Best Friend to Local Arts

We said it in 1995's Best of Tucson, and we'll say it again: Joanne Stuhr, the conscientious, committed curator who was recently booted from the Tucson Museum of Art, deserves the title of Joanne of Art, restorer of the TMA. In her tenure of 13-plus years, Stuhr was the best thing the museum had going. During the sturm und drang of the Robert Yassin regime, Stuhr quietly and capably went about her work, curating wonderful shows: paintings by Mexican artist Roberto Marquéz, constructions by Harmony Hammond, a bed in a sea of snails by Joyan Saunders and superlative glass work by a whole platoon of international glass artists. She labored tirelessly to get local artists into the museum, initiating the Directions series, and she turned the Stevens House into a gemlike mini-museum showcasing the art of the Americas, now one of TMA's most popular attractions.