BEST Things To Do In Scottsdale
Friday, August 23, 2019

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."

• 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.

• Courage and Crossroads: A Visual Journey through the Early American West

  3830 N Marshall Way
  Scottsdale, AZ 85251
  

  The story of America’s West in the 19th and early 20th centuries comes to life through more than 100 paintings and sculptures by artists ranging from Thomas Moran and Alfred Jacob Miller to Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. The exhibit also includes vintage photographs by Edward S. Curtis, historic Native American objects, objects associated with Kit Carson, and the presentation style pipe tomahawk of Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

• 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.

• 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.

• Janel Garza: Environ

  7374 East Second Street
  Scottsdale, AZ 85251
  

  As the title suggests, the new mural unveiled at SMoCA, Environ was designed to reflect multiple features that directly surround the space. Each aspect of the courtyard where it resides is taken into consideration—from the colored light of James Carpenter’s glass scrim wall to the ever-changing view of James Turrell’s skyspace, Knight Rise, as well as the nearby native plant life. Pulling simple abstract shapes and colors from each of these influences created one cohesive and fluid design. The intention of the artist is to complement the space and welcome visitors to spend time within the courtyard walls.

• Native American Dancing

  7500 E. Doubletree Ranch Rd.
  Scottsdale, AZ 85258
  

  Celebrate Native American culture with weekly performances of dancers from around Arizona sharing the traditions of their tribes. the performance includes hoop dancing, known as the "dance of life." Performances take place at the Fountain Court at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa each Friday from 5 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. and are free and open to 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.

• Havana Nights

  4925 N. Scottsdale Rd.
  Scottsdale, AZ 85251
  

  Havana Nights at The Scott feature classic movies from the early 20th century, when motion-picture film was in its prime and color was yet to be discovered.

  Sit back, sip on some of The Canal Club’s Signature Cocktails and enjoy our complimentary Mexican Street Popcorn.

• Superhero Summer at the Princess

  7575 E. Princess Dr.
  Scottsdale, AZ 85255
  

  It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superhero Summer #AtThePrincess! From Memorial Day to Labor Day join us for an adventure of heroic proportions as we invite families to enjoy special superhero-themed activities and photo ops, dive-in movies, fireworks and so much more at Arizona’s original endless summer destination. With Arizona’s only white sand beach, five sparkling pools* and two rip-roaring waterslides, luxurious guest rooms, award-winning restaurants, a world-class spa and championship golf…why staycation anywhere else?