The Desert Initiative is composed of a network of arts, cultural, scientific and design institutions throughout the Southwestern United States and other global desert regions with a vested and active interest in the desert as a point of creative investigation. The Desert Initiative is supported by the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and housed at the ASU Art Museum supporting independent and collaborative research into desert cultures and environments through the arts and sciences.
Partners listed by desert region:
Use one of these images to link back to the Desert Initiative.
SONORAN DESERT
Arizona State University Art Museum
Named “the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona” by Art in America magazine, the ASU Art Museum is an integral part of the ASU Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. The ASU Art Museum serves a diverse community of artists and audiences through innovative programming that is interdisciplinary, educational and relevant to life today.
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ASU Deer Valley Rock Art Center
The Deer Valley Rock Art Center is a museum, archaeological site, and 47-acre Sonoran Desert preserve. Voted a Phoenix Point of Pride, the Center has the largest concentration of Native American petroglyphs in the Phoenix Valley. Visitors hike a quarter-mile trail to view over 1,500 carved symbols on rock made between 500 and 7,000 years ago. Managed by the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change, the Center promotes preservation.
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Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Our program is built on a combination of disciplines unlike any other program in the nation, comprising schools of: Art; Arts, Media + Engineering; Dance; Design; Music; and Theatre and Film as well as the ASU Art Museum. At a time when many universities are choosing to reduce or eliminate studies in design and arts disciplines, ASU has elevated creative practice to one of the core values of the nation’s largest research institution.
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Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology
Housed at the heart of ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, the Museum of Anthropology expands our innovative programs of research to the communities we serve and beyond. It is a place in which we explain and explore the importance and impact of anthropological insights to understand the challenges of living in our increasingly global and complex world. The museum aims to share with audiences the many ways in which cultural expression finds form, as well as to highlight creative and adaptive strategies pursued by human communities in different places and in different times as they experience and respond to change.
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Arizona State University School of Art
The School of Art is one of the largest and most respected public art schools in the country, offering degrees in fine arts, art education and art history. The comprehensiveness of our program offers a range of specialties equaled by few other institutions. A rich well of artistic knowledge and ability is so important that a strong emphasis is placed on hiring faculty who further enhance and broaden it. Course structures encourage students to develop programs of study that explore a range of artistic specialties. Four campus galleries – Harry Wood, Northlight, Step and Gallery 100 – provide space dedicated exclusively to student exhibitions.
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Arizona Commission on the Arts
The Arizona Commission on the Arts is an agency of the State of Arizona which provides grants, programs, services and leadership in support of arts and arts education programs. In partnership with arts organizations, schools, festivals and individual artists, we endeavor to celebrate Arizona’s diverse communities and rich cultural traditions, inspire creativity, grow local economies and enhance quality of life for all Arizonans.
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Arizona Museum of Natural History
The Arizona Museum of Natural History is the premier natural history museum in Arizona. It is dedicated to inspire wonder, respect and understanding for the natural and cultural history of the Southwest. The museum holds substantial collections in natural history, anthropology, history and art. The museum obtains most of its paleontological and archaeological collections from the museum’s field research programs. AzMNH receives many collections items from generous donors.
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The University of Arizona Biosphere 2
The University of Arizona Biosphere 2 is the world’s largest environmentally controlled experimental facility, an engineering marvel that was recently named one of the 50 must-see “wonders of the world” by TIME-LIFE Books. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching and life-long learning about Earth, its living systems and its place in the universe. It addresses fundamental challenges related to climate change, energy sustainability and scientific literacy. It is completely open to the public and contributes substantially to outreach, information, and the transfer of knowledge between The University of Arizona and its many stakeholders.
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Center for Creative Photography
Founded in 1975 by then-University of Arizona President John P. Schaefer and photographer Ansel Adams, the Center for Creative Photography is the largest institution in the world devoted to documenting the history of North American photography. The Center’s 5,000 square-foot gallery hosts an ongoing stream of original exhibitions that travel to venues around the world and a permanent collection gallery features selected highlights of photographic history. To accompany its exhibitions and share knowledge about the medium of photography, the Center offers lectures, tours, and many other educational opportunities. It also publishes exhibition catalogues and books on the history of photography, its theory, criticism, and practice.
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Heard Museum
The mission of the Heard Museum is to educate people about the arts, heritage, life ways of the indigenous people of the Americas, with an emphasis on American Indian tribes of the Southwest. Since its founding by Dwight and Maie Bartlett Heard in 1929 – as a small museum in a small Southwestern town – the Heard has grown in size and stature – to where now it is recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, its educational programming and its festivals – and Phoenix has grown along with it. The Heard is a living museum – giving voice to a uniquely American people.
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Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona
The Joseph Gross Gallery presents interdisciplinary exhibitions that bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional art. Our two-fold mission offers career development opportunities to students and emerging artists, while increasing public understanding of contemporary art by exposing University of Arizona students and faculty, as well as the Tucson community to a diverse range of media and thematic approaches from nationally and internationally recognized artists. As part of the School of Art we aim to educate, engender interest and promote public discourse. We are committed to creating a level of scholarly excellence that provides our community opportunities to interact with the most innovative artists of our time.
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Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson
MOCA inspires new ways of thinking through the cultivation, interpretation and exhibition of cutting-edge art of our time.
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Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix Art Museum is a vibrant destination connecting people to great art from around the world to enrich their lives and communities. Since 1959, the Museum has served as the cornerstone of Phoenix’s art and cultural community, providing the people of Arizona with great art from around the world and amazing cultural experiences.
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Phoenix College Department of Fine and Performing Arts
As part of the Phoenix College campus community, the Department of Fine and Performing Arts recognizes the rapid and complex social changes in our community.
We as a faculty are continuing to develop a comprehensive program of visual art studies to fit the needs of our students. The Fine and Performing Arts Department offers classes in art history, studio arts, media arts, and the vocational/occupational areas of art. The department also serves the local visual art community by directing the Eric Fischl Gallery, offering a variety of art workshops and participating with professional community arts organizations/artists.
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Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
The City of Phoenix enhances the community’s cultural and economic development by supporting the production, presentation, exhibition, advancement and preservation of visual art, design, music, dance, theater, literature, science, zoology, botany, natural history and cultural history for the benefit of the public.
As the City of Phoenix has grown, so too has the arts and cultural community. Today, more than 130 nonprofit organizations provide arts and cultural experiences for Phoenix residents and visitors.
The Gallery @ City Hall, in the Atrium of Phoenix City Hall, hosts changing exhibitions of artworks from the City of Phoenix Municipal Art collection. Begun in 1915- just three years after Arizona statehood- the collection has grown from a single painting purchased with private contributions to more than 1,000 artworks in a wide range of media. Highlights include historic western landscape paintings from the early 20th Century; American photography from the late 20th Century; modern Native American artworks; and extensive holdings of limited-edition prints.
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Pima Community College Louis Carlos and Bernal Gallery
The Pima Community College Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery, located in the Center for the Arts complex, exhibits regional, national and international contemporary artists, as well as sponsoring a juried student exhibition each spring. The gallery is named for Tucson’s noted photographer and teacher, Louis Carlos Bernal. He was the founding photography instructor at Pima Community College. In 1984, he was nationally recognized and chosen to photograph the Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
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Prescott College Art Gallery
The Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse provides the academic community and the greater audience of Northern Arizona with art exhibitions and programming that are aesthetically stimulating and critically engaging. Aligned with the mission of Prescott College, the Gallery strives to enhance our world community by exhibiting a variety of disciplines by a diversity of artists, with an emphasis on the environment and social justice. The Gallery supports research, teaching and experiential learning in an interdisciplinary curriculum.
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Shemer Art Center and Museum
Shemer Art Center & Museum Association (SACAMA) is a nonprofit, 501C-3 open membership organization dedicated to enriching the lives of the City of Phoenix and Arizona residents by fostering an appreciation of the arts through classes, seminars and exhibits at the Shemer Art Center and Museum (Shemer). SACAMA was formed in 1986 to provide support and input into the operation of the art center. SACAMA’s predominate objectives are the promotion, education, and stimulation of growth and development of area artists, the delivery of art appreciation and art education services to a diverse audience, and the support of the activities of the Shemer Art Center and Museum.
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Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA] is an educational institution dedicated to presenting exhibitions on contemporary and modern art, architecture, and design. Global in its focus, SMoCA is a gathering place for experiencing contemporary art and culture. We connect visitors to the dynamic art and ideas of our time and explore the possibilities of innovation, creativity and expression. “SMoCA champions creativity, innovation and the vitality of the visual arts. We seek both to build and to educate audiences for modern and contemporary art, as well as to provide opportunities for the artistic community-locally, nationally and internationally. SMoCA provides a memorable experience of art, architecture and design by exploring new curatorial approaches and by highlighting cultural context. We interpret, exhibit, collect and preserve works in these media.”
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Scottsdale Office of Environmental Initiatives
Through education, research, and leadership, we collaborate towards the integration of environmental initiatives to support a sustainable and balanced economy, environment, and community. The Office of Environmental Initiatives is dedicated to the pursuit of collaboration to integrate environmental initiatives as a viable, recognized resource working as a cohesive, productive team focusing on environmental performance and creating a “Sustainable Scottsdale”.
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Scottsdale Public Art
[SPA] was established in 1985. Its mission is to serve as a leader in defining art in the public realm through creative place-making, signature art events, exhibitions, and installations—thus contributing to the community’s creative, cultural, and economic vitality.
SPA is a nationally recognized program and has over its 27-year history become a leader in the public art field. With site specific commissions, integrated public art and infrastructure design, exhibits, events, temporary works, and storefront projects, the program has a wide spectrum of sites and artworks appealing to residents and visitors alike. Scottsdale Public Art celebrates the history of Scottsdale and envisions its future through creative place making and cutting edge events that make it a must-see cultural destination. Through its projects and programs, SPA supports the City of Scottsdale’s community and tourism development and its economic prosperity to make Scottsdale one of the most desirable cities to live, work, and visit.
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Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
Scottsdale Cultural Council plays a vital role in fostering the arts in Scottsdale through its three dynamic operating divisions. Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts showcases dance, music, theater and film from around the world including regional Native American culture at free outdoor performances.
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Salt River Project
SRP, based in Phoenix, was established in 1903 as the nation’s first multipurpose reclamation project authorized under the National Reclamation Act. Today, SRP is the nation’s third-largest public power utility and one of Arizona’s largest water suppliers.
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Tucson Museum of Art
The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block encompasses an entire city block in historic downtown, and features original and traveling exhibitions focusing on Art of Latin America, Art of the American West, Modern and Contemporary Art and Asian Art as well as tours, education programs, studio art classes, and Museum Store to delight and educate visitors. The Tucson Museum of Art serves the city and surrounding regions and is committed to broadening public access to the arts, enriching daily life.
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Tucson Pima Arts Council
The Tucson Pima Arts Council fosters artistic expression, educational development, and the economic growth of our diverse community by supporting, promoting, and advocating for arts and culture.
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University of Arizona Institute of the Environment
The Institute of the Environment (IE) fosters and facilitates cross-campus, community, state, national, and worldwide collaborations that help explain and resolve environmental challenges and seize solution-driven opportunities created by such challenges. IE also provides a portal to the internationally-recognized expertise of more than 300 affiliated faculty and research staff across campus and to programs, events, and projects that transform environmental research into useful knowledge for decision makers, consumers, and other stakeholders.
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University of Arizona Museum of Art & Archive of Visual Arts
The University of Arizona Museum of Art & Archive of Visual Arts houses wide-ranging collections of over 5,000 paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, with an emphasis on European and American fine art from the Renaissance to the present.
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MOJAVE DESERT
Arid Lands Institute
The Arid Lands Institute is a self-sustaining education, research, and outreach center of Woodbury University dedicated to issues of aridity, climate change, and the design of the built environment. Its purpose is to train designers and leaders who will be resourceful and inventive in addressing water scarcity in the west.
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Center for Land Use Interpretation
Dedicated to the increase and diffusion of information about how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived. The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a research and education organization interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth’s surface, and in finding new meanings in the intentional and incidental forms that we individually and collectively create. We believe that the manmade landscape is a cultural inscription that can be read to better understand who we are, and what we are doing.
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High Desert Test Sites
High Desert Test Sites generates physical and conceptual spaces for art exploring the intersections between contemporary art and life at large. Scattered along a stretch of intimate yet diverse desert communities that include Joshua Tree, Pioneertown, Wonder Valley, Yucca Valley, and 29 Palms, our sites provide a place for both fleeting and long-term experimental projects.
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Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA)
The Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art, located at Cal State San Bernardino, has a collection of 1,200 objects focusing on ceramics, ancient and contemporary art. With more than 500 objects encompassing over 4,000 years of Egyptian history, RAFFMA houses the largest permanent and public display of Egyptian art in Southern California. Museum guests explore the cultural richness hidden within the deserts of Ancient Egypt spreading beyond the barriers of space and time and into modern day. Come and experience, learn and be inspired at RAFFMA!
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Palm Springs Art Museum
The Palm Springs Art Museum strives to serve diverse communities as one of the outstanding mid-size art museums in the country. Its mission is to promote enjoyment, education and involvement with visual art of the highest quality, and enhance appreciation of the performing arts. By collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting art from a broad chronological and geographic range according to the highest professional standards, and presenting a varied program of performing art, the museum seeks to maximize its public service to audiences of all ages and social backgrounds and to make art a dynamic part of their lives.
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UCR Sweeney Art Gallery
The Sweeney Art Gallery is an artistic laboratory that engages diverse audiences with exhibitions and programs that are committed to experimentation, innovation, and the exploration of art in our time. The Sweeney places a special emphasis on inspiring projects that explore new ideas and materials and re-envision the relationship between art and life. Established on the University of California-Riverside’s campus in 1963, the Sweeney moved to UCR ARTSblock in April of 2006 and plays a special role in contributing to the artistic spirit of the campus and the community at large. At the center of the Gallery’s mission is an appreciation for the role of artists developing the intellectual and cultural life of society.
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Water Resources Institute, California State University, San Bernardino
The Water Resources Institute (WRI) is driven by the vision that sustaining water resources rests on sound research, analysis and public policy collaboration. WRI serves as a regional hub for academic, students, water professionals, political leaders, policy makers, business, artists and environmental groups to gain water resource information, come together to exchange views, and engage in meaningful research. WRI manages the Joseph Andrew Rowe Water Resources Archives (WRI Archives), which focuses primarily on the Santa Ana river watershed and Colorado River, but includes records for areas both in and outside of Southern California and an extensive historic aerial photography collection.
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GREAT BASIN DESERT
Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art
The Center for Art + Environment (CA+E), located at the Nevada Museum of Art, is an internationally recognized research center that supports the practice, study and awareness of creative interactions between people and their natural, built, and virtual environments. The mission of the CA+E is to encourage the creation of artworks expressing the interaction between people and their natural, built, and virtual environments, to convene artists, scholars, and communities to document, research, and analyze such artworks, and to increase public knowledge of these creative and scholarly endeavors.
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Museum of Northern Arizona
The mission of the Museum of Northern Arizona is to inspire a sense of love and responsibility for the beauty and diversity of the Colorado Plateau through collecting, studying, interpreting, and preserving the region’s natural and cultural heritage.
Founded in 1928 as a community effort by a group of Flagstaff citizens, the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) is a private, nonprofit institution that was originally established as a repository for Native American artifacts and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau.
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Navajo Nation Museum
The Navajo Nation Museum and Visitor’s Center opened in September, 1997 as an educational resource. The extraordinary Navajo focused collections include a wide range of historic, ethnographic and art objects; the Milton “Jack” Snow Collection and other historic photographic archives dating from 1930 to the1970s; and a small number of natural history specimens.
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CHIHUAHUAN DESERT
516 Arts
516 ARTS is an independent nonprofit arts and education organization, which operates a museum-style gallery in the center of Downtown Albuquerque. The mission of 516 ARTS is to forge connections between art and audiences, and its vision is to be an active partner in developing the cultural landscape of Albuquerque and New Mexico. Its values are inquiry, diversity, collaboration, and accessibility. 516 ARTS offers programs that inspire curiosity, dialogue, risk-taking, and creative experimentation, showcasing a mix of established, emerging, local, national and international artists from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Programs include exhibitions, gallery talks, panel discussions, the 516 WORDS readings series, workshops, special events, performances and leadership of collaborations such as ISEA 2012 and LAND/ART in 2009.
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Albuquerque Public Urban Art Enhancement
With over 700 works of art in this 35 year old municipal collection, 173 are outdoor sculpture and 5 fall into the land art genre. The majority of works in this varied media collection are inspired and influenced by the southwest desert environment, a rich and diverse cultural landscape, and by the possibilities of new frontiers. While Albuquerque is New Mexico’s largest city, it is also the home of expansive vistas, preserved open spaces and precarious desert ecologies. The Albuquerque Public Art program embraces and celebrates these unique characteristics.
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Art and Ecology, University of New Mexico
As a new area in the Department of Art and Art History, Art and Ecology creates a signature discipline for the University of New Mexico. Building from the successful D.H. Lawrence Summer Arts Projects, Southwest Geographic Arts and Land Arts of the American West courses, the Art and Ecology area provides a full curriculum based on the environments and communities of the southwest. Courses are designed to further students’ understanding of representation, land use, ecology, and classic Land Art in the Southwest. Art and Ecology engages ecological scholars, artists, and activists both within and outside of academia to support its curriculum. Students will learn to research, write, and speak effectively. Coursework will familiarize them with major ecological systems and the processes involved in creating two-, three- and four-dimensional events. Courses will also include a focus on understanding and controlling the ecological impacts of art materials and practices. The curriculum guides students through collaborations (both interdisciplinary and cross-cultural) and the mechanisms of public process.
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ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness
In the fall of 2012, 516 ARTS and over 90 partners from around the region present ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness, an international conference, exhibition and series of fall public programs exploring the subject of art, technology and nature. The title “Machine Wilderness” references the New Mexico region as an area of rapid growth and technology within vast expanses of open land, and aims to present visions of a more humane interaction between technology and wilderness in which “machines” can take many forms to support life on Earth. Machine Wilderness focuses on creative solutions to the challenge of advancing technology while sustaining the global natural environment. This initiative is part of the International Symposium on Electronic Art, the world’s premier forum for advancing exchange and innovation among artists, scientists and technologists. As host for ISEA2012, Albuquerque joins Istanbul, Helsinki, Munich, Singapore, Sydney and other major cities worldwide as an international center for creativity and technology. Over 100 artists and over 400 presenters from 29 countries are participating. The symposium consists of the main conference in Albuquerque (September 19 – 24, 2012), a multi-site exhibition based at 516 ARTS and The Albuquerque Museum of Art & History (September 20, 2012 – January, 6, 2013), and an expansive, regional collaboration throughout the fall of 2012, with art exhibitions, public programs and an in-depth youth education program.
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El Paso Museum of Art
To collect, interpret, preserve and exhibit works of art that maintain and support the strengths of the Museum’s permanent collections of American, European, and Mexican art. The Museum recognizes the region’s diverse cultures through exhibitions, acquisitions, educational programs and staff and board representation and is an education institution dedicated to scholarship and training while providing a stimulating aesthetic environment and resource of all audiences.
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El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department
The mission of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) is to assist in developing a world-class arts community in El Paso, Texas. To accomplish this goal the MCAD has established The Museums Division comprised of the El Paso Museum of Art, the El Paso Museum of Archaeology and the El Paso Museum of History each dedicated to providing exhibitions and educational activities that recognize the region’s multi-cultural heritage and contributors. The Cultural Affairs Division implements funding programs, public art programs, cultural tourism initiatives and performing/visual arts events that provide a variety of opportunities to engage in arts and cultural activities that enliven and celebrate the City of El Paso and the region. The Museums and Cultural Affairs Department is committed to the continued development of the City’s arts industry, providing quality programs that are representative of the city’s diverse cultures; and to maximizing available resources in order to enhance the city’s cultural vitality.
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Getting off the Planet
The imagined and real prospects of leaving our planet have inspired many intriguing works of art over time. Getting Off the Planet (GOTP) departs from more traditional art forms such as painting and sculpture displayed in galleries and museums to include site-specific residency projects created by emerging and established international artists at unique venues throughout the state of New Mexico from 2012 to 2013. GOTP is co-curated by Jenée Misraje and Patricia Watts and is a project of ecoartspace. Each project will take place at multiple sites over a two year period in collaboration with both arts and science organizations. A final exhibition will serve as documentation of the project and is scheduled to be presented at the Santa Fe Art institute Fall 2013, along with both a printed and digital catalogue and website archive.
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Santa Fe Art Institute
SFAI takes as its mission an exploration of the intersections of contemporary art and society. By bringing together prominent individuals and institutions in the arts, sciences, and humanities, SFAI enlivens local, national, and international discourse through residences, lectures, workshops, publications, exhibitions, and educational and outreach programming. Nurturing artists and providing a stimulating, creative atmosphere for their work serves society in an essential way and gives artists the support necessary to take risks and explore possibilities. For young people, the arts allow creativity and innovation to be valued along with the traditional skills for learning.
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Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at The University of Texas at El Paso
The Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at The University of Texas at El Paso is committed to excellence in the exhibition of contemporary art that encourages adventuresome thinking and dialogue. Located at the epicenter of the Americas, we serve as a laboratory for emerging artists and innovative practitioners, providing access for an audience of multiple and diverse communities.
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