Event Details

January 5th, 2003

Contact: Blanca Villalobos, Coordinator and Conservator of the exhibit, 520-744-6042

Tucson hosts the only U.S. show Cultural Exchange to Highlight Artistic Homage to Father Kino

Tucson hosts only U.S. show Cultural Exchange to Highlight Artistic Homage to Father KinoThe exhibit features the work of 33 artists, eleven each from Italy, Mexico, and the United States. The “Homage to Father Kino” consists of 60 pieces made up of paintings, engravings, photographs, ceramics, sculptures and mosaics.  The exhibit will be enhanced with a group of Father Kino artifacts on loan from the Special Collections Department of the University of Arizona Library and the Arizona State Museum.

In April 2001, a social occasion and exchange of ideas in Caborca, Sonora, Mexico, led to the formation of an artistic cultural exchange involving artists from Trento, Italy, Sonora, Mexico and the United States.   Ideas quickly became reality and the exhibit was launched in August 2002 in Segno, Trento, Italy, birthplace of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino.  Father Kino’s contribution to the history of Southern Arizona and the legacy of the Missions he constructed here are reflected in Tucson being selected as the only stop for the exhibit in the United States.
The site for the exhibit is the Charles O. Brown House, originally a pioneer Tucson home, and now a historic landmark in Downtown Tucson.  The property is owned by the State of Arizona and the Arizona Historical Society and is operated and maintained by El Centro Cultural de las Americas, a Hispanic cultural center.  The exhibit is sponsored in part by Rio Nuevo, the City of Tucson’s project to revitalize Downtown Tucson.