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Transportation Art By Youth Celebration Event

Dogs on invitation, ribbon cutting event

The Ward 4 City Council Office, City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility (DTM), the Pima Association of Governments (PAG), and the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona invite the public to celebrate the newly completed public art project through the Transportation Art by Youth (TABY) program at Wagging Tails Dog Park located at 8330 E Escalante Road. Statements from keynote speakers beginning at 8:45 a.m. will include Ward 4 Chief of Staff, Teresa Smith, CEO of Arts Foundation Adriana Gallego, the Teaching Artist Hiro Tashima, the youth artists, and others. Visitors are encouraged to bring their dogs to play at the dog park. Local vendors will be present at the event including merchants, a food truck, and a coffee cart. There will also be dogs available for adoption.

Event Details

Saturday, July 27, 2024
8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Wagging Tails Dog Park – 8330 E Escalante Road

Artist Hiro Tashima led the eight-week summer program with eight youth artists from across the region. One of the program’s goals was to provide youth with an opportunity to be employed and participate in all phases of the design and installation of a public artwork under the guidance of a professional artist. Tashima led the youth through the public art design process and production of six 3D sculptures and six double-sided interactive puzzle murals made of recycled metal street signs.

“The youth artists learned a lot of new skills and techniques during this project and it was really rewarding to see them grow" said Hiro Tashima, Tucson Teaching Artist who was selected by a community panel to lead this year’s TABY project.

The artwork design was developed to include imagery of dogs and names of dogs from the community as a place-making and wayfinding strategy, Ward 4 Office’s vision to invite people to the new Wagging Tails Dog Park. The artists worked closely with a community panel on the project design and engaged with the public by interviewing users of the dog park and receiving over 200 dog names submitted by the community, which served as inspiration for all the dogs and names present in the artwork. The artwork also includes common birds that are found at the park and along Atterbury Wash, a popular birding area.