SMoCA to open three new exhibitions, installations at Fall Opening Celebration

CAPTION: Patrons explore artwork from “Evan Roth: Pathfinding” during the 2025 Fall Opening Celebration at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). This year’s Fall Opening Celebration is Sept. 25. Photo: David Blakeman

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will celebrate the opening of three new exhibitions and immersive installations with a Fall Opening Celebration at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25.

The exhibitions on view during the event — “Desert Perspectives,” “alejandro t. acierto: Model Home” and “What Keeps the Earth Still” — are all opening on various dates during the month of September. "What Keeps the Earth Still" by interdisciplinary environmental arts collaborative Desert ArtLAB, opening at SMoCA on Sept. 19, is a site-specific installation, performance and cyanotype-mapping project that explores relationships between land, ecology and cultural memory.

Led by April Bojorquez and Matt Garcia, Desert ArtLAB promotes Indigenous and Chicano/a perspectives on ecological practice, food sovereignty and self-determination. "What the Earth Keeps" speaks to the ways communities carry relationships to place across generations, even as borders, systems of power and political narratives attempt to redefine them.

"Sixteen years ago, we created Desert ArtLAB in response to the social, cultural and ecological realities we were experiencing at the time," Bojorquez said. "It's especially meaningful to return to the Phoenix metro area to exhibit our work."

Audiences will be able to view Desert ArtLAB's exhibition during SMoCA's Fall Opening Celebration on Friday, Sept. 25. Admission to the event is free and open to the public with RSVP. In addition to the art, the celebration will include drinks from a cash bar and light refreshments while visitors mingle with artists and fellow art lovers.

“We are so excited to share these new exhibitions that each uniquely address the desert landscape,” said Julie Ganas, SMoCA’s curator of engagement and digital initiatives. “It is wonderful to have the opportunity to gather with artists and the community to celebrate the amazing thought and work put into these exhibitions at the Opening Celebration.”

SMoCA — named “Best Art Museum” in the Best of Phoenix awards — is located at 7374 E. Second St., Scottsdale, Arizona 85251. It is open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visit SMoCA.org for information.

Admission is $16 for non-members; $13 for students, seniors (65+) and veterans; and free for Scottsdale Arts ONE Members, healthcare workers, first responders, and patrons 18 and younger. Admission to the museum is pay-what-you-wish every Thursday and every second Saturday of the month.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sydney Ritter | SydneyR@ScottsdaleArts.org | 480-874-4663