TUCSON, AZ.- Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block presents Divergence of Legacy: Art of the American West in the 21st Century (February 22- June 22, 2025). This exhibition, developed with eight community curators, explores how mythic, authentic, and nuanced cultural items, experiences, and artistic practices may work in dialogue with one another and offer contemporary understandings of the Western region and Tucson.

Using TMA’s collection with select loans from the Tia Collection in Santa Fe, the exhibition offers visitors opportunities for new understandings of Art of the American West, its significance to the past and present, and a broadening of social contexts and traditional conventions. With the inclusion of works of art created between the 1870s and 2024, this exhibition positions the major theme of defiance and reimagination as a necessity for survival and method for transforming and expanding the canon of art of the American West. Throughout the galleries, visitors will also encounter a secondary themes of erasure and technology which questions ideas of progress and manifest destiny.

In 2024, the museum was awarded a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to scale its approach to community-based curation with an in-depth exploration of the museum’s Art of the American West collection including the feature exhibition, a reinstallation of the collection gallery, a publication, and public programs. The team spearheading the exhibition includes Christine Brindza, Senior Curator and Glasser Curator of Art of the American West and Marianna Pegno, Director of Engagement and Inclusion, who said of the project, “Our investigations over several years have shown there is a need to amplify stories of the region that are not seen in traditional works of art of the American West. Through working with community curators, this exhibition explores how ideas can be expanded to include imagery and stories often overlooked. These have brought attention to the way we display and collect these types of art.”

Explaining how Divergence of Legacy was developed, artist and community curator Yu Yu Shiratori reflected, “curating works from the Tucson Museum of Art’s permanent collection to define art of the American West brought forth a compelling challenge: how do we encapsulate a narrative that is as fluid and evolving as the cultural and historical forces shaping this region?”

Related programming will explore themes and artworks through a variety of formats including a curator tour, a lecture by photographer Cara Romero, a panel discussion with artists and scholars, a speakeasy and film screening, and more!