Another Tucson mural is about to be recognized. This time will celebrate the history of the Mission Garden site, originally the Tohono O’odham village known as Cuk Son, or the birthplace of Tucson. A commemoration will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. at Mission Garden on Saturday, April 13.
The artists who created the murals, Maxie Adler and Tohono O’odham registered member Paul “Nox” Pablo, will be available to discuss their work. Members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse, who had a hand in the design and execution of the mural, will also be present.
The new mural sits at the foot of Sentinel Peak and depicts images of nature inspired by what is found in and around Mission Garden.
“The youth artists came here for a tour and based on what they saw during their visit, they worked with the artists to create the images that you see now on this two-sided mural,” Alyce Sadongei, executive director of Mission Garden, said. “At least one of the images has to do with rain, water, depicted in a Tohono O’odtham ceremony. It has to do with the squash that’s planted here that’s important to the Tohono O'odham. It also depicts animal life, in particular a roadrunner. There’s a family that lives here.”
The project is actually the pet of the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area’s heritage mural program. The organization was designated by Congress to “honor and celebrate the region’s contributions to America’s history while also stimulating heritage-based economic development and geo-tourism,” according to the organization’s statement. To that end, SCVNHA approached Mission Garden and the project moved forward. Funds had to be raised and that took some more time.
“Originally we commissioned a mural that we wanted to paint at Mission Garden,” Lesley Kontowicz, executive director of SCVNHA, said. “Then it turned out we were not able to paint on any of the walls or structures that were on site. At that point, it wasn’t in our budget to build a wall. It was in our budget to hire a muralist and paint a mural.”
It was during the pandemic and the cost of building materials was beginning to skyrocket. Then, Kontowicz saw something on the news and a lightbulb turned on.
“I saw a story about Ward 6 in Tucson and how they had done this pilot project with a company called ByFusion that makes recycled plastic blocks and I thought that’s pretty cool,” she said.
“That’s important because it speaks to a sustainable, ingenious kind of use of a practice that certainly supports our work (at Mission Garden),” Sadongei added.
Mission Garden began a fundraising campaign to raise the money for the 175 blocks that make up the wall. The next step was actually constructing it. Made from blocks of recycled plastic — nearly 6 tons of it — the wall stands at 72 feet by 6 feet. If a visitor looks at the end caps, the recycled plastic is visible. It’s easy to see what’s been squashed down to create a block.
Once volunteers constructed the wall, the two professional muralists came aboard, one for each side of the wall, and the student interns helped.
Sadongei would love for the mural to make visitors out of observers.
“I hope it attracts people to come inside and see the garden based on these images that the students were inspired to create with the artists,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kontowicz takes the long view.
“I like to think of murals as modern day pictographs,” she said. “We’re all about our heritage, right? What was here before us? What’s going to be left when we are gone? I like to imagine that maybe hundreds of years from now somebody will maybe come upon one of these pieces of art and learn something about our culture.”
Mission Garden Mural Commemoration
WHEN: 9 to 11 a.m., Saturday, April 13
WHERE: Mission Garden, 946 W. Mission Lane, Tucson
COST: Free admission
INFO: www.missiongarden.org
