Picturing Arizona: Celebrating Early Arizona Women Artists, Writers, Photographers, and Songsters

Artistry in its many forms makes us think, sing, dance, and enjoy the wonders of our surroundings. The arts also allow us to document the lives of our ancestors and learn from the past. Some of the finest early Arizona artists were women who wrote, painted, photographed, and vocalized the magnificence and history of their communities and their circumstances. Painters provided visual images, while writers pictured the west with their prose and poetry. Singing voices soared above the highest mountains, and photographers imprinted vivid pictures that made the landscape stand still before being swept away by time. This presentation celebrates women who tendered these creative legacies, leaving reminders of our past for future generations to enjoy and reflect.

Jan Cleere is an award-winning author, historian, and lecturer who writes extensively about the desert southwest, particularly the people who first settled the territory. She is a magna cum laude graduate of ASU West with a degree is American Studies, and the author of five historical nonfiction books about the people who first ventured west. She lectures around the state on early pioneers who were instrumental in colonizing and civilizing Arizona Territory. Jan writes a monthly column for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star, “Western Women,” detailing the lives of some of Arizona’s early amazing women. Her freelance work appears in national and regional publications.