Tohono Chul Park

Helping people learn to live with their desert home is the overreaching purpose of Tohono Chul. A 49-acre desert Park located in northwest tucson, Tohono Chul describes itself as the southwest's center where nature, art, and culture connect. The interdisciplinary approach taken here to achieve our purpose is reflective of the richness of this region's natural environment and cultures. In teaching people about the interconnections between the natural environment and our cultural heritage, we hope to increase their appreciation of both, so that they too can become stewards of our precious desert region.tohono Chul's forty full and part-time staff conduct its programs with assistance by over 352 active docents and volunteers. During fy2023, these volunteers contributed 31,365 hours. They work in all aspects, from conducting tours, maintaining gardens, answering phones, support in each department, and assisting visitors in the greenhouse and museum shops. Natural history program:during fiscal year 2022, Tohono Chul welcomed over 65,000 visitors. 12,000 guests attended public and private tours, ec0-stations, reptile ramble, birds of prey, new member tours, and other programs.school tours, returned after the covid-19 closures/restrictions of fy2021, welcoming eighteen tours and 542 students. Tohono Chul celebrated the return of the annual fall, spring, and monsoon madness plant sales. The annual events of holiday nights and bloom night returned. The docent program made a successful return with twenty-four docents-in-training for hybrid zoom/in-person class sessions. Forty-one online and in-person public programs/workshops taken by five hundred-thirty people. Everyone was invited to discover Tohono Chul through ten free days - all connected to the events: southern Arizona clay artists (2), guatemalan sale (2), monsoon madness (2) museum day (1), mother' s day (1), father's day (1), and public gardens day (1).37.5 of the site's forty-nine acres have been left as undisturbed sonoran desert. Nature trails wind through these areas allowing the visitor a gentle experience with what is to many foreign surroundings, enjoy bird watching, or encounter one of the Park's other many residents (lizards, snakes, javelina, rabbits - cottontail and jack, bobcat, and fox to name a few). Part of the "disturbed" areas are devoted to a series of gardens and outdoor displays, such as the demonstration gardens, ethnobotanical garden, garden for children, spanish colonial garden, cactus/succulent and pincushion ramadas, geology wall, saguaro discovery trail, sin agua garden, desert palm oasis, changing wildflower displays, entry path winding past a succulent garden and mesquite bosque, as well as a designated monarch way station/butterfly garden.as part of its effort to encourage the use of native plants (and other arid-adapted, low-water use plants) in landscaping, Tohono Chul conducts a program to propagate hard-to-find native plant species. Currently, two hundred species are under propagation. Of these,190 species are for sale at the retail greenhouse; seventy of which are exclusive to Tohono Chul. The goal is to educate people about these native plants, thereby helping to create a demand for them that will interest commercial growers in putting these plants into production. This goal is further supported by our bi-annual plant sales in spring and fall, and a special summer monsoon madness event that puts the focus on the many local specialty growers of specimen and hard-to-find desert adapted plants. On the night of bloom night our collection of peniocereus greggii are on full display so that visitors can experience the splendor and fragrance of these unassuming cacti.community, national partnerships enable us to foster both our arts & culture and natural history programs and helped us reach over 20,000 children and adults during normal years through our tours, classes, workshops, field trips and appearances at unique events throughout the city and around the world. Among these partnerships are:- with tucson audubon, lucy's warbler nesting boxes were placed on the grounds and offered for sale in the greenhouse.- promoting health and wellness, we continue to offer a series of workshops in mindfulness and meditation along with on-site classes in tai chi and yoga.- continued participation in both nea's blue star museums program (offers free admission to active-duty military and their families throughout the summer) and act one's culture pass program (providing low- and middle-income pima county library users with free admission for two). In fy19 we added arts-related tours for local students sponsored by the act one program. 641 guests visited Tohono Chul using the culture pass.- the desert players are back! Tohono Chul's original pantomime theatre troupe returned to delight audiences of all ages - with two small performances and one command performance in the garden pavilion during community day.- 352 Tohono Chul volunteers contributed 31,635 hours of service.- inaugural - i- naturalist bio blitz that engages the citizen science community with the documentation at Tohono Chul.- inaugural - community day in conjunction with american public gardens association's (apga) go public gardens - a free day for families to experience the many all-ages educational offerings - 1050 guests during the half-day event.- chillin' at the Chul, a new free friday and saturday evening event (start: june 22), welcomed everyone to escape the heat with music, food/beverage, and children/family activities as well as exploring the Park's 49-acres. Chillin' saw environmentally minded tabling partnerships with tucson watershed management, tucson audubon society, and the university of Arizona compost cats. Children's museum oro valley turned the children's garden into a relaxed and inventive learning environment for children and families each saturday evening.- the return of desert discovery days in partnership with the children's museum oro valley brought back children programming with daily activities - from june to july - the program happened eleven times with eighty-one children.

Arts and culture program: Tohono Chul's art and cultural offerings celebrate the diversity of the southwest with an eye to the interactions of these cultures with their environment. Tohono Chul offers year-round changing cultural and art exhibits, regional music, year-round lecture series, workshops, and travel ed-ventures, as well as three museum shops which enable the visitor to learn more about or take home with them things they have seen while visiting. Among the changing cultural/art exhibits in our main gallery this past year were: encompassing Arizona (a rotating, revolving, and evolving invitational exhibition that presents a wide variety of artworks and a broad range disciplines and processes from a diverse roster of Arizona artists. Featuring established and emerging artists from across the state. )da de los muertos (celebrates the creative ways artists honor and enliven this deeply meaningful holiday through artistic expressions of personal and universal significance. Curated by the exhibits dept. And maricopa artist/anthropologist, manuel fontes, da de los muertos features 61 works from 43 Arizona artists. )the elements | earth (earth is the first exhibition in series, the elements. The series investigated how artists utilize the elements of fire, air, water, and earth as medium, process, and subject. And how, as the subject, these elements reflect some of the social, economic, political, and environmental issues Arizona currently faces. )the roy j. kurtz collection of american indian art | an introduction (spotlighted, for the first time ever, the wide range of basketry found the desert southwest, primarily those created by Tohono o'odham, akimel o'odham, and apache artists that roy j. kurtz has collected since he arrived in tucson in 1972. )the elements | air (air was the second exhibition in series, the elements. The series investigated how artists utilize the elements of fire, air, water, and earth as medium, process, and subject. And how, as the subject, these elements reflect some of the social, economic, political, and environmental issues Arizona currently faces. )the smaller entry and welcome galleries hosted a variety of exhibitions: diane ganski and melody prentice | dreams of the dead (spotlights the fun-loving, playful, and funky work of tucson artists diane ganski and melody prentice in a special exhibition of jewelry, sculpture and paintings. Having been a big part of the chiles, chocolate, and day of the dead festival the last several years we were overjoyed to welcome their day of the dead inspired creations to the exhibit house. )visionary revisions (focuses on several artists that trust the "spark of intuition," visionary revisions champions unusual approaches that borrow from visionary, outsider, and folk-art traditions and artwork that elevates reclaimed, repurposed, and recycled materials to the level of the precious. Featuring the work of: royce davenport, patrick hynes, ed larson, mary bohan, and ralph prata. )holly swangstu | forgotten soil (tucson artist, holly swangstu, employs thin strips of colorful hand-dyed cotton fabric in moody vertical and horizontal compositions that evoke the desert's light, sky, and landscape. )ralph prata whatever it takes (looked into the inventive mind of tucson artist ralph prata and revealed the new sculptural discoveries he made during a closed down and quiet 2020-21. Going for long walks in the desert, prata decided to take whatever he found and do whatever it takes to keep his creativity moving forward. )tom baumgartner codex sonora (gathers baumgartner's exacting, eccentric, and mysterious portraits of the sonoran desert in one room, just long enough, to celebrate his recently bound tome of codified printed matter - the enchanting codex sonora. )rick demont elemental monuments (rick demont's monumental plein air watercolors let paint be paint during their production and solidly record the intimate grandeur of the southern Arizona landscape upon drying. )10 x 10 | a fundraiser (after a two-year hiatus, 10 x 10 returns, offering an overview of the wonderful artists that were featured in the galleries over the past two years. )queen of the night (to honor our annual bloom night, queen of the night takes a close look at the fascinating, fragrant, and stunning sonoran desert marvel - the peniocereus greggii. )permanent collection | new perspectives vi (revisited in person, the 2020 virtual installment of this annual permanent collection showcase; curated by valued docents and volunteers: gigi kammeyer, sunny stone, phyllis cavender, len poliandro, and sara wetegrove.) The exhibits, retail, and marketing depts. Created virtual exhibitions and an online marketplace to facilitate the sale of artwork, objects, and retail goods.