GETAWAY
Art Town
Tubac, Arizona's oldest European settlement, has gone from a ghost town to a world-class art destination.
By David A. Fryxell
Photos by Lisa D. Fryxell
The next time you meet someone from San Francisco, just for fun, ask them how they like being a suburb of Tubac, Arizona.
This little village, some 40 miles south of Tucson right off I-19, holds many claims to fame. It was the first town in present-day Arizona established by Europeans, with a mission built in 1691 and a presidio in 1752. Arizona's first newspaper, the Weekly Arizonan, was published in Tubac on March 3, 1859. Tubac Presidio State Historic Park was Arizona's first state park, created in 1958 to preserve what remains of the Spanish fort built to protect the mission after the area's Pima Indians revolted. And more recently, this town of some 1,200 people has become one of the Southwest's leading art destinations–surpassing, locals say, the well-known art scene in Taos.
 |
The view from Shelby's Restaurant. |
But it's the San Francisco connection that may surprise you the most if you make Tubac your own day-trip destination and include the historic Presidio in your tour. There you'll learn about soldier and explorer Captain Juan Bautista de Anza II, who commanded the Spanish garrison from 1760 to 1776. When the Russians planted an outpost at Fort Ross, north of San Francisco, the Spanish saw a threat to their sprawling New World empire and responded by sending de Anza to blaze an overland trail–parts of which are now a National Historic Trail–to California in 1774. De Anza succeeded in reaching the Pacific Coast, then returned to Tubac to mount a second expedition. This hardy band of some 300 soldiers and settlers left Tubac on Oct. 23, 1775. On June 29, 1776, two members of the de Anza expedition, Lt. José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palóu, founded Mission San Francisco de Asís and began the storied history of San Francisco.
Over the ensuing couple of centuries, even the most fervent Tubac boosters would agree that San Francisco has fared the better of the two settlements. Indeed, after the presidio was relocated to Tucson in 1776, Tubac began a long downhill slide–Apache raids, the Mexican War, citizens lured away by the California Gold Rush. The town–now a ghost town–enjoyed a brief revival with a pre-Civil War mining boom, when it grew to be Arizona's largest town by 1860. But the war took away Tubac's troops, leaving the town vulnerable to Apache raids. After silver was found near Tombstone and the railroad was routed to Tucson, Tubac became a backwater.
Tubac's current reincarnation as an artistic mecca began in 1948 with the arrival of artist Dale Nichols, a Nebraska painter who was also art editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Nichols established the Artists School in Tubac, which began to attract other artists and craftspeople. "There were three dirt roads where you could find 13 artists working," says Mary Helen Watson, who's worked here for 18 years and who opened her own Manos Gallery a year ago. The first Tubac Festival of the Arts was held in 1960, and the Tubac Center of the Arts opened in 1972.
Today's Tubac boom, however, owes as much to commerce as to art. Watson points to the promotional efforts of local real-estate developer Gary Brasher. "He placed ads in the Southwest Airlines magazine to get people to come to Tubac," she says. "When people come, they find there are not many places with this much local artwork and handmade things. I think there are more artists here than anyplace in the state except Scottsdale."
As rich as Tubac is in history, Manos Gallery and many of the other tonier shops are located in the recently built La Encantada retail development. Also relatively new are the Tubac Resort and golf course a couple of miles up the frontage road. And this fall La Encantada will break ground on an expansion that will double its retail space.
In fact, your first impression upon turning off the frontage road at the big "Tubac" sign is that this town–the oldest European settlement in Arizona, remember–is brand new. It feels a bit as though an upscale shopping mall has been plopped down in the middle of nowhere, between the (dry) Santa Cruz River and I-19, in the shadow of the craggy Santa Rita Mountains. Fountains burble. Butterflies flutter everywhere. Oranges dot the trees like gumdrops. Besides art galleries, this section of Tubac nearest the frontage road includes a deli/coffeeshop, a wine store and a kitchenware store, the charming and exceedingly well-stocked Tumacookery, which would fit right into Tucson's ritziest shopping plaza (also, coincidentally, called La Encantada).
"It's a miracle," acknowledges the woman behind the counter at Tumacookery, in a lilting British accent, anticipating the question: How does a place like this survive in a town this small? "A lot of the customers are second-home people with plenty of disposable income," she goes on. "We get people coming back from Mexico, too. And of course it's become an art destination."
Besides daytrippers from Tucson and those snapping up posh homes in Brasher's Tubac developments, the town also draws on the thriving nearby community of Green Valley, a retirement mecca. That's true not only of customers but of the artists here as well.
"This is a second career for me–I live in Tucson," says Wes Jernigan, a retired art and archaeology professor who's minding the store at Otero Gallery (5 Hesselbarth Lane, 520-398-8014, www.oterogallery.com), a co-op whose 20 member artists take shifts staffing the gallery. "Most of the members live in Green Valley. It's a nice group of people."
He'd been exhibiting in Tucson, he says, without much success. Then a fellow artist turned him on to Tubac; business in the village one-thousandth the size of metro Tucson has been much better.
Jernigan's works are prominently featured in the gallery, which, like almost every such space in Tubac, is large, airy and bright. He creates stylized silkscreen prints of wildlife, bold and graphic with a feel somewhere between Mata Ortiz pottery and Art Deco. He's been exhibiting here a little over six months, just long enough to learn, "Business in summer is dead here. Winter is when things sell."
It's obvious that things are picking up in Tubac with the shortening days, cooling days and arriving snowbirds. The calendar of events gets busier with the end of summer: October saw the annual Juan Buatista de Anza Days, and last month was "Tubac, an Art Experience." This month, Dec. 8 and 9, the annual Luminaria Nights–Fiesta de Navidad will continue a 22-year tradition of lining the streets with thousands of candles in paper bags. Early next year, Feb. 7-11 brings the Tubac Festival of the Arts, March 24-25 is the ArtWalk, and March 31 is the Tubac Jazz and Blues Festival.
Visitors may be coming in even greater numbers this season, inspired by a glowing Arizona Highways article about art and artists in Tubac. Photos from the November article along with works by the featured artists were recently on view at the Tubac Center for the Arts (9 Plaza Road, 520-398-2371, www.tubacarts.org), a handsome exhibit space and gift shop a block from the frontage road, on Plaza Road. The center hosts a holiday art market through Dec. 27; hours are Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sun., 1-4:30 p.m.
Plaza Road is the middle of three main east-west avenues along which Tubac's galleries and shops mostly cluster. Initial appearances, which suggest that La Encantada and a few nearby places might be all there is to Tubac, are deceiving: You can walk your feet off here. The main retail area is small enough, though, that you can explore it all without moving your car. The Presidio state park sits at almost the far eastern edge of town, between Plaza and Tubac roads. Just beyond it is St. Ann's Church, which stands on the foundation of the original Santa Gertrudis, built by de Anza.
Two B&Bs, the Tubac Country Inn (13 Burruel St., 520-398-3178) and Tubac Secret Garden Inn (13 Placita de Anza, 520-398-9371), sit just to the north of the Presidio and church; if you don't want to spring for the golf resort (1 Otero Road, 520-398-2211, www.tubacgolfresort.com), these are pretty much the only overnight options in Tubac itself. Other choices are available nearby in Green Valley (Inn at San Ignacio, 520-393-5700) and Amado (Rex Ranch, a 100-year-old "boutique resort," 520-398-2914). Or you can easily stay in Tucson and drive down to Tubac and back the same day; it's less than an hour's drive each way, even with the obligatory Border Patrol stop going north. (You'll notice that all the highway signs along I-19 between Tucson and Nogales are in kilometers–presumably a nod to our metric-using Neighbor to the South.)
Choices for places to eat are more plentiful and–like the shopping–often surprisingly upscale. The Border House Bistro, for example, serves "Southwest-American-Italian fusion cuisine" at 12 Plaza Road (520-398-8999). The Tubac Golf Resort recently opened a new restaurant, dos Silos (520-398-3737), serving Mexican food in stylish surroundings; it supplements the resort's The Stables restaurant. Melio's (2261 E. Frontage Road, 520-398-8494) came to Tubac 10 years ago after a decade of restaurateuring in Rome; it specializes in Italian food, of course. A bit less haute in its cuisine is the casual Old Tubac Inn Restaurant and Saloon (7 Plaza Road, 520-398-3161), serving ribs, burgers, steaks and Mexican food. Or you can venture just south of Tubac to Tumacacori, home of the Santa Cruz Chile & Spice Co., for Mexican food at Wisdom's Cafe (1931 E. Frontage Road, 520-398-2397), a 62-year-old local institution. Also south of the village, at the Plaza de Anza, but walkable, is the new Nob Hill restaurant (520-398-1010, nobhilltubac.com); if you visit on Thursday, check out the plaza's weekly farmers market, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (520-398-2506)
Besides Nob Hill, dos Silos and The Stables, when quizzed about local eateries, Mary Helen Watson of Manos Gallery mentions The Artist's Palette (40 Avenida Goya, 520-398-3333), also near Plaza de Anza, and her personal favorite, Shelby's. To get to Shelby's (19 Tubac Road, 520-398-8075), cut south from Tubac Road at Tortuga Books and cross the little blue-trimmed footbridge. You can dine out on the patio overlooking the greenery-swathed arroyo, sipping a glass of wine, eating a bowl of crab bisque or a wood-grilled pizza while watching butterflies and hummingbirds flit among the flowers.
By the time your tour of Tubac has reached the four corners of the village, you may find yourself wondering: Where are all the houses? Although residences do dot the village proper (look for the "Private" signs, meant to discourage shoppers from barging in), don't expect the retail space to give way on all sides to homes like a traditional downtown. Historic Tubac has overwhelmingly been given over to shopping, which is ideal for us visitors if perhaps a bit odd for residents. They live mostly in lush developments tucked into the nearby hills, such as The Sanctuary at the golf resort ("from the mid-$500s") or Morning Star Ranch ($350,000-$12 million), both Brasher developments.
Ultimately, though, it's the concentration of art galleries that makes Tubac stand out from every other chi-chi hangout for the well-to-do. The galleries are noteworthy not only in their number for such a small place–almost 40, depending on how you count–but for their generally high quality. Metalwork seems particularly prominent, at places such as Tubac Ironworks (14 Plaza Road, 520-398-2163) and Lee Blackwell Studio (18 Plaza Road, 520-398-2268). Tile art (Tile N Art Gallery, 24 Tubac Road, 520-398-8638) mixes with Mexican imports, and there are galleries devoted to fabric art from rugs to quilts.
But such places where art meets craft are liberally interspersed with fine-art galleries that wouldn't seem out of place on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. After lunching at Shelby's, for example, you can feast your eyes on the Karin Newby Gallery (19 Tubac Road, 520-398-9662, www.newbygallery.com), which features a wide variety of landscapes and abstracts plus a remarkable sculpture garden. Bigger than the sculpture gardens at many museums, it showcases works by artists including Bill Worrell (Giacometti-thin totemic figures), Liana York (large reclining animal sculptures and others), Mark White (magical wind-twisting kinetic pieces) and Gene and Rebecca Tobey (animals in various states of transformation). Nearby you'll find Purcell Galleries (19 Tubac Road, 520–398-1600), home to, among others, noted artist and workshop instructor Carl Purcell, author of Painting with Your Artist's Brain.
In the area near the village-entry sign, Rogoway's Turquoise Tortoise Gallery (5 Calle Baca, 520-398-2041, www.rogowaygalleries.com) features sophisticated contemporary works by such artists as Russ Vogt, Kim Yubeta and Doug Braithwaite (all spotlighted this month). Other notable galleries for fine art include: Feminine Mystique Art Gallery (4B Circulo Copa, 520-398-0473, www.FemaleArtGallery.com), which represents more than 80 artists, all of them women; The Red Door Gallery (10 Plaza Road, 520-398-3943, www.thereddoorgallery.com); C. Curry Studio & Gallery (4 Camino Otero, 520-398-3304); Big Horn Galleries (37 Tubac Road, 520-398-9209), with an emphasis on Western and Southwestern art.
Among the town's prominent studios are Carol St. John Studio (2 Calle Iglesia, 520-631.1196, www.carolstjohn.com), featured in Arizona Highways; Hal Empie Studio & Gallery (33 Tubac Road, 520-398.2811, www.halempiestudio-gallery.com), the gallery of an Arizona art legend who died in 2002; and Hugh Cabot Studios and Gallery (10 Calle Iglesia, 520-398-2721, www.hughcabot.com), featuring the official artist of the Korean War.
Watson's new Manos Gallery (4 Circulo de Copa, 520-398-8144, www.manosgallery.com) shows the work of 68 artists–"64 of them within an hour of the building," she says. They include abstract painter Pat Lambrecht-Hould, Tucson plein-air painter Judy Nakapi, watermedia and collage artist Patricia Vivian, and versatile Tucson painter Judy Bateman. "I have to love everything in my gallery and have a great relationship with each artist," Watson adds.
"Tubac is here because it was an historic place, with the Presidio," she goes on. "This is where art and history meet."
In the case of the cluster of buildings that includes her gallery, that's literally true: "Each building is named after a Spanish soldier," Watson explains, then chuckles. "Mine must have been a fun person, because I'm having a blast here.
For more information on Tubac, contact the Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 1866, Tubac, AZ 85646, (520) 398-2704) or see www.tubacaz.com. For information on visitibg Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, write PO Box 1296, Tubac, AZ 85646, call (520) 398-2252 or see www.azstateparks.com. The park is open year-round except Christmas Day, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $3, ages 7-13 $1, 6 and under free. The park includes an 1885 furnished schoolhouse, Otero Hall and Rojas House, all on the National Register of Historic Places, plus a museum and archaeological exhibits.
David A. Fryxell is editor of Desert Exposure.