Nearly 100 years of Creativity

Scottsdale Arts and Cattle Track 

Scottsdale Arts and Cattle Track Arts Compound are launching a new creative partnership where Scottsdale Arts will launch new endeavors, including ArtSpark, which is a career-development program for emerging artists, and an Artists-in-Residence program for established national and international visual and performing artists. More information. 

History of Cattle Track Arts Compound 

Cattle Track’s history is as long as Arizona’s statehood. Rachael Murdock arrived here in 1913. Her father, John Murdock, taught at Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University) and served as Arizona’s congressman for sixteen years. Rachael taught at The Little Red Schoolhouse, Loloma School, and Kiva Elementary over the years. Her creativity as a clothing designer for her family and theatrical productions was just the beginning. 

George Ellis came in the 1930s to survey the state for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. He bought the Cattle Track property in the early 1930s and, with true pioneer spirit, built a one-room home for him and Rachael, using redwood salvaged from the old water pipeline that supplied Phoenix. Rooms were added to the house as their children David, Janie, and Mike were born.  

David and Mike turned the barn and milking shed into hotrod and fiberglass shops, building innovative race cars, boats and airplanes. Mario Andretti’s winning race car in the 1969 Indy 500 was built at Cattle Track by the Ellis boys. Janie was a dancer with the George Balanchine New York City Ballet in the 1960s, choreographing and directing musicals across the nation. Janie’s vision, tenacity, persistence, and creativity are the driving force behind Cattle Track Arts Compound. 

A great variety of artists have historically lived or worked at Cattle Track. Magical Surrealist painter and founder of the Phoenix Art Museum, Philip C. Curtis, lived there until his death in 2000. Eccentric self-taught sculptor Ben Hagerty, magician Craig Davis, blacksmith Bill Smith, and photographers Scott Baxter and Jay Dusard were residents. 

Currently, there are more than a dozen creatives working in fibers, ceramics, photography, sculpture, painting, printmaking, book arts, music and music production, furniture design, architecture, and landscape design at the compound. Additionally, concerts, exhibitions, and talks are held there throughout the year.  

Cattle Track Arts and Preservation and The Philip C. Curtis Charitable Trust for the Encouragement of Art ensure the ongoing creative life at Cattle Track. For more about Cattle Track Arts Compound and events, visit CattleTrack.org. 

Related Event

Artists of Cattle Track Opening Reception
Civic Center Library 3839 N Drinkwater Blvd, Scottsdale, Arizona, 85251

Cattle Track Arts Compound is a rustic desert homestead, turned artist colony, set on 13 acres in Scottsdale, just off McDonald Drive. It has served as a gathering place for artists and creatives for nearly 100 years. Meet the current resident artists at the opening reception of Artists of Cattle Track to see the work produced in this unique environment.

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