Your Brain and Music: Can Music Make You Smarter, Happier, Healthier?

Many neuroscientists study music to elucidate mysteries of the brain. Why is music such a rich resource? Not only can scientists physically track the process of learning music as different areas of the brain light up, they can trace music’s powerful effect on our emotions, muscles and memory. The benefits of music span well beyond […]

Native Roads: A Virtual Guide to the Hopi and Navajo Nations

Bullion Plaza Cultural Center and Museum 1 Plaza Circle, Miami, AZ, United States

As editor of the third edition of Fran Kosik’s classic travel book, A Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations, Turner retraced her routes in January 2013, updating information on dozens of intriguing Native American trading posts, prehistoric ruins, museums, and natural wonders. Using the pictures taken on that trip, this presentation creates […]

Free

We Must Grow Our Own Artists: Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton

La Posada Hotel 303 E. Second St., Winslow, AZ, United States

Discover art educator Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton’s contributions to the progressive education movement and the American Indian arts and crafts movement. Artist, author, ethnographer, educator, and curator, these were but a few of the talents of Colton, co-founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona and early art advocate on the Colorado Plateau. Colton labored to increase […]

Free

Working in the Salt Mine: Native American Salt Procurement and Ritual in the Southwest

Red Rock State Park - AZ State Parks 4050 Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona, AZ, United States

Salt has been a valuable trade item throughout human history. Native American salt procurement in the Southwest involved dangerous journeys across sacred landscapes associated with the deity Salt Woman. This presentation focuses on the prehistory of a famous salt mine in what is now known as Camp Verde. In the 1920s, miners discovered prehistoric salt-mining […]

Father Kino: Journey to Discovery

Himmel Park Public Library 1035 N. Treat Avenue, Tucson, AZ, United States

Through his many diaries and letters it is obvious that Father Kino was more than a missionary who worked among the Native Americans. While his name is often associated with the San Xavier del Bac Mission, he was also a skilled mathematician and cartographer. He made more than 40 expeditions during his life while living […]

Free

Saving the Great American West: The Story of George Bird Grinnell

Copper Queen Library 6 Main St., Bisbee, AZ, United States

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes. Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.” Grinnell […]

Free
Recurring

81st Hopi Festival of Art and Culture

Museum of Northern Arizona 3101 North Fort Valley Road, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

The 81st Hopi Festival of Art and Culture presented by the Museum of Northern Arizona will feature humanities-based programming co-developed by the museum and Hopi tribal members. Through conversations, film screenings, performances, and storytelling, festival goers will engage with Hopi history, philosophy, and culture. This program is funded in part by Arizona Humanities.

Selling the Southwest: Fred Harvey and the Promotion of Native American Cultures

In partnership with the Santa Fe Railway, the Fred Harvey company vigorously promoted travel to the Southwest and was an early innovator of “cultural heritage tourism.” Travelers experienced an idealized version of the Southwest’s Native American cultures through the company’s grand hotels along the Santa Fe line, their Indian Department’s museum rooms and curio shops, […]

Free

Arts & Culture of Ancient Southern Arizona Hohokam Indians

Colossal Cave Mountain Park 16721 E. Old Spanish Trail, Vail, AZ, United States

The Hohokam archaeological culture flourished in southern Arizona as early as the sixth century. Hohokam artifacts, architecture, and other material culture provide clues allowing archaeologists to identify where the Hohokam lived, interpret how they adapted to the Sonoran Desert for centuries, and explain why their culture collapsed in the mid-1400s. This presentation illustrates Hohokam material […]

Free

The Instruments & Music of Arizona’s Pioneers: A Time Capsule Opened

Butterfly Lodge Museum SE Corner of St. Rt. #373 & Co. Rd. #1126, Greer, AZ, United States

The story of our state is not complete without music. This interactive program will focus on the various genres of music that reflect the milieu and personalities of Arizona’s diverse immigrants.  Using musical instruments and stories, audience members will be presented an artistic tableau of our past: heroes, villains, and the immigrants who passed through […]

Free

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