With 180 local artists to choose from, the director of the Tucson Museum of Art’s Fall Artisan Market is sure everyone who attends will find something they love.
The event, which includes jewelry, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and pottery, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Nov. 22-23, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24. The museum is located at 140 N. Main Ave.
“Anybody’s going to come out and find something that they are going to fall in love with. There is a little bit of something for everybody,” said Justin Germain, who has been director of the artisan market since 2018. “You are actually going to meet the people who make the items and that makes it more special.”
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Germain’s predecessor, John McNulty, started the TMA Artisan Market as a way to showcase the museum store. Over time it started to grow and expand as more vendors started to join. This is the 43rd event.
One regular artist is Adam Homan, a local sculptor who has been a vendor at the TMA Artisan Market about 20 times throughout the years. He will be back this year.
Homan said he first started creating metal sculptures back in 1994. It was a deviation from his first career as a teacher at Booth-Fickett Middle School. Homan, who has his degree in English and creative writing from the University of Arizona, taught for a year before choosing to pursue art.
“I started playing with metalwork and it became a natural fit,” Homan said.
From there, Homan said, he started showing in art galleries and then did the TMA Art Show.
“I have a sort of nostalgic memory of doing these shows at the beginning and it sort of led me to bigger things,” he said.
Homan will have a wide variety of art pieces that he will be selling at the TMA Fall Artisan Market.
“I’ll do a lot of lower-end little creatures, aliens and things like that. Then I’ll bring the big stuff to Self-Made Women and outdoor pieces,” he said. “I have big, large dragons. I have a large woman shooting an arrow that’s really cool called Focused.”
Homan said supporting local artists at events like this is important.
“I think that’s a way Tucson can show up for the arts community. And then supporting the Tucson Museum of Art is big too. They’re just a good organization and they do a lot for the Tucson arts community,” Homan said.
Germain said that during the three days of the event, there will be no admission for the museum so attendees will be able to see the galleries as well.
In addition to the fall market, TMA also hosts a spring artisan market. For more information, visit tucsonmuseumofart.org.
The Tucson Museum of Art at 140 N. Main Ave. officially turned 100 on March 20, 2024. It celebrated with a gala earlier this year and opened a new exhibition called: Time Travelers: Foundations, Transformations, and Expansions at the Centennial that honors art collected by the museum over the last 100 years.
Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
