BEST Things To Do In Scottsdale
The Event Oracle knows ALL the fun things to do in the land of the Scottsdale sun. Select your date above then scroll down for all the Arts, Entertainment, and Events in my crystal ball...
-
Carnival of Illusion
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."
-
“Moon” by Luke Jerram
5555 Hermann Park Dr
Houston, TX 77030
Houston, we have a landing. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander touched down on the moon, heralding astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as the first humans to successfully accomplish a lunar landing. In honor of the 50th anniversary of this moon-mentous occasion, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is bringing the moon to Houston like never before!
Created by artist Luke Jerram, this sculpture features 120 dpi detailed NASA imagery of the moon’s surface, using projection mapping. Lunar features, such as Tycho, Apollo 11’s landing spot and even the elusive “dark side of the moon” are displayed in stunning resolution on this unique sculpture. At an approximate 23 feet in diameter and an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each inch of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 42 feet of the moon’s surface.
-
Paul Calle’s Life of Exploration: From the Mountains to the Moon
3830 N. Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
In celebration of this year’s 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon and in honor of NASA and Western Artist, Paul Calle, the landmark exhibition Paul Calle’s Life of Exploration: From the Mountains to the Moon will be on display to the public from Feb. 19 through Oct. 20, 2019.
-
Divergent Materiality: Contemporary Glass Art
7374 E. Second St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Divergent Materiality: Contemporary Glass Art is a contemporary take on one of the first exhibitions featured at SMoCA, Studio Glass: From the Gerard L. Cafesjian Collection.
As the lead donor of the museum, Cafesjian’s legacy is important and his love of glass is undeniable. This exhibition highlights contemporary glass artists—both masters and emerging—whose innovative approaches using glass have advanced the medium’s discourse within contemporary art. While this is not a survey, the artworks selected represent the vast techniques and ideas used to explore this transformative material from the mid-20th century to today.
-
Mutual Reality: Art on the Edge of Technology
7374 E. 2nd St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
In the 21st century, each of us—often unknowingly—leave a digital footprint in everything we do from texting to a simple internet search. This exhibition presents the multiple ways in which we, as users, interact with an artwork and the response or output the artwork provides in return. These interactions are meant to get the viewer thinking not only about the traces we leave behind, but the effects we have on technology.
In this important moment in time, humans and technology are evolving together and interactive art exemplifies this relationship. This intimate level of engagement with an artwork opens the opportunity to shift the viewer’s perspective on the meaning and boundaries of art itself.
-
Mutual Reality: Art on the Edge of Technology
7374 E. 2nd St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
In the 21st century, each of us—often unknowingly—leave a digital footprint in everything we do from texting to a simple internet search. This exhibition presents the multiple ways in which we, as users, interact with an artwork and the response or output the artwork provides in return. These interactions are meant to get the viewer thinking not only about the traces we leave behind, but the effects we have on technology.
In this important moment in time, humans and technology are evolving together and interactive art exemplifies this relationship. This intimate level of engagement with an artwork opens the opportunity to shift the viewer’s perspective on the meaning and boundaries of art itself.
-
The Abe Hays Family Spirit of the West Collection
3830 N Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
A selection of 1,400 saddles, spurs, and other quintessentially western items from the collection of Scottsdale gallerist Abe Hays. Highlights include a David E. Walker leather saddle circa 1880 and a collection of rare badges.
The exhibition themes include working cowboys; Wild West shows; western gear made in prisons; rodeos and fairs; western movies and parades; outlaws and lawmen; western saloons; and illustrations. Almost all of the works are of the highest quality and are marked by an artisan renowned in his specialty.
Visitors will encounter at least 30 examples of many different items, such as gun rigs, holsters, spurs, bits, saddle bags, cuffs, revolvers, and rifles. There are at least 10 examples of saddles, bridles, chaps, scabbards, bronco belts, reatas, quirts, knives, hats, and billheads (invoices). While every artifact on display captures a part of our history, some are exceedingly rare.
-
New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West
3830 N. Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
This major traveling exhibition offers a fresh take on Western art through 100 works by 70 well-known artists including those from the Taos Society of Artists and less-recognized artists, who were living and working in the 1920s and 1930s in Santa Fe and Taos, N.M. – important art colonies then and now. The New Beginnings exhibition, which makes its debut at Scottsdale’s Museum of the West and will travel to four additional institutes across the U.S. into 2021, features paintings, works on paper, photographs, sculptures and a furniture piece from the celebrated Tia Collection including never-before-shown works. This is the first time three-year-old Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is debuting another organization’s traveling exhibition. The exhibition offers a crisp view of artwork covering nearly a century, from 1888 to 1983, showing the evolution of art in New Mexico from 19th century Classicism and Romanticism to early 20th century Modernism with a focus on artworks and artists who operated on the transnational stage. Several years in the making, the New Beginnings exhibition features artists who were originally from outside the American West and also includes a significant number of women artists.
-
Back Round by Aakash Nihalani
7374 E 2nd St
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
SMoCA Lounge is an active laboratory of art and life where the synergy of contemporary art, design, food, cocktails, lively dialogue, education, and community engagement intersect and evolve.
This season, artist Aakash Nihalani brings an all-new work to SMoCA Lounge, transforming the space into a large interactive installation for the public. Using a variety of mediums from masking tape to metal, Nihalani creates two-dimensional designs that simulate three-dimensional interactive experiences. Exploiting the malleability of human senses, his site-specific artworks modulate our spatial perceptions to provoke surprising and often humorous moments that interrupt the routine of everyday life. His works are meant to encourage the public to explore what they perceive as space and become active participants interacting with the work. Nihalani brings an all new work to SMoCA Lounge, transforming the space into a large interactive installation for the public.
-
Live Music at The Thirsty Camel Lounge
6000 E Camelback Rd
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Come enjoy an evening of entertainment with live music in The Thirsty Camel Lounge at The Phoenician Resort. Happening every week at 5pm - 7pm Monday through Friday.
-
Singing Cowboy Marshal Pioneer Pepper
7677 E. Princess Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
Marshal Pioneer Pepper is an entertainer extraordinaire right out of the old west. He loads up both barrels full of dazzling entertainment performing such nostalgic songs as Tumbling Tumble Weeds, Cool Water, Ghost Riders in the Sky, and Back in the Saddle Again. He takes you back to the days of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Marty Robbins, reminding audiences that a little bit of cowboy lives on in all of us. See Pioneer Pepper every Thursday night from 6pm – 8pm at ArteZania Kitchen & Cantina located at Holiday Inn Club Vacations Scottsdale Resort.
-
Scottsdale ArtWalk
Scottsdale, AZ
Celebrate an American original – the Scottsdale ArtWalk. This free event takes place every Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. in Old Town Scottsdale. Restaurants, museums and free trolley and/or horse-drawn carriage rides are available during ArtWalk to transport folks from numerous free parking areas throughout the area.
Locations include Main Street from Scottsdale Road west to Goldwater Boulevard, and on Marshall Way north of Indian School Road to 5th Avenue.
