From August 20 to 22, the Tucson community is invited to participate in a series of activities designed to spark conversation and exchange ideas about Udall Park’s new inclusive playground while creating opportunities to make, enjoy, learn, and connect. Community input will help inspire the public artwork by artist Sasha Primo, created in collaboration with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona and the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department. The playground is scheduled to open in 2027.
Latin American artist Sasha Primo will make a special visit to Tucson to lead a series of community activities that bring people together through creativity, learning, play, and shared experiences. The conversations and cultural exchange generated through these activities will inspire the public artwork Primo is creating for the city’s new inclusive playground at Morris K. Udall Park, in collaboration with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona and the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department. The playground is scheduled to open in 2027.
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“I’m truly excited to work on this project. Thinking about public art through the lens of inclusion is both a great challenge and something that deeply inspires me. There are so many dimensions to explore, from interaction, learning, and play to the way people experience a space. I hope to create an artwork that invites people to gather, play, and connect, while celebrating Tucson’s identity and helping us learn more about the nature that surrounds us,” the artist shares.
Activities
- Thursday, August 20: The artist invites elementary students in the KIDCO program at Bloom Elementary to participate in a drawing and storytelling workshop. This event is not open to the public.
- Friday, August 21, from 8 to 10 a.m. (7202 E. Tanque Verde Rd., Tucson, AZ 85715): The artist will welcome the public at a special booth at the Friday Udall Park Farmers Market. The space will be open to the public for community participation through creative activities, including informal conversations and the collection of local stories, symbols, and ideas. Admission is free.
- Saturday, August 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (2021 N. Kinney Rd., Tucson, AZ 85743), the public is invited to take part in a unique workshop at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum as part of the Cool Summer Nights series. Throughout the evening, the installation will gradually evolve into a collective visual map of thoughts about the desert, shaped by the plants, animals, colors, textures, movements, stories, and memories shared by the community. General admission costs $29.95. Pima County residents with a valid Pima County Public Library card can check out free culture passes to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
All of these activities are intended to help the artist get to know the Tucson community as part of a project that has been in development since April: the creation of permanent public art for the newly designed inclusive playground at Morris K. Udall Park. The artworks are intended to strengthen the playground as a place of shared exploration, imagination, and belonging for children, families, and community members of all abilities.
Over the past 15 years, Sasha Primo has traveled throughout Latin America and the United States, producing more than 100 murals and placemaking projects in communities including Asunción Ixtaltepec (México), Santa Ana (Panamá), Escondido (California, USA), Toctiuco (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mexico City (Mexico), Oakland (California, USA), Marshalltown (Iowa, USA), and Hoytsville (Utah, USA), among others. Working with multicultural and diverse populations, Primo explores collective memory and symbolic identity. His projects create opportunities for people to come together, share stories, and build meaningful human connections.
About the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona
The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and funding agency with a mission to advance the artistic expression, civic participation, and equitable economic growth of our diverse communities. Through forward-thinking, accountable leadership, the Arts Foundation works to affect systemic change that fosters an accessible, diverse, inclusive, and equitable local arts community.
As the designated local arts agency, the Arts Foundation provides arts and cultural development across Southern Arizona for individual working artists, artist collectives, ensembles, and nonprofit organizations through grant programs, professional development opportunities, and public art management for the City of Tucson.
The work of the Arts Foundation is made possible through generous support from the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, the Arizona Community Foundation, and individual donors. Our service area includes all counties and native sovereign nations south of the Gila River, including 372 miles along the US-Mexico international border in the south and along the 590-mile stretch of the Gila River, which flows west from the New Mexico border to the Colorado River. Learn more at https://artsfoundtucson.org
About the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department
The City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department provides a variety of parks, recreation facilities, and program experiences equitably throughout the community, operating and maintaining parks, recreation centers, and swimming pools across the city. The department’s mission is to enrich the community through inclusive, innovative, fun programs and safe, beautiful, sustainable places.
