Time Travelers: Foundations, Transformations, and Expansions at the Centennial

In 2024, the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) celebrates 100 years since its founding. The museum marks this milestone of exhibitions, collections, and programs by looking at the relationship of art to time in Time Travelers: Foundations, Transformations, and Expansions at the Centennial. This exhibition presents original contexts and offers new interpretations of significant artworks collected by the museum over the past century, reconsidering their complex relationships to the past, present, and future.​​

This exhibition is organized by three guiding concepts: Foundations, Transformations, and Expansions. “Foundations” includes early and significant acquisitions that formed the core of the museum’s collection, as well as works in which artists look in hindsight to historical precedents. “Transformations” features works that reveal an evolving relevance in the collection. “Expansions” presents new narratives, voices, and perspectives. A series of related interpretative materials and programming will be planned to examine these ideas and artworks.

The TMA centennial is a time to celebrate the museum’s growth, reaffirm the institution’s goals and values, and reflect on its role in Southern Arizona. Committed to inclusion and equity, TMA now approaches its collection in closer dialogue with local communities and partners. It is a site of contemporary intersections of artworks that have multiple connections to many eras and interpretations. Time Travelers continues these efforts by fostering new relationships with the museum’s collections and audiences, linking its history with the region, and creating opportunities for conversations about and between artworks across time.

Credit: Overview from museum website