photo: Bill Deaver
The Tucson art scene is about community and sharing and nowhere is it more evident than at Industria Studios. Founder Marc David Leviton’s mission statement relays that “the objective is to enhance the educational experience for the fine arts community; to increase involvement and participation of the fine arts community” adding that the collective is very interested in working with other community organizations, artists and their projects.
Founded in 2003, Industria Studios aims to provide a non-competitive and cooperative studio environment for work and education. With 35 members and growing, Industria is now a 501c3 nonprofit corporation, thanks to its impressive board which includes Marjy Johnsen, CPA and attorney Michael Baldwin.
The studio, located across the street from Roma Imports at 1441 E. 17th St., boasts an impressive array of tools, machinery for sculptural fabrication, ceramics, foundry, forge (blacksmithing) and fine arts classes. Industria also offers artist-in-residency, apprenticeships, internships and work study programs. In 2009, Industria established the Arizona Sculpture Society, Tucson’s first sculptors’ guild.
Leviton, a native New Yorker, made his way from NYC to Florida to these desert streets in 1999 and has been producing thematic scholarly fine arts exhibitions in the Old Pueblo since graduating with his Masters in Fine Arts from the UA.
His current thematic exhibition is The Monsters That Made Us, being held at Holy Joe Studios, owned and operated by Steve and Maxine Murray, at 1122 N. Stone Ave.
Leviton says, “The show is a divine comedy and presents the diversity of the human experience in all its subtleties, complexities, its beauty, and its misery.”
The exhibit, running April 1-30 with an artist’s reception on April 9, features more than 20 artists including Industria members Neil Adam Collins, Miguel Avalos, Bill Deaver, Artists-in-Residence Kyle Johnston and Jeffrey Leach.
More information on Industria Studios and future events can be garnered at IndustriaStudios.org.
