What if
you pair a poeta performance troupean installation artist a Native dance group
with an astronomera forest service experta group of studentsan emerging playwright ?
ARTx 2025
Art + Ideas Experience
ARTx is an annual, accessible community opportunity to engage with the arts in an immersive and interactive way.
Creative Flagstaff is proud to present ARTx 2025, a yearlong series of creative activations that connect art with place, community, and conversation. Through installations, performances, and interactive experiences, ARTx brings new energy to familiar spaces and invites everyone to engage with the arts in accessible, meaningful ways.
ARTx @ ArtWalk
May 2: Car Free First Friday
Aspen Avenue (between San Francisco and Leroux) will be closed to vehicles for a special pedestrian-friendly First Friday ArtWalk. The evening will feature live music, community energy, and Poetry Maps readings aboard a Mountain Line bus, celebrating walking, biking, and public transportation.
June 6: Pride Month Exhibition
The Literacy Center will present an art exhibition featuring reimagined covers of banned LGBTQIA+ books by artists and authors. Hosted at Culture Connection AZ’s Ice House location, the event will include a drag performance and reception, and participating artists will have the opportunity to sell their work with 100 percent commission. This exhibition celebrates freedom of expression, literacy, and LGBTQIA+ voices.
ARTx @ The Arb
Exhibition Dates: April 30 – October 26, 2025
In partnership with The Arboretum at Flagstaff, three artists have been selected to create site-specific works inspired by the ecology and conservation of the Colorado Plateau.
Artists Krista Birnbaum, Colin Kubarych, and Elias Marshall will install visual and sculptural pieces throughout the grounds, offering visitors a chance to engage with environmental themes through art all season long.
ARTx @ Free Range
April 26: Nature Tales at Willow Bend
Willow Bend Environmental Education Center will present Nature Tales, a free family-friendly puppet show celebrating the wonders of nature through storytelling and interactive play. Following the show, children can create their own puppets to take home. A satellite activity will also take place at the Flagstaff Mountain Town Market, where families can meet puppet characters and participate in hands-on art-making.
WHAT IS ARTX?
ARTx provides a platform for local and national artists, creatives, and thinkers, to share stories of their lived experiences.
In 2025, the structure of ARTx will shift from a consolidated event display to focused opportunities distributed throughout the year so that the community can engage with art more frequently. Each place-based project will offer a satellite or pop-up demonstration in a secondary location, which will connect the main project with a different part of the community, increasing accessibility.
With connectivity as the focus, the objective is to expand the reach of art and creative work throughout the broader community.
We are proud of past ARTx projects and hope they continue to inspire the community to engage and participate in arts + culture.
- grand piano under the full moon at Buffalo Park open space (Rising of the Flower Moon)
- modern rock opera about indigenous black footed ferrets (Pop Goes The Ferret)
- concert of robot percussionists and light show ([un]certainty)
- poetry inspired by art from MNA’s collection, displayed on Mountain Line busses (Poetry Maps)
- a golden cloud of aspen leaves installed in the historic Nackard warehouse, reflecting on fires and flooding in Flagstaff (ENVISION)
The shape, color, and energy of artx is rooted in the submissions for events, activities, and installations each cycle. the inclusion of satellite exhibitions increases accessibility and engagement for all .
ARTx is a program of Creative Flagstaff and serves to fulfill its mission to foster creative opportunity. The structure continues to evolve and be shaped by the participants and audiences in each iteration. ARTx highlights philanthropy and corporate support for arts and culture, gets the community involved, focuses collaborative and interdisciplinary energy, and leaves a lasting and positive impact on the community, year after year.
