-time Native American Grammy winner for themselves.
Above, explore Arizona’s Native American culture through Indigenous-produced crafts, arts and other experiences.
The Streets of Old Town
George-Ann Tognoni sculpted the bronze Winfield Scott Memorial, a piece portraying Scottsdale founders Winfield and Helen Scott. It stands right out front of the Little Red School House. Built in 1909, this was the city’s first brick building and a classroom until the 1950s, though today it houses the Scottsdale Historical Museum.
After a brief step inside, we headed to Old Town’s Old Adobe Mission, a Spanish Colonial Revival style church built in the 1930s by a Mexican family who came here to work in the cotton fields. Inside, 15 handcrafted stained-glass windowpanes—brought over from Tucson’s Augustine Cathedral during the mission’s original construction—still decorate its walls, and a hand carved statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (a title of the Virgin Mary) hangs behind its altar.
Above, stop to learn about Indigenous crafts while exploring the streets of Old Town.
Our stroll concluded with one last public artwork, Ed Mell’s Jack Knife—a geometrically shaped sculpture of a rider astride a bucking horse, which sits in the middle of an Old Town roundabout—then completed the rest of our tour by car. We visited Horseshoe Falls, a downtown sculpture by Michael Maglich that’s crafted out of actual stacked horseshoes. It features occasional dense fog, which cools the space and invites pedestrians and cyclists to linger upon its knee-high horseshoe-shaped wall. Diagonally across the street sits what turned out to be one of my favorite pieces, John Randall Nelson’s One-Eyed Jack. The 26-foot high steel jackrabbit, abstract-shaped and painted white, has an air of the “White Rabbit” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about him. From there we took a drive around Scottsdale’s Bronze Horse Fountain, a piece by former Scottsdale artist Bob Parks that features Arabian horses. “It’s one of the most recognized pieces of public art in the city,” said Bailey. “All people have to say is, ‘I’ll meet you at the horse statue,’ and everyone just knows.”
Above, Bob Park’s Bronze Horse Fountain is a mainstay of the Scottsdale public art scene.
Downtown Artworks
Our stroll concluded with one last public artwork, Ed Mell’s Jack Knife—a geometrically shaped sculpture of a rider astride a bucking horse, which sits in the middle of an Old Town roundabout—then completed the rest of our tour by car. We visited Horseshoe Falls, a downtown sculpture by Michael Maglich that’s crafted out of actual stacked horseshoes. It features occasional dense fog, which cools the space and invites pedestrians and cyclists to linger upon its knee-high horseshoe-shaped wall. Diagonally across the street sits what turned out to be one of my favorite pieces, John Randall Nelson’s One-Eyed Jack. The 26-foot high steel jackrabbit, abstract-shaped and painted white, has an air of the “White Rabbit” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about him. From there we took a drive around Scottsdale’s Bronze Horse Fountain, a piece by former Scottsdale artist Bob Parks that features Arabian horses. “It’s one of the most recognized pieces of public art in the city,” said Bailey. “All people have to say is, ‘I’ll meet you at the horse statue,’ and everyone just knows.”
We parked the car in Scottsdale’s Southbridge district, taking in sculptor Herb Mignery’s 20-foot-long bronze piece, Passing the Legacy, which depicts an almost in-motion exchange between a vintage 1860s horse and the modern-day Pony Express—a 200 mile trek on horseback from Holbrook Arizona to Scottsdale that’s been running since 1958. Next we moved on to sculptor Donald Lipski’s The Doors, an immersive three-story tall trio of doors leaning up against one-another and with just enough space between them to walk inside. Once you do, it’s like being within a giant kaleidoscope. With every turn you catch a new mirror image of yourself, ricocheting back at you from various panes of reflective steel.
Our tour concluded with a visit to the pedestrian Soleri Bridge. This stunning piece of functional artwork was designed by Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, a once-student of Frank Lloyd Wright whose home and studio in nearby Paradise Valley offers guided tours. Although Soleri was fascinated with bridges, sketching hundreds of different design proposals over his lifetime, this is the only one that was ever built.
Anchored by two 64-foot pylons, the bridge faces true north, so that daily at exactly solar noon the sun shines right between the towers and their six-inch gap. Behind a set of smaller bridge pylons hangs Soleri’s Goldwater Bell, a representative assembly of Soleri’s life work. The iconic piece was part of the artist’s first U.S. retrospective, and once hung in the city’s Goldwater’s department store.
Scottsdale’s Indigenous Heritage
Scottsdale’s Indigenous community is a hallmark of the city’s distinct cultural tapestry. That same day I found myself pursuing the offerings at Scottsdale’s Native Art Market, the city’s first and only Indigenous owned shop in Old Town and the perfect place for satisfying any purchasable art cravings. Colorful artworks depicting bald eagles and women beneath tempestuous skies adorn the walls of the store alongside rich tapestries, while its shelves are brimming with bags of Navajo tea and handmade pottery. Co-owner Heather Tracy—the fourth generation of her family to make and sell native crafts for a living—explained that the colorful space is a co-op, with every section reserved for a different artist. They work with approximately 400 artisans, representing more than 32 tribes, including Canada’s First Nations. “The prices are better here than at a trading post,” said Tracy, “because here, you’re buying from the artisans directly.” As I browsed among woven dreamcatchers and spiny oyster necklaces, I also found myself relaxing to the soothing melodic tunes of Cody Blackbird, a Native American flute player who happened to be performing in-store that day. The space was buzzing with shoppers, as well as those wanting to hear the five-time Native American Grammy winner for themselves.