Best Patron of the Arts

Roll the end credits-look at the listings of donors toward the back of any major Tucson arts organization's programs, and you'll invariably find two names: Café Terra Cotta and its co-owner, Don Luria. This credit is easy, not like trying to figure out what a gaffer or best boy may be; Luria is, quite simply, one of Tucson's steadiest patrons of the arts. In terms of raw money, Café Terra Cotta habitually gives between $5,000 and $9,999 per year to Arizona Opera and Arizona Theatre Company. The restaurant has funneled something between $50,000 and $99,000 to the Tucson Symphony over the years, and Luria and partner Donna Nordin have made individual donations to the orchestra of between $10,000 and $25,000 since 1993. You'll find Luria's name linked to lots of other charities, too. But he's more than a signature on a check; Luria sits on the Tucson Symphony Orchestra advisory board, and last year, as new president of the Tucson Museum of Art board of directors, one of his first tasks was to clean up after the controversially precipitous firing of curator Joanne Stuhr. You've got to give him credit for that.

Runner up:

2. Dan Leach