Scottsdale   

Long before John Wayne rode the range, artists Frederic Remington and Charles Marion Russell were painting the drama, danger, and romance of the American frontier. This illustrated lecture explores the visual dialogue between Western painting and film, revealing how the compositions, themes, and storytelling techniques of these pioneering artists influenced Hollywood’s greatest directors. Through film clips and side-by-side comparisons, we’ll discover how John Ford translated Remington’s action-packed paintings into scenes from "Stagecoach" (1939) and "The Searchers" (1956) – and why both artists and filmmakers shared an ambivalent nostalgia for the vanishing West. We’ll also trace Russell’s personal ties to early Hollywood stars such as William S. Hart and Douglas Fairbanks, and examine how the Western became America’s quintessential multimedia tradition – moving seamlessly from magazine illustrations to motion pictures. Whether you’re a fan of classic Westerns, American art, or the mythology of the frontier, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for how these art forms shaped – and continue to shape – our collective imagination of the American West. Course fee includes museum admission.

Have you ever wondered how some people manage to overcome a particularly high level of stress and adversity? Resilience is a process of coping and adaptation that develops over time. Protective factors are the internal and external strengths that can be activated to ignite this coping process. In this presentation, you’ll learn about the 10 most important strengths identified through research that foster resilience. Because loss and other challenges are part of the human experience, this topic has relevance – and value – for all of us.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) was arguably one of the world’s most important modern architects, designing approximately one thousand buildings during his career, including Taliesin West, his winter home and studio and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Scottsdale, Arizona. When you join Dr. Jennifer Gray, Vice President of the Taliesin Institute at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, you will survey Wright’s practice, including his renowned Prairie-style houses, famed buildings such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, as well as lesser-known projects for affordable housing and utopian urban schemes. The course will situate his work in the context of the cultural changes of modernism, such as the Industrial Revolution, new technologies, scientific advancements, and progressive social politics. Participants in this class will receive a discounted audio guide tour of Taliesin West that can be redeemed between January 22 and May 31, 2026. Members will be informed during the class how to receive this discount.

This class offers an enchanting, in-depth look at four keyboard instruments and how they work – from the portative organ (12th–16th centuries) to the invention of the harpsichord and its evolution into the piano, and finally a leap forward to the modern grand organ, featuring Arizona’s largest in-use church pipe organ at La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church. Several pieces will be performed on each instrument to demonstrate their unique capabilities.

This class is being offered twice, one in the morning (Class 043) and one in the afternoon (Class 046).

Join us at Cosanti in Paradise Valley for a unique chance to participate in our long tradition of ceramic artisan crafts. Begin with a tour of our active workshop, an experiment in desert materials and community organization, now an Arizona Historic Site. After the tour, students will learn techniques for forming and glazing decorative ceramic tiles, choosing two pre-formed tiles to paint with vibrant liquid glazes. Each tile will be a one-of-a-kind work of art, fired, packaged, and returned within two weeks. Waterproof and durable, the tiles are perfect for display, practical use, or as a unique keepsake or gift.
 

This class is being offered twice, one in the morning (Class 043) and one in the afternoon (Class 046).

Join us at Cosanti in Paradise Valley for a unique chance to participate in our long tradition of ceramic artisan crafts. Begin with a tour of our active workshop, an experiment in desert materials and community organization, now an Arizona Historic Site. After the tour, students will learn techniques for forming and glazing decorative ceramic tiles, choosing two pre-formed tiles to paint with vibrant liquid glazes. Each tile will be a one-of-a-kind work of art, fired, packaged, and returned within two weeks. Waterproof and durable, the tiles are perfect for display, practical use, or as a unique keepsake or gift.
 

"Steve Bergsman Presents Fabulous Female Singers of the Fifties" is a 90-minute multimedia presentation that combines discussion of the songs and singers of the 1950s with on-screen visuals and, of course, audio of the era’s greatest tunes. The show is based on two books Bergsman wrote: "All I Want Is Lovin’ You" (about white female singers of the era) and "What a Difference a Day Makes" (about Black female singers of the era). The program moves chronologically. With the recent passing of Connie Francis, Bergsman has updated the presentation to highlight her contributions. It begins with songs like Teresa Brewer’s "Music! Music! Music!" and Patti Page’s "Tennessee Waltz" from 1950 and concludes with Connie Francis’s "Where the Boys Are," which is actually from the 1960s.

Register for this class by clicking this link: https://azmusicfest.org/events/fabulous-females-of-the-fifties/

This four-week series explores the music of America and how it both shaped – and was shaped by – the nation’s identity from its infancy to the present day. We’ll begin by examining what America inherited musically from the European roots of its colonists and how the people and the land they encountered influenced and expanded that musical language. How did different approaches to religious life shape the music used in rituals and ceremonies? Regional influences also played a major role in the development of American music, and we’ll explore those contributions. Along the way, we’ll ask: “Is there an American sound, and if so, what might it be?” Audio, video, and visual art examples will illustrate this journey, covering the creation of popular music, jazz, country, American concert music, theatre music, rock and roll, and contemporary sounds.

Register for this class by clicking this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0844A9AF28A2FECE9-59330689-music#/

The 1946 film "Notorious," set during World War II, features director Alfred Hitchcock and actors Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman at the height of their talents. In this twisted spy thriller and anguished love story, Hitchcock evokes darker shades of suspense and passion than in his previous works by casting two of Hollywood’s most beloved stars boldly against type. On one hand, "Notorious" tells the story of a man in love with a woman who must seduce and then marry another man as a spy for the U.S. government. On the other hand, the film is a tale of geopolitical intrigue that blends myth and reality, exploring themes of Nazism, the atomic bomb, and America’s Good Neighbor Policy.