BEST Things To Do In Phoenix
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...
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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."
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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.
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Creative Casting
Heard Museum
2301 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Copper and tin come together to make bronze, a medium that offers wonderful creativity for artists in the choices of texture and patinas. Sculptor John Hoover, for example, whose earlier work was carved from cedar, found in bronze a medium that could express the qualities of his cedar carvings.
All of the sculpture in Creative Casting came to the Heard Museum’s permanent collection through important bequests. We are honored that two knowledgeable collectors, Les Goldberg and Ann B. Ritt, chose to remember the Heard in their wills and share their collections with the public.
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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.
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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.
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Pablita Velarde’s Studio
Heard Museum
2301 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004
One of the leading painters of the 20th century, Pablita Velarde/Tse Tsan “Golden Dawn” (Santa Clara Pueblo) (1918-2006) was a pioneer as a woman artist in an era and a community where painting was a male art form.
Her painting began in a traditional manner but evolved through many original styles and media. She engaged in the experimentation that the best artists practice, in media or style. She cared deeply about depicting traditional lifeways that she feared would be lost and using her art to tell the stories of those lifeways. Over the decades she was an effective spokesperson discussing her art and the larger issues of the Native art world.
This exhibit contains an accurate recreation with original objects of Pablita’s working studio, giving insight to the public of this extraordinary artist’s process.
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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.
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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?
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Landmarks
Phoenix Art Museum
1625 N. Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
Welcome! Whether you have traveled from near or far, you likely used a landmark to find your way here. Landmarks can be a part of nature, such as a tree or a mountain, or something human constructed. They define boundaries and may be sites of significant events in our collective or personal histories.
The works of art in this gallery explore ways artists relate to and represent the land. From sites in national parks to things one might see in a desert or urban environment, the artists gathered here investigate different kinds of landmarks.
These features of the landscape help us know where we are in the world and orient us through unfamiliar territory. Over time, they might reorient or reconnect us to a place and reveal changes in the physical world and ourselves.
Each of us has connections to places that are important to us. What are the landmarks that define your world?
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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. -
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. -
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.
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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. -
Silk and Jade: Chinese Aristocratic Treasures
Phoenix Art Museum
1625 N. Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685
Silk was first developed in ancient China. The earliest example of silk has been found in tombs at a Neolithic site and dates back 8,500 years. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress. Silks were originally reserved for the emperors of China for their own use and gifts to others, but spread gradually through trade both geographically and socially to many regions of Asia and the rest of the world. Because of its texture and luster, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants. In addition to being used to make clothes and other textiles, silk was also used for traditional paintings.
Jade refers to an ornamental mineral, mostly known for its green varieties. It can refer to either of two different minerals: nephrite, a silicate of calcium and magnesium, or jadeite, a silicate of sodium and aluminium. Nephrite jade has been mined and worked in China since Neolithic times. Jade was used to create many utilitarian and ceremonial objects, from indoor decorative items to jade burial suits. “Anciently superior men found the likeness of all excellent qualities in jade. Soft, smooth, glossy, it appeared to them like benevolence; fine, compact, and strong, like intelligence; angular but not sharp and cutting, like righteousness; its flaws not concealing its beauty, nor its beauty concealing its flaws, like loyalty.” In these words the sage Confucius captured how the Chinese have felt about jade for thousands of years.
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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.
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Halloween Town AZ
4976 Premium Outlets Way
Glendale, AZ 85226
We’re excited for your family to visit us for some tricks and treats (and pumpkins, of course) all season long at the Phoenix Premium Outlets. Help us make this a premier fall event year after year filled with family fun.
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NF - The Search Tour
Comerica Theatre
400 West Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85003
Nate Feuerstein, recording and performing as the Hip-Hop/Alternative artist NF, is Capitol CMG Label Group's most recent signing and most compelling new talent. On his debut self-titled EP, this 24 year-old Gladwin, Michigan native tells his story with lyrical vulnerability complimented by raw energy. His music draws from many real life struggles, including being abused as a kid, struggling with anger issues, and losing his mother to a drug overdose.
