The following is an original production of AZPM News.

Coming up today on The Press Room, we're dipping our toes into the arts and culture of Tucson.

There's a rich and diverse history here in Southern Arizona, and we're going to explore some of it today.

I'm David Lee, and The Press Room starts now.

[ MUSIC ] Welcome to The Press Room.

I'm AZPM News Director David Lee.

And with me today, we have Kevin Larkin from Art State, Arizona, David Slutes, the director at La Rosa, a fairly new music venue in Midtown, Cathy Burch from Arizona Daily Star and Thatcher Warrick Hess from AZPM News.

Thank you all for being with us.

I want to talk a little bit first about arts and culture in and around Tucson.

I know there's a lot to share about in terms of this community, especially for folks like me who are new who need to know.

So I want to go around to each of you and, you know, Tucsonans have a lot to be proud of.

And when it comes to arts and culture here, what's the one thing that I should know?

Everybody should know?

Start with you, David.

Well, I think Tucson is an unusually artful town and has a great wealth of artists, musicians that you don't find percentage wise, you don't find in cities larger than us.

I think there's just that ground swell here that we have.

That's a natural part of our fabric of our society here.

Kevin.

I'd say that Tucson is a UNESCO designated city of gastronomy.

A lot of folks don't know that.

And it's the root of so much of the arts and culture and music in this region.

So, you know, just that that is a treasure for us to share and build upon.

Cathy.

I would say that Tucson has all the arts that we get.

A lot of people who come here from the Midwest, Chicago, Minneapolis.

And they're shocked that we have all forms of arts.

I mean, we've got when it comes to the culture arts, we've got tons of theater.

We've got Broadway.

We've got classical music.

We've got choral music.

We have opera and they're just they're pretty blown away that they have.

We have everything here that they have at home.

And it's also really, really high quality.

Thatcher.

Yeah.

And I think also to adding on to that, there's definitely like an underground, even especially with music and underground music.

That's that's a growing scene within the past couple of years.

And even having to talk to, you know, bands that don't even have anything published yet, but that they're going out and whether it's in a backyard at MSA Annex or just these different venues, it's really cool that Tucson has this balance of kind of the bigger scale Fox Theater stuff, but also someone's backyard.

But bringing in a community that can almost get about 100 people to go.

OK, Cathy, you've been a feature writer and critic for The Daily Star for decades.

Thank you for that.

Would you say Tucson is well known as that cultural hub?

I mean, you leaned on that a little bit.

I do.

I think that especially in the last 14 years, since they've launched the Tucson Desert Song Festival, that event started as just a small, you know, collaboration with all of the the classical music organizations, including the University of Arizona.

And it has since I mean, when I interview artists coming in, these are these are vocalists who are regulars at the New York Met at Chicago Lyric Opera.

And they're coming to Tucson.

And when I asked them, have you heard of the Tucson Desert Song Festival?

They're like, oh, yeah, I've been waiting to get on the lineup.

I mean, it's so so I think we're definitely on the map.

You know, we have a lot of winter visitors who go home and they tell their people there's this live scene.

I'm not missing anything when I'm hanging out in the warmth of Tucson.

You mentioned it a little bit in terms of the University of Arizona.

We've got students from all over coming in and out.

It feels like a real good opportunity to be exposed to other cultures here as well.

Oh, big time.

Yeah.

And you know, in the School of Music is just phenomenal.

I mean, you're the guitar classical guitar program world renowned.

Literally, we get we get international players from Spain and Brazil that come in here and they want to they want to learn with Tom Patterson.

You know, it's just a great opportunity.

And I think that that is that cultural it is kind of bridging the cultural divide a little bit.

David, you you have done a lot in this area in terms of the Tucson music and entertainment scene, the scene, especially now downtown.

I imagine you've seen a lot of changes over the years.

Seen them all.

Well, and it's interesting thing when you pointed out about this burgeoning underground scene.

Well, that scene, because I'm born and raised, I've seen this scene come and go.

I'd say there was this very similar thing in the 80s that came up and grew up out of the house parties into this into the big venues.

And these people became stars and got record deals and moved on and became.

(Cathy) Including David.

(David) we'll get there.

But but there's a lot of that developed.

And it's always had that richness in our community that you can start anywhere.

And Tucson does that very well.

The downtown music scene in particular, which I was part of for a very, very long time.

I mean, my new venue is in Midtown, but we're very much associated with it.

You went from really tough crowd that downtown lofty, weird thing you'd find in every big city to now an entertainment district, which is now has the wonderful Rialto and the Fox and Hotel.

Many good venues down there, and it drives people to it.

So you have a real entertainment district that we were pretending to have 30 years ago.

Thatcher, you cover a culture for AZPM in your reporting.

What have you seen kind of these days recently about different organizations putting on events?

I know you recently spent some time covering the Japanese festival here in Tucson.

Yeah, it's the 10th annual Japanese festival.

They did have a break during Covid.

But I mean, being there when it was triple digit, you know, heat, when it was 102.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was definitely a challenge to see how they had to adapt.

But it still showed that 2000 people came and it didn't the heat didn't stop them.

And, you know, having them and give out water and complimentary tea, I think still really brought that culture and didn't deter people to go.

And I think that was just a really interesting experience to also see new performances that were never at the festival previous years.

One even was a drummer from Sado Island in Japan who who came in and did a performance.

And, you know, that's miles of travel, thousands of miles of travel.

And that really brought that experience together for this year's festival.

Kevin, you've got the upcoming Folk Festival coming up in April.

What is it?

I don't know that I would necessarily think of Tucson as a folk festival type of place, but what makes it special here?

I think the people, you know, it's the 41st year.

This is a largely volunteer run festival.

OK.

I mean, through most of its history.

It's a free festival and it's a massive festival.

So, you know, for being a product of our local scene started by the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association, literally musicians in a kitchen playing around.

It's grown into something that's just massive.

I mean, there's 150 acts from all over the country, six stages, 450 musicians.

It's three days long down at Jacome Plaza.

And it's continuously evolving, which I think is really cool.

It's not set in stone.

So I think, you know, just knowing or hearing about what you're saying about the, you know, this global poll that Tucson has to bring talent from international and then our local scene is very strong.

I think the the Folk Fest does a good job of blending the two and give folks a lot of opportun for entry.

There's a songwriting competition.

There's this year, Tucson Meet Yourself is hosting a Smithsonian funded traveling exhibit called We Hold These Truths.

And we're also partnering with Agave Heritage Spirit of Sonora to do a festival night on Friday night.

So I think that spirit of Tucson is reflected in the Folk Fest.

So I think regardless of the type of music it is, it's a true community effort.

Well, you know, there is a lot going on in the world right now that's also impacting locally.

The Iranian national soccer team was scheduled to train here for the World Cup.

That's not happening.

We had a Mexican baseball league team here in Tucson that actually didn't play a home game last year and are not coming back because of visa issues.

So those are some of the kind of the sports things that are going on right now.

But Thatcher, you did some reporting on some stuff that also affects different arts and culture.

You did a piece on Carnival.

And one of the concerns about that this year was some of the people may be reticent for coming out and wanting to celebrate because of all of the ICE and immigration stuff that was going on.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, I think it's really interesting to look at the Brazilian community.

Mostly, there's like a group chat of about 150 Brazilians that have either lived in Tucson or that currently live here.

And there's a kind of a non-U of A related Carnival that they try to put up at Zerai's on Broadway, which is a really nice venue.

And it's the second year that the community is really trying to have this happen.

And essentially bring the community that doesn't want to go back to Brazil or cannot go back to Brazil and try to return.

And this year, it was really interesting to try to talk to people and have that hesitancy.

And I said, well, what are your fears?

And they said, this question kept coming up.

What is the risk?

You know, what what do I have to essentially give up to go there and express myself?

And those types of questions were not happening five years ago in Tucson.

Kevin, are you seeing that kind of response from artists come and respond to what's happening in the world in their work as well?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, now more than ever, it's you know, that creative expression is needed.

So, you know, I think, you know, part of our role as, you know, artists and facilitators and creating spaces for that art to exist and, you know, and be amplified and not be, you know, silent.

So I think that's a very important conversation to have right now.

And I think as you know, the geopolitical field is one thing, but like what we can do and show up for each other on a local level is is the first step.

Cathy, you know, arts, theater, cultural events.

They're all very important in any community.

But this is important right now as a backdrop for the world, don't you think?

Absolutely.

I've talked to a number of musicians who one of the first things they want to tell people is we-- music unites and you have to you know, when you get together as a community and you perform together or you listen to music, it is.

It's the universal language.

And at this time, we need this more than anything.

There's an event happening at Dave's Place at La Rosa on Sunday.

And it's called Song Church.

And it is a local singer songwriter who that is her whole her philosophy is.

I want to get people together and I want them to sing because there's so much going on in the world and so much negative, perceived negative stuff going on in the world that this is an opportunity to walk through the doors and forget everything and just sing.

And that the whole thing came out about that.

I mean, we decided these are things we needed.

And Gabrielle Pietrangelo, who's leading this, is like, we need to start warmth and love and communion and all the things we're trying to do, because speak going back to the we've also had many Latin artists, especially coming out of Califor who are very diffident about performing because of what's happened in California.

They're afraid to go to the venue.

If they get if they feel OK, the audience then is thinking, are there going to be ICE agents waiting for us at the doors?

And it's been a great conversation in our industry and how we protect the artists and guests coming to these shows.

And it's a layer of-of complication that we've never even had before.

And another impactful negative to the business of a very difficult business of the arts.

So that's one that's one critical thing we've been seeing right now.

How are you having those conversations with those artists and ensuring that, yeah, it's OK to come here?

- Yeah.

Well, the first thing we say is so far Tucson's been pretty good.

And I think a lot of it is there's an impression that Tucson is sort of a a safe place right now for artists.

And it has shown to be.

So that's really what we're leaning our head--hat on.

And then however we can do operationally to protect them and the guests, because we can't do much outside our doors where the guests come to get a ticket and go to the see the show.

There's not much we can do.

So we just try to present ourselves and make it make it make ourselves and the Tucson community at large feel like a safe place to be.

And so far, we're OK.

But boy, the clouds are always on the horizon on this.

You know, to really understand, I think arts and culture, you have to experience it.

You have to go out and actually do some of it.

And, you know, a lot of folks in southern Arizona have gone and seen what's happening here in Tucson and have really talked about it.

But I want to talk a little bit about some of the scenes here specifically in Tucson.

Kevin, I know one of the things your organization really is pushing for is getting art into some unconventional places, making things accessible to folks like at the Tucson Mall.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Art State Arizona just underwent a major transformation from SAACA to Art State Arizona, the Southern Arizona Arts and Culture Alliance.

So and part of this was, you know, reflected in our mission of just trying to make arts essential to everyday life.

Every study shows it, you know, regarding school education, what the benefits of art does.

Every study every study shows it with isolation with some of our aging populations.

So we see it a lot in our work and a lot of the collaborations and across the community with arts and wellness.

The Southern Arizona VA has an incredible arts program and that really uses art as a healing tool for veterans.

We see it in the retirement communities and creative aging communities.

We see it.

We have partnerships with some businesses like Roche Tissue Diagnostics where their employees get involved in the arts and then they are the artists on the wall.

So and then, of course, with arts education, you know, we partner with lots of, especially our Catalyst Space in the Tucson Mall, a ton of different nonprofits that are working to increase access to the arts from a very young age.

So, you know, I think there's a lot of challenges with all the funding cuts for the arts and schools and, you know, just public funding streams in general, which I know we'll probably get into a little bit.

But, you know, we really see the future and, you know, as an arts integrated future where it's part of your life and you have that room to be creative and it just reflects everywhere.

And economically, spiritually, financially, it's, you know, it really hits on all levels when you when you make it a priority.

Cathy, you talked a little bit about the music scene here just in general.

Since everything's kind of been going on, what has the attendance been like at some of the events?

Well, you know, it's interesting because pre-COVID audiences were pretty robust, yeah, pretty reliable.

Then during COVID and a lot of arts organizations switched to streaming.

And so the challenge then became once they got back post-COVID, how do you get those audiences back, especially the older audiences, which are key to a lot of the culture arts, the symphony and opera and a lot of theater as well.

You know, when they consider home and they can pay the same amount of money and stream it and they're not coming out because there's still a little reticent.

But that being said, the audiences are starting to come back.

You know, we are seeing we're seeing a lot of concerts, not necessarily selling out, but filling up.

And what's really interesting is that one of the tactics to do that has been changing the mindset.

So like we have True Concord Voices and Orchestra.

They no longer do night shows.

They only do afternoon matinees, you know, and the Arizona Opera had done that.

They they were financially strapped.

So they cut their season to just in Tucson to just one performance.

And it was a Saturday matinee.

Those performances sold out.

Every single one of them did.

Thatcher, let's talk a little bit about the University of Arizona and students in general being exposed to the arts.

Where are they getting that exposure?

What kind of events are they looking at?

Well, yeah, I mean, even speaking as a you know, an alum, I think the biggest thing is to look at in all of the kind of the passage spaces of the hallways and each of these buildings.

What are the flyers that people are putting up?

I think actually the kind of the visual signs and graphics do get people's attention.

That's how I usually get to see a lot of the arts here on campus.

But even just like looking at the events that are coming up for just one example, the Spanish and Portuguese department is putting together a Festa Junina for the Brazilian community just in a couple of weeks.

But again, that is usually celebrated in June.

But knowing that the students won't be here during the summer, they've, you know, thought, OK, what's the time right before their finals where we can actually get people together and actually have it here at the Modern Languages building?

One of the things that Kevin, you brought up was the the food scene in this area.

Talk a little bit about that.

And then maybe, David, how does that fit within the music scene?

Yeah, I mean, the food scene here, everyone knows who's been to Tucson, it is incredible.

And it's it's a treasure.

I mean, the amount of restaurant and culinary events in town are just are just amazing.

I mean, the Agave Heritage Spirit of Sonora Festival, you know, the was the one I'm thinking of.

Savor, it's our festival.

We have a lot of festivals-- at the Botanical Gardens.

So, you know, there's just a lot to celebrate and there's a lot to invest in with, you know, with food being a UNESCO city of gastronomy.

Why, you know, how can we instill that into every student that comes out of school that they live in this place where these traditions are 10,000 years old?

You know, so I think part of it is tapping into our collective identity and really digging into the history and, you know, respect and planning for a future like, how do we keep this lineage?

We live in a very special place.

The corn has been grown here for a long time.

So, you know, I think, you know, it's just a simple matter of celebrating and investing in it.

And, you know, really cherishing our culinary scene as part of the bigger arts community.

OK, pun intended, David, how does that pair with music?

Can't think of a quick pun back at you.

Well, it's easy mix, especially culturally so when we have these great Latin events.

And we were part of putting the Agave Heritage Festival together.

And that was a natural for us.

And we did music, but we also realized that the Agave plant was essential and the music that comes from that.

And we have so much wonderful regional music and the food scene is just integrated.

They're easy mix.

I mean, that's that bottom line.

It's an easy combination, especially when you're speaking about of the place, of the Tuat Tehuat of Tucson.

One of the things that we can't avoid is the fact that it is harder and harder to find funding for this kind of, you know, event and culture.

Cathy, how has it been kind of from a fundraising standpoint for some of the arts organizations around town?

You know, I think a lot of them are really going back at their consistent and reliable donors.

You know, the cuts to the federal funding, I think we're just going to see how that's going to really impact come, you know, this season because those happened abruptly.

And, you know, frankly, a lot of the arts organizations that were hit by that when Trump when the Trump administrat pulled that funding, the NEA and the NEI funding or NEH funding, a lot of them had already spent the money.

So they weren't returning a dime, you know, and they were thankful for that.

But going forward, you know, it's going to hurt all of them.

But I think that they're they have a little bit of a cushion to to try and fill the blanks with that.

And like I said, I mean, a lot of people, a lot of arts organizations are thinking how do we operate more efficiently and get more of our audience slash donors back to the halls, back to being active participants.

And that's where, you know, I think it's really it's it's invigorating a lot of conversations.

And I'm sure you guys over in Oro Valley are having a lot of conversations.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, the conversation of arts funding, I think, has has been a problem for a long time.

I mean, the the newest cuts are, you know, a latest iteration.

But in southern Arizona, I mean, we are one of the lowest in the country.

I think Arizona in general is 48th lowest in the country for publicly funded arts.

So a lot of people are surprised and say I meet so many artists in Tucson.

We don't have arts funding on the city level, a permanent funding stream.

We don't have arts funding on the county level or the state level.

Now the federal level, you know, is a little bit wishy washy.

So, you know, we we just need to invest in the arts.

You know, it's if we want a stronger arts community, we want not everyone to rely on that one or two donors.

We really need to collectively fund it.

Yeah, David, how are people staying creative?

Well, that's that's exactly it.

I mean, I'm dealing with a lot of organizations right now.

And I think to your point, since they've always been pretty lean and smart because to be an arts organization, you kind of had to be in Tucson.

And so I've watched as they're looking at alternatives and they're saying we just have to be creative.

We have to present something better to the audience just to keep inspiring.

We've for example, my my venue, which is an old church, I've had an opera in there.

I'm having this other as a women's chorus.

And they're thinking about all different ways to different uses from venues to inspire the audiences.

So it just inspires creativity.

And that's and that's what I'm seeing so far.

It's been pretty good.

And I'm hopeful that they continue to do that.

These organizations will have to do that.

But that's what we're seeing.

So Thatcher and you're reporting what are you seeing out there with some of the the events and things that you've been at?

Yeah, I just think it's interesting to kind of look at the economic fallout.

Like if we look, for example, I did a story on the on the Michelin guide looking at the Southwest for a possible distinction and that they're going to be sending guides throughout the next year.

It was unclear, though, if they were going to come to Tucson or just Phoenix.

But that kind of brought some excitement and then going to some of the restaurants and seeing some of that food scene here brought that conversation back.

But again, what is the kind of money that's lost for us pitching Tucson to them?

Right.

And then also looking at when Regina Romero sent us a statement about the Iranian national team not training, you know, what is the economic fallout of that?

It will.

If another team does fill in, does that still--will it be in the kind of the same bracket as as if they hadn't come?

So just a lot of those questions have really impacted kind of what is the future of Tucson going to look like this year?

Some great conversation right now.

This is the time where we open up to our viewers who we ask for questions.

If you have a question, you can always send it to AZPM dot org slash press room.

You can also post it on our YouTube channel.

This was question actually comes from conversations I've had out and about with various people.

And the question is, a lot of big name acts in terms of music and shows love going to Phoenix.

How can Tucson get more of those folks stopping here locally?

I open it up, get a bigger venue.

We don't have a venue that is that is going to accommodate a Taylor Swift.

You know, we have a 9000 seat, you know, arena, the Tucson arena.

We have 5000 seats at the Ava.

No one will let us use the stadium, which would be the perfect venue.

But no one's using that.

We're not using McKale.

Those are our big spaces.

Those are our big footprints.

And we're not being able to use those.

So that's why we're not getting those big names.

David, would you echo that?

I work in the next Tier down.

OK.

And I and our argument when we put this venue together was we have to do something special.

And it and we've seen great success and we get now pulling things out of Phoenix because the experience at our place is terrific.

We have such good operators at the Fox, Rialto and Hotel Congress.

Sometimes you need to just shake them up a bit to look at Tucson again.

I've had so many conversations.

In fact, we're heading out to Los Angeles again to see all the agents because they're very excited about it.

And it doesn't just help us.

It's helping all the other venues just by doing a different experience.

This is the under thousand person thing.

I agree with you all the way, Cathy.

We need much bigger.

But in the meantime, we just have to be creative and give an experience.

Kevin, 10 seconds.

What you got?

I've met a couple of folks that drive down to Tucson and say this act doesn't come up there and it's more on those mid to small level acts.

There's something magical in the local scene here that nurtures that.

So I'll I agree with Cathy on having a big performance spot to play at.

But we have something special and it's definitely our signature is a smaller.

Yep.

Acts are coming here.

All right.

Kevin Larkin, David Slutes, Cathy Burch, AZPM's Thatcher Warrick Hess.

Thank you all for having this conversation today.

I really appreciate it.

And thank you at home for listening and watching.

I'm David Lee.

This is The Press Room.

We'll see you next week.