Arizona Consortium for the Arts

We are dedicated to creating a connection with our diverse community through artistic, cultural and educational events.

Currently, the consortium provides support for emerging and established Arizona artists spanning all disciplines and offers free access to the arts for the general public by hosting cultural, arts and performance arts events. We are eager to unite, advance, collaborate, partner, and support individuals and organizations in all aspects of arts, performing arts, literary arts and cultures in Arizona.

Over the course of our five-year history, The Arizona Consortium for the Arts has carved out a distinctive role among the region's thriving arts and cultural institutions as a unique organization. The Consortium also partners with other organizations and provides children and adults a wide range of programs with hands-on, up-close encounters with their own creativity and previously untapped talents. And that's just for starters.

One of the best known and most prominent projects is the highly acclaimed The Blue Guitar Magazine, noted for both its quality and its range. The Blue Guitar is a literary and arts journal/magazine. It features Arizona emerging and established writers and artists. The Blue Guitar has drawn statewide submissions and is currently published online. The magazine has thousands of readers in Arizona, throughout the country and abroad. We also publish The Blue Guitar Jr. Edition, which features works by children and works by adults who write for children. In the Summer of 2012, we launched the inaugural issue of Unstrung, a magazine of, for and about poetry. Rebecca Dyer, the co-founder and Editor-in- Chief of the Blue Guitar Magazine was one of the nominees for the 2012 Governor’s Arts Awards.

Another popular programming is the Consortium’s annual Blue Guitar Festival of the Arts. The Festival features our local musicians, dancers, singers, cultural representations and readers from The Blue Guitar Magazine. The audience is treated to a varied program that runs the gamut from theatre and dance to music of all genres and spoken and written word presentations.

In addition to promoting a wide range of programs in the visual, literary and performing arts, The Arizona Consortium for the Arts maintains a varied and growing portfolio of weekly programs, projects and services for artists, audiences, and collaborating organizations.

In our five-year history, the Consortium has supported visionary, adventurous, thought-provoking emerging and established artists spanning all disciplines. During our Annual Blue Guitar Festival of the Arts and our Annual Fall Festival of the Arts, the public celebrates our artists through presentations, exhibitions, readings and performances. Some of the performances feature local arts and cultural groups that partner and collaborate with our Consortium.