BEST Things To Do In Phoenix
Thursday, December 12, 2019

The Event Oracle knows ALL the fun things to do in the land of the Phoenix sun. Select your date above then scroll down for all the Arts, Entertainment, and Events in my crystal ball...

• Carnival of Illusion

  Arizona Biltmore Resort
  2400 E Missouri Ave
  Phoenix, AZ 85016
  

  Carnival of Illusion is an evening of Old-World Magic in the style of classic entertainers such as Buster Keaton, Mae West, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Harry Houdini. The hosts have performed as house entertainers at the world's top resorts, Fortune 100 CEOs, to the 200 Most Powerful Women in America and operate the longest-running Arizona theater show. Carnival of Illusion is "Magic, Mystery, and OOOH La La."

• Legacy of Landscapes: The Art and Archaeology of Perry Mesa

  3711 W Deer Valley Rd
  Phoenix, AZ 85308
  

  Featuring the artistry of ASU alumnus photographer Pat Gorraiz, this exhibit explores the landscapes of Perry Mesa and the legacies left behind by the Ancestral People who lived there over a period of several hundred years.

  Archaeologists from Arizona State University and federal agencies began researching the mesa in the early 2000s, and that work continues today with School of Human Evolution and Social Change archaeologist David Abbott, retired National Forest Services archaeologist Scott Wood, and many others. Learn more about past research and publications.

• David Hockney’s Yosemite and Masters of California Basketry

  Heard Museum
  2301 North Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  David Hockney’s Yosemite and Masters of California Basketry highlights the impact that Yosemite has had over time and space on artistic production, from the valley’s original Indigenous inhabitants to one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

  The exhibition marks the first showing of Hockney’s work in Arizona and will highlight the influence of the American landscape on his seminal work while illuminating how Indigenous women inspired by the same landscape have made significant contributions to the field of art production. The objects on view will illustrate ways in which technology can be implemented in artistic creation, from the sophisticated technology of basketry to the innovative use of digital technologies like the iPad. Included are more than 20 spectacular examples of Mono Lake Paiute and Miwok basketry, made by 9 different artists in the early to mid-20th century, as well as 29 of Hockney’s iPad drawings printed on paper, and his rarely shown photographic collages from the 1980s. Situated against the backdrop of the Yosemite Valley’s history—from first contact between Indigenous tribes in the region and Euro-American settlers from the Mariposa Battalion and the Mariposa War, on through the California Gold Rush and Yosemite Indian Field Days—the exhibition illuminates how Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists have and continue to interpret this landscape in visual culture and fine art.

• A Land North: Works from the Heard Museum Collection

  Heard Museum
  2301 North Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  This exhibition is a presentation of pieces from the Heard Museum’s permanent holdings of Indigenous Alaskan and Canadian First Nations art. A Land North celebrates the complexities of these cultures and highlights the diverse representation of artworks in the Heard Collection. Featuring more than 100 years of objects, starting at 1900, the exhibition spotlights pieces in mediums including works on paper, textiles, basketry, scrimshaw engraving, jewelry, and sculpture. Many of the works, such as the ivory engravings created by Angokwazhuk (Happy Jack) and baleen basketry by Robert James and Carl Taalak, were produced specifically for tourist consumption, whereas the textiles of Victoria Mamnguqsualuk and the prints of Simon Tookoome were produced as narrative devices.

  Themes explored by the artists include notions of shamanism and the interconnectedness of the metaphysical and the land, illuminating transformation, and spiritual practices. Other works depict daily life and the flora and fauna of Alaska and Canada. Each of these works elucidates the cultural continuum of Indigenous peoples in these territories.

• Grand Procession: Contemporary Plains Indian Dolls from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection

  Heard Museum
  2301 North Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Grand Procession celebrates an exceptional collection of dolls, also known as soft sculptures, created by Jamie Okuma (Luiseño and Shoshone-Bannock), Rhonda Holy Bear (Cheyenne River Sioux and Lakota) and three generations of Growing Thunder family members; Joyce Growing Thunder, Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty and Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Assiniboine and Sioux). The dolls provide a figurative reference to Indigenous peoples from the Great Plains and Great Basin regions who lived in those areas during the late nineteenth century. Holy Bear, Okuma, and the three Growing Thunder family members embellish each doll with tiny micro-beads in intricate detail. The 23 dolls included in the exhibition represent the largest private collection of its kind.

• Around the World: The Heard Museum Collection

  Heard Museum
  2301 North Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Dwight and Maie Bartlett Heard were world travelers, and they collected art made in the countries they visited. In 1892, Maie Bartlett’s family and her fiancé Dwight Heard traveled to Egypt voyaging up the Nile as far as Aswan with one of Thomas Cook’s tours. The Heards moved to Phoenix from Chicago in 1895 and, while they collected from the Southwest, they continued to collect art from around the world.

  A trip to Hawai’i in 1924 was followed in the winter of 1925 with a second trip to Egypt and the Sudan. In the 1920s as the collections filled their home, named Casa Blanca, they decided to place the collection in a museum to be built on their property. Their vision of a public collection was realized with the opening of the Heard Museum on December 26, 1929. The museum’s upstairs galleries presented cultural arts from Around the World.

  In 2006, more than 75 years after its grand opening, the Heard Museum opened a new exhibition to honor that first exhibition and to share with the public how the collections have grown through the generosity of donors and individual artists who have given work to the museum.

  Around the World: The Heard Museum Collection includes items from the Heards’ world travels as well as important works from later donors like Byron Harvey III. Many of the pieces in this exhibition reveal the global-reach of the Heard as an important nexus for preserving indigenous art and culture. Visitors can view rarely displayed works by indigenous peoples of Canada and Mexico, as well as Guatemala, the Philippine Islands, New Zealand, Zaire and Sudan—From exquisite cradleboards from Plains Indian cultures to Guatemalan paintings and masks from Africa.

• The Third Dimension: Sculptural Stories in Stone and Bronze

  Heard Museum
  2301 North Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Some of the most exciting and moving American Indian fine art of the 20th and 21st centuries has been created by sculptors. The Heard Museum is fortunate recently to have been given works by leading American Indian sculptors such as Allan Houser and John Hoover Gifts also include sculpture by the next generation of accomplished sculptors inspired by these pioneers, such as Doug Hyde and Bob Haozous, Houser’s son. These will be shown in The Third Dimension: Sculptural Stories in Stone and Bronze.

  The majority of the sculptures come from the estate of Ann B. Ritt, who collected sculpture by Houser (Chiricahua Apache) and Hoover, an Unangan (Aleut) artist. Both artists valued stories, honoring their telling and the inspiration that stories gave to their art.

  Doug Hyde (Nez Perce/Assiniboine/Chippewa) was a student of Houser’s at IAIA, and a major work by Hyde was donated to the Heard by Phoenix Gateway Center. “The Vigil: Mountains, Valleys, Mesas” is a three-part limestone sculpture created in 1988. Commenting on the work, the artist said that it “celebrates Southwest Native people, their hard work and culture that has survived many challenges.”

  Although some of the sculpture was donated in 2011, the Heard was not able to show some of the Hoover and Houser pieces because they needed conservation. The gift of funds from Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project has made it possible to perform this essential conservation work and now to display these three-dimensional stories in all their beauty.

• American Indian Veterans National Memorial

  Heard Museum
  2301 North Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Service and sacrifice spanning more than three centuries are honored in the first and only known national memorial to American Indian veterans of many conflicts. The Memorial, located outside the Collector’s Room of the Heard Museum Shop, consists of several sizable sculptures by acclaimed Native artists Chiricahua Apache sculptor Allan Houser (1914-1994) and Michael Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo). The 10-foot sculpture Unconquered II is the last sculpture created by Houser. Naranjo is a Vietnam War veteran who suffered an injury that rendered him blind. Naranjo has been carving his meant-to-be-touched sculptures by feel ever since.

• Making Sense of your Dollar and Cents

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Presented by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Making Sense of Your Dollars and Cents is designed to introduce children and adults to important components of financial literacy – including budgeting, the importance of savings, managing accounts as well as math – in a fun, playful and engaging manner.

• American Scenes

  Phoenix Art Museum
  1625 N. Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
  

  American Scenes/Americas Seen features works spanning the 1930s and 1940s by celebrated muralists and abstract artists including Diego Rivera, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Carlos Mérida, Alice Trumbull Mason, Doris Rosenthal, and others.

  During the thirties and forties, many artists reacted against the abstract styles favored by the first generation of American moderns, dismissing non-objective art as “un-American.” Favoring representational modes, artists on both sides of the border pursued variations on several period styles variously called in the United States as the American Scene, Regionalism, and Social Realism.

  In Mexico, the Mural Movement shaped by the utopian fervor of the Revolution was initially a state-sponsored project to bring public art to the masses, translating nationalist ideologies into visual form. Some celebrated muralists like Diego Rivera also created easel paintings of idealized peasants marketed to foreign tourists, and Alfredo Ramos Martinez’s heroic paintings of indigenous peoples were in great demand during his sojourn in California in the late thirties.

• The W.O.N.D.E.R. Center

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  An exploration of the original supercomputer – the human brain – The W.O.N.D.E.R. Center is one of our permanent galleries. If you've ever wondered about the brain, here's your chance to examine its anatomy, neuroscience, development, and thought.

  • Examine our touchable brain model. It simulates the size, weight and texture of a real brain!
  • Compare different types of animal brains and see a human brain in the Brain Museum.

• My Digital World

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Stop by and explore the world of digital communication technology without hearing the words, "If you break it, you buy it." This gallery introduces visitors to the science behind digital communications, how they work and how they are utilized to create and share ideas and information.
  
  The future is now and we are ready to show you how former science fiction technologies are becoming a part of your everyday life. Explore the gadgets that enable us to share messages, ideas, music and images whenever we want at the touch of a button.
  
  Stop by and learn about these innovations in a very real way that connects you to "Your" Digital World.
  
  Virtual Sand
  Discover how the digital world and physics intermingle with Virtual Sand. Use your whole body to interact with dynamic media to learn and play with digital sand!
  
  Warp Your Image
  Twist and bend your face with Warp Your Image, using pixels to create digital art! Coordinate with buttons to explore just how pixels can alter your world!
  
  Harkins Ham Shack
  When all forms of communications have failed the Harkins Ham Shack is where you'll want to be. Learn how to use the most reliable line of communication with the radio experts at the Ham Shack. Want to learn more about Ham radios?

• Evans Family SkyCycle Page

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Suspended nearly 15 feet in the air, the Evans Family SkyCycle teaches riders about the principles of counterbalance and center of gravity, while taking a ride on the 90-foot cable.

• Philip Curtis and the Landscapes of Arizona

  Phoenix Art Museum
  1625 N. Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
  

  Landscape remains one of the most popular subjects for artists visiting and residing in Arizona. Philip C. Curtis, while not known as a landscape painter, draws extensively on that subject. Curtis came to the state in 1937 to establish the Phoenix Federal Art Center under the Federal Art Project, a New Deal program. He left two years later to head a similar facility in Des Moines, Iowa, but returned to Arizona in 1947. Settling in Scottsdale, he painted surreal compositions, with figures in Victorian costumes set in the desert. Arizona’s landscapes were a rich source of inspiration for him, and while his canvases do not portray any recognizable geological features, his work may be contextualized within the work of a broad spectrum of artists who came to the state. Curtis saw the desert through a lens of magic realism. This differed from Maxfield Parrish, Eugene Berman, and other artists who preferred more representational modes.

• Apron Strings: Ties to the Past

  300 S Chandler Village Dr
  Chandler, AZ 85226
  

  Only one garment invokes both outrage and nostalgia:  the apron. Apron Strings:  Ties to the Past is an exhibition that explores the apron’s role over the past century, from practical purposes through the June Cleaver era and their abandonment in feminist culture.  Explore fifty-five aprons dating from the late 1930s through the present and discover the stories behind them.  

• Solarville

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Step off the elevator and board the Solar Light Rail Station to begin your journey. Once in Solarville, you will stroll through scientific labs that study the sun and how to harness and distribute sustainable green energy – from algae, alternative fuels and poop.
  
  Lend a hand in developing wind engine turbines and inventing new garbage waste systems. Also learn about cutting-edge technologies being implemented to address sustainable energy in businesses and cities around the world.
  
  Explore ways you can utilize solar and renewable energy in your everyday life, from home appliances to harnessing the power of the changing seasons.

• All About Me

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Get ready to:

  • Walk through an enormous "working" stomach, complete with the sights, sounds and smells of the digestive process
  • Watch surgeries being performed, featuring the techniques of Dr. Edward B. Diethrich, in the Heart Surgery Theater
  • Test your heart muscles in our Wheelchair Racers
  • Explore the systems of the human body–from defense and immunity to cardio and pulmonary, digestive and skeletal
  • Hear your actual heartbeat as it is translated into sound on a bass drum

  Plus, plan to attend exciting, live science demonstrations in the Daniel Cracchiolo Theater. This stage comes to life daily with scientific demonstrations. From eyeballs to explosions, each demonstration incorporates audience volunteers to roll up their sleeves as they question everything.

• Get Charged Up

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Humans are naturally curious and the science of observation helps us understand the natural world around us – how things work and why.

  Bed of Nails
  Lie down on a bed of nails. With more than 1,000 nails, each nail supports only a fraction of your weight so the nails won't hurt you.
  
  Giant Lever
  Learn how levers give us a mechanical advantage in this giant game of tug-of-war. It's not about how hard you pull the rope, but where.
  
  Pulley Power
  Go for a ride in one of our three pulley chairs.
  
  Color Mixing
  Experiment with a prism to split white light into its different wavelengths and combine them to form different colors.
  
  Electromagnetic Workbench
  Experience the invisible forces of electromagnetism as objects move before your very eyes.
  
  Electric Circuits
  Build your own circuit and explore the science behind basic electrical components, voltage, current, polarity and Ohm’s Law.

• Sublime Landscapes

  Phoenix Art Museum
  1625 N. Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
  

  Spurred by the artists from the North East who comprised the Hudson River School, landscape painting was one of the most popular subjects in nineteenth-century America. Pushed ever westward by expansionist notions of Manifest Destiny, a belief that such territorial expansion was inevitable and pre-ordained. Painters were also part of government initiatives to survey the vast region, particularly in regards to potential railroad routes and to learn about the indigenous populations they encountered. 
   
  Adventurous artists sought landscape subjects beyond the continental United States, some traveling to the Arctic, where they found immense icebergs and the Aurora Borealis (these were dangerous journeys). Artists visited equatorial South America where they thrilled to the sublime vistas and smoldering volcanos they discovered. The Amazon and the Andes were rich sources for exotic paintings. Many regarded South America as “a land of scientific wonders, golden riches, and edenic innocence.” J.P. Reichardt’s Latin American Scene of 1866 captures the attraction of humid locales very different from North America.
   

• Flight Zone

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  An extension of The Kemper and Ethel Marley Gallery, guests experience where the science of flight comes together with Arizona's flight history, providing a unique and engaging experience.

   

  Become an engineer as you imagine, plan, create and improve helicopter and airplane designs. Climb into the fuselage of an actual airplane and venture into the field of aeronautics as you explore the forces and principles of flight through several exciting hands-on exhibits.

   

  • Paper Airplane Launcher
  • Paper Helicopter Lift Activity
  • Pitch-Roll-Yaw Interactives
  • Apache Helicopter Model from Boeing and an Interactive Touch Screen
  • Arizona Flight Caps and Patches
  • Historic Flight Jacket and Flight Images

• Selections from the Schorr Collection

  Phoenix Art Museum
  1625 N. Central Avenue
  Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
  

  
  David and Hannah Lewis have spent four decades carefully and painstakingly amassing one of the most important collections of Old Master and 19th-century paintings in the world, and one of the largest private collections in the United Kingdom. With their first purchase in 1967, the Lewises were not art experts, first beginning their collection for the sole purpose of finding art to hang on the walls of their new home in North London. What would transpire would become a passion that would consume their lives for decades to come, and forever transform the galleries of museums all over the world. 

  Today, the Schorr Collection, named for the family of Hannah Lewis, numbers more than 500 works, ranging from tender 15th-century devotional images through to 19th-century French impressionist landscapes and 20th-century Modern Masters. Rather than sequester the treasures of their collection away in private galleries, the Lewis family shares works from the Schorr Collection, one of the largest private collections in the United Kingdom, with public museums on a long-term basis.

  A recipient of long-term loans from the Schorr Collection in 2013, Phoenix Art Museum will now welcome an additional 30 paintings. This significant group will include a full-length 17-century portrait by Anthony van Dyck from his Genoa period and the great Death of Seneca (c. 1625), by Gerrit van Honthorst.

• Forces of Nature

  Arizona Science Center
  600 E. Washington St.
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Immersion Theater
  What does it feel like to be in the middle of a hurricane, tornado, wildfire, volcanic eruption or monsoon? There's only one way to find out. This five-minute show happens every 15 minutes. Supported by a grant from the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation.
  
  Magic Planet®
  See the last six weeks of weather patterns around the planet. Explore the cloud and air patterns that create major storms around the world. Located in the Wells Fargo Classroom.
  
  Stardust Faces of Science
  Meet three scientists with ties to Arizona: a volcanologist, a hydrologist and a meteorologist. The scientists explain, in their own words, what they do and what their work means to the rest of the world. They also share some of the real-life tools they use in their fields of expertise.

• A Place for All People

  1300 N. College Avenue
  Tempe, AZ 85281
  

  This exhibition explores the African American experience, evoking the power of oration and freedom stories, the brilliance of artistic achievement, and the soaring heights of cultural expression, philosophy, sports, and politics through a series of posters from the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture. The posters serve as the backdrop for displays telling the story of African Americans in Arizona. From the churches and schools to the boardroom; to the battlefields and to the neighborhood barbershops and beauty shops where important news of the day was discussed – the stories weave a rich tapestry of African American heritage.

• The Sound of Music

  Phoenix Theatre
  1825 N Central Ave
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
  

  Just in time for the holidays, wrap yourself up in the musical that has inspired and delighted generations. Rodgers and Hammerstein's romantic epic overflows with the indomitable spirit of survival—and includes some of the most iconic songs of all time. Warm, funny, and inspiring, The Sound of Music reminds us all of the sustaining power of family.

• A Christmas Carol: The Musical

  14455 N Saguaro blvd
  Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
  

  We’ve taken the spirit of the season, wrapped it in beautiful original melodies and tied it with all the holiday magic and wonder of your childhood. Fountain Hills Theater is proud to present a new musical adaptation, A Christmas Carol: The Musical. Based on the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol tells the tale of curmudgeonly miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future hoping to change his destiny and save his soul.

  This delightful musical, an original adaptation written by Fountain Hills Artistic Director Peter J. Hill, with music and lyrics by Peter J. Hill and Jay Melberg, follows Scrooge through a series of strange and magical journeys, where he ultimately discovers the true spirit of the holiday season.