Arts and Culture

Community arts news, in brief 1.24.20

Bonnie Schock has been selected as the new executive director of the Fox Tucson Theatre, beginning March 9. Schock comes to Tucson from Red Wing, Minnesota, where she has been executive director of the Sheldon Theatre of Performing Arts since 2015. Along with a Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota, she has multiple fellowships and boasts three decades of experience in the theatre arts and entertainment industry. The Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation selected Schock following a national search to fill the position left vacant by longtime Executive Director Craig Sumberg.

Tucson Museum of Art opened the Alice Chaiten Baker Center for Art Education on Jan. 12. The renovated center includes the Stonewall Foundation Community Room, classrooms, conference rooms and a reference library. Alice and Paul Baker, long time museum benefactors, made a $1.5 million gift to support art education at the museum. The gift supports the renovation of the education center and establishes a fund for long-term financial sustainability. The donors also intend to gift their substantial collection of pre-Columbian and Latin American art. For more information, visit www.tucsonmuseumofart.org.

Daniel Asia, composer and professor of music at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, was nominated by President Donald Trump to be a member of the National Council on the Arts through Sept. 3, 2024. The nomination was brought to the Senate floor Jan. 6.

Craig Sumberg, former executive director of the Fox Tucson Theatre, recently was appointed executive director of the South Orange Performing Arts Center in New Jersey.

Sonoran Glass School is among 60 artists, arts organizations and administrators, businesses, and philanthropists from across Arizona nominated for 2020 Governor’s Arts Awards, presented in partnership with the Arizona Citizens for the Arts. Finalists will be announced in February at special events in Phoenix, Prescott, Tucson, Yuma, and Winslow. Winners will be announced March 26 at the Mesa Arts Center. For more information about the awards, visit www.azcitizensforthearts.org. For more on the Sonoran Glass School, visit www.sonoranglass.org.