Art, food, culture: a FREE interactive art festival is happening this weekend 🖼

A new, immersive art festival is debuting in Tucson this weekend.

The Tucson Portrait Story Live Art Festival runs from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, March 12 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, located at 3800 E. River Road.

The event is free and open to the public. Plus, the first 50 people in line will receive a free art print.

The festival will showcase 60 Tucson-centric portraits of people, places and events created by local artist Lauri Kaye, who is also the organizer of the event.

“It's about seven years worth of creating these stories,” she said. “And the subjects range from vintage cars to social issues to artists, entrepreneurs, restaurants, musicians and students. … I tried to make it as diverse as possible. And so this is an opportunity to share those stories.”

From the minute you walk into the Tucson JCC, you’ll be surrounded by various forms of art.

One of the first exhibitors you'll see is the University of Arizona Poetry Center, with activities and a poet reciting live poetry.

The main hallway will feature tables from BOCA Tacos and Monsoon Chocolate, both of which will be providing food samples to attendees. Yes, Boca's Chef Maria Mazon will be there with her “psychedelic” salsas and chip samples, according to Kaye, who also created a portrait of Mazon.

Other exhibitors include the Sonoran Institute, Tucson Audubon Society and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which will have a live animal exhibit. Representatives from the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun will bring a couple original oil paintings and ceramics from Ted DeGrazia, too.

As you delve deeper into the Tucson JCC, you’ll find The Loft Cinema in the auditorium presenting an animated film that Kaye made of her portraits. They will also have popcorn samples!

“I just wanted to make it as interactive and fun as possible,” Kaye said. “So it's not your kind of old-school, looking at artwork, which, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. But I just wanted to really try to appeal to people who aren't into art. … So my hope is that no matter what age or interest you have, there's something that you can enjoy and relate to.”

And oh yeah, you can expect a quick appearance by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, too, who will say a few words at the festival. Romero is one of the portraits featured in Kaye’s Tucson Portrait Stories series.

So, what about these portraits?

Kaye started the Tucson Portrait Stories project several years ago after a chance encounter with the man who would inspire it all.

On a typical morning in 2015, Kaye was sitting in a downtown Tucson cafe working on a sketch — something she did every morning — when a man named Alberto approached her to show off his arm full of tattoos that he designed.

Alberto was homeless and had recently been released from prison.

The two sat and had coffee together for about an hour as Kaye carefully listened to his story.

“It was just an amazing experience spending time with him,” she said. “And I realized that there was such little difference between the two of us, except that I had been born not having to worry about having a roof over my head and food to eat. I asked if I could write down his story and take his picture and that I wanted to do a portrait of him. And I was like, ‘If I ever make any money from my artwork, I'm going to give you the money from this portrait.’”

Kaye finished the piece and kept it in her car for about a year as she drove around local parks to see if she could find Alberto to give him a copy of his portrait. She also checked if he had returned to prison, but no luck.

She eventually donated some of the funds she made from the portrait to The Primavera Foundation, which helps people find their way out of poverty.

“I just realized that if I kept talking to strangers and meeting people in our community, there was just so much to learn,” she said. “And so that was the inspiration for what became the series of Tucson Portrait Stories. Illuminating the people, places and events that make Tucson extraordinary.”

Since then, Kaye has created 60 portraits of all the things that make Tucson, well, Tucson. She spends around 40 hours creating each portrait. She also includes a short story about the subject with each portrait to add even more context to her work.

“Everyone we encounter has a story to tell that's worthwhile to listen to,” she said.

Kaye hopes to see different iterations of Tucson Portrait Stories in the future, like through TikTok and YouTube, for example. As for the festival, she wants to continue that, too, in hopes of tearing down the barrier between people having to pay to experience art.

Proceeds from the art sales at the festival will be donated to nonprofits Arts for All, The Primavera Foundation and Casa Maria Soup Kitchen.

“Life can be a total s—t show and for my own personal well-being, a large part of it is just constantly focusing on the good,” she said. “The goodness and the good people that are in our community. And there is so much good. So, it's really important for me to focus on that and I'm hoping that others see that our community is just really so great. And to focus on that rather than, you know, the negative stuff.”