Recently, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has been striving to work more with tribal communities, including the Tohono O’odham. During their recentIndigenous Arts Fair, they showcased artists from different tribal nations and artistic mediums.
The event took place on Saturday, Nov. 15.
During the arts fair, artists displayed and sold their work as well as demonstrating their processes.
Debbie Colodner, director of conservation education and science at the museum, said the arts fair is new, but this past spring, they featured indigenous artists on weekends from March through April.
“In the spring, we had just a few people spread out over many days. In the fall, we’re going to do this intensive one-day event with about 20 artists,” Colodner said.
Colodner said during the spring, they involved artists from nine different nations. These artists represented different mediums.
“We had everything from someone making clay figurines, to people who painted on wood, to potters, basket makers, jewelry makers, different materials for baskets, different reeds and plants, horsehair baskets… Watercolor is another one, shell jewelry, beadwork. There’s some who make ritual objects for ceremonies. Wood carving is another one and pottery,” Colodner said.
Artists applied to be part of the arts fair. Colodner said they were looking for work that fit with the museum’s focus on nature and conservation.
“We asked them to talk about how their work relates to the Sonoran Desert, both the natural and cultural heritage of the desert,” Colodner said.
The artists had the chance to discuss their processes and the materials they work with during the event.
“We asked them to talk about the materials they’re using, why they chose them, whether they have some significance because they’re from the desert or because they relate to the cultures of the Sonoran Desert… A lot of them talk about their motivation and how it ties to who they learned from, how it ties to their tradition, their culture, their family,” Colodner said.
Colodner said during the event, the artists have the opportunity to talk about their cultures.
“We wanted the chance for our guests to talk to people who represent cultures that have lived here for millennia. To have some of that cultural exchange, it’s just as important as the sale of the items. We did a survey of the artists who participated last spring. We asked ‘what aspects were most important to you?’ The top two were ‘opportunity to share my culture’ and ‘opportunity to demonstrate my work,’” Colodner said.
At the event, attendees were able to see murals in process by Dwayne Manuel and his students from Tohono O’odham Community College. They are developing these works for an upcoming streamside play exhibit called “Spadefoot Splash” exhibit, which will be opening later in the spring of 2026.
These pieces explore aquatic organisms of the Sonoran Desert in an interactive and educational way.
“The museum is trying to deepen our relationships with our local indigenous nations, and we are incorporating art into some of our new exhibits,” Colodner said.
The museum recently hired a Tohono O’odham agriculture expert within their food conservation program, who will be helping them to look at precursors to desert foods.
They are also working with a group who is helping them to revise their signage.
“We have signage at the museum that was developed probably in the 1980s, that talks about the history of cultures here but didn’t have a lot of input from local indigenous educators. So, we’re going through a process of revising those exhibits and signs,” Colodner said.
The museum is collaborating with the Tohono O’odham Community College and the Tohono O’odham Nation Department of Natural Resources on the Tohono O’odham Conservation Collaborative.
“It’s focused on developing a pipeline of young people interested in conservation careers, with training to enter conservation careers,” Colodner said.
Colodner said the museum began to work more with indigenous community members when they were developing an interpretative plan, which was centered around bringing the grounds to life for guests.
These talks led them to start highlighting more indigenous artists at the museum.
“A lot of what we heard was that artists really want a place to sell and promote their work. They want more places that are available,” Colodner said.
At the arts fair, some of the artists had family members who were also displaying their work. Colodner said a number of participants brought their children, who are learning from them.
Many of the artists, including Maria Arvayo, took part in the spring events.
Arvayo, a painter and educator from Tucson, is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
She showed her work at the museum during two weekends in the spring. It was her first time working with the museum.
She said the museum had a relaxed atmosphere to display and sell her art.
“I was outside, which was really nice. It’s a really pretty place to be outside,” Arvayo said.
She works in different mediums, including oils, acrylic, watercolor, pastels and encaustic. She also does printmaking.
Recently, she has been developing a lot of monoprints and linocuts.
“For the season, it’s nice to have things that are affordable for people,” Arvayo said.
During the arts fair, Arvayo brought original pastel, watercolor and oil paintings, along with reproductions and smaller items such as cards.
She plans to work on watercolor paintings during the event.
Arvayo started doing art when she was a small child.
She has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and has been working on her art and teaching locally for about 20 years.
She teaches drawing and painting classes at the Drawing Studio and her own personal studio.
“I tell people in my classes, ‘It’s just practice.’ If you practice anything, you’ll get better at it, whether it’s a language, playing an instrument or cooking. When you first start, you’re not going to be very good. You gotta cook some rice a few times before it comes out the way you want it. It’s the same. It’s a skill,” Arvayo said.
Arvayo does around eight arts fair a year locally from October through April and has had pieces on display at the Amerind Museum and Tohono Chul.
This year, she participated in the Open Studio Tours Nov. 14 to 16 and will appear at the Made in Tucson Market on Nov. 30.
In her work, Arvayo often paints landscapes inspired by the Sonoran Desert and Southwest.
“It just comes naturally to me. I grew up in Tempe originally. I just really love the landscape, the plants and the way the light hits the landscape. It’s always drawn my interest,” Arvayo said.
She likes to go to places such as Saguaro National Park East to be inspired.
She prefers to do plein air painting when she can.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s Indigenous Arts Fair featured work by artists such as Joanna Robles. (Joanna Robles/Submitted)
“It’s really peaceful. It’s a nice opportunity to sit outside and work. The light changes pretty quickly. You don’t have a ton of time, so you’ve got to just plop down and do it. It can be a meditative practice. You have to just get into it and do the best you can,” Arvayo said. “I like going out in late afternoon, when the light gets really interesting…If there’s clouds, you get a lot of really nice colors in the sky. I always get happy when there’s clouds, even if they’re just little puffy ones.”
Recently, she has been working on a series of works depicting Native American people in a contemporary way.
“It’s portraits of contemporary indigenous people, what indigenous people actually look like. They don’t generally wear feathers in their hair…They look like everybody else,” Arvayo said. “Part of the reason that I started that series was most portrayals of Native Americans are very stereotypical. Once you take away all of the buckskin and the feathers, the folks don’t look that much different from everybody else.”