University of Arizona Museum of Art — Attraction in Tucson

I am not from Tucson, so I have no idea where things are. The lovely, sweet and intelligent girl of my dreams went to U of A and has lived here for several years. We both know how to use Google maps and other apps. We are also competent people. So, the ordeal we went through to find the UAMA and to park was baffling. Google got us close, but we had to drive around to find a parking space. When we did, we had to download an app to pay. The app did not work. It seemed malevolent in its refusal to take money from any of several sources. We gave up street parking and found a garage. The GOMD remembered to note the spot we were parked in. That task would have been a lot easier if there were some markings that were more specific than, “Level 1”. Once parked, we let Google guide our steps to the Museum. The walk mode on Google is not great and there was construction going on that made things difficult. We were right on top of the place when we finally found a sign that told us where to go. The museum itself is very nice. The woman at the front was very knowledgeable and helpful. We were warned to not touch anything and the GOMD was instructed to put her water bottle and purse in a locker before we were let loose to look at the art. We started on the second floor where the bathrooms are. The first thing you see is an interactive station where people can draw and get information about the exhibits. We are more art watchers than art makers, so we skipped that part and went into the pictures. The collection has a wide variety of styles, subjects and media. We saw modern art, medieval religious paintings, a few sculptures and indigenous art from several cultures. One of the paintings is a De Kooning that was stolen and lost for 32 years before being returned. The woman at the front desk can tell you the whole story. It’s fun to have a bit of drama in your museum. The whole experience took an hour and a half and was well worth the $8 price of admission (Free for U of A students, but not alumni like the GOMD). We were hungry after and stumbled on many options for lunch once we found our way out of the block containing the museum. Finding the parking garage was also...

I just spent the day here and...wow. There is so much to see that I will absolutely need to go back. I spent my time going through the Kress collection, but there were several other galleries that I made a dash through at the end of my time that looked equally amazing. The collections cover a lot of ground, so there's something here that should interest just about anyone.

The staff was amazingly friendly and helpful. They clearly love being around the art and sharing what they know! I spent a little over six hours on site and they gave me lots of space to explore on my own but were available when I had questions. They even provided me with a little stool so I could sit in front of a piece of artwork if there wasn't a seat nearby.

Certainly take some time to view the greatest hits they have, like "The Countess von Schonfeld with Her Daughter", the Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, and the "Portrait of the Marchesa Cunegonda Misciatelli." Each of these was worth making the trip all on its own, but there are so many cool other items. I really enjoyed "The Madonna and Chile with Angels", the "Tabernacle with Scenes from the Life of Christ" (this one is a little small, so look specifically for it), and "The Sacrifice of Iphigenia." Plan to spend some time here looking over everything.

Not only will I be recommending this museum to everyone I talk to, I'll be going back. I make a trip to Tucson every year and this is now on my list of annual pilgrimage...

The University of Arizona's Museum of Art is a wonderful academic art museum in downtown Tucson. A colleague and I visited while traveling in town for a museum conference and were delighted to see a great mix of contemporary, modern, and Renaissance works installed in the museum's galleries.

Of particular mention was the small but beautiful Lipchitz sculpture display, the famously stolen and recovered "Woman-Ochre" by de Kooning, a luminous, cool colored Mark Rothko, a neat exhibition of Surrealist works, a fabulous Robert Colescott, and an excellent community based show highlighting queer artists.

We only had about two hours to visit and wished we had three or four! Not a large museum, but full of excellent work for art lovers to discover.

Definitely worth a stop when...