Project Update

The meetings for SaludArte’s District Committees are nearly halfway completed with the Artists and Artist Teams selected for 4 out of 5 of Pima County’s Supervisory Districts. Within these meetings, community members who have no previous experience as art panelists, have the opportunity to learn about public art through the City of Tucson and Pima County’s public art collection, understand the responsibility and best practices when serving on an Artist selection panel and get to select the Artist or Artist Team that they feel can best translate their community’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SaludArte Community Committee members in Ajo were not satisfied with the slate of applicants that were presented at the first SaludArte meeting in District 3. Members of this committee expressed that during the pandemic years, construction of the border wall South of Ajo led to millions of dollars being funneled into the Ajo area without benefitting the Ajo community members and was later found to be the catalyst for the COVID-19 virus to enter this isolated community from the construction workers who were shipped into the area to work. The majority of the SaludArte Community Committee members in Ajo expressed that after viewing the grant applicants, it felt as if the trauma from the pandemic years was happening all over again since federal money was coming into the area without
benefiting the town, its people or the Ajo arts community.

The SaludArte team has heard the concerns of this unique committee and have decided to reopen the Call to Artists to give members of Ajo and surrounding communities an opportunity to apply. We will also do more work in providing resources and application help to Artists in Ajo who may be unfamiliar with the grant application process by offering virtual and in-person application clinics up until the deadline on Monday May 8th at 11:59 pm.

• District 1: Meetings 1 & 2 complete; artist selected
• District 2: Meetings 1 & 2 complete; artist selected
• District 3: CTA reopened, deadline May 8th
• District 4: Meetings 1 & 2 complete; artist selected
• District 5: Meetings 1 & 2 complete; artist selected