Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Kana Tanaka		Print This Page Email This Page

Update

•  SPA Board approved new project and CIP Budget April 8, 2006
•  SPA Board revised CIP Budget April 9, 2008

•  Selection Panel chooses artist Finalists  April 17, 2008
•  Finalists come for site visit, meet with design team and key staff June 16, 2008            

•  Artist Finalists make presentations to Selection Panel August 11, 2008                          

•  SPA Board approves recommended Artist Kana Tanaka  August 13, 2008 

•   SPA Board approves preliminary concept July 2009             

•  Preliminary design phase through April 2009

•  Installation September 23 through October 1, 2009

•  Opening Gala October 24, 2009/Public Reception October 25, 2009

Project Description

The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (SCPA) has just passed its thirty-year mark and is currently in the stages of a thorough renovation. SCPA was designed by Bennie M. Gonzales, FAIA, and built in 1976. Its large scale and open spaces garnered community-wide support for the Arts and it remains Scottsdale’s main cultural facility.

Click here for printable information

Lit Glass Stems (different hues chosen for this project)

The current major renovation of the theater and public areas are being designed by Scottsdale Architect, John Douglas, FAIA, and a design team of technical consultants. The intent of the renovation program is to respect the original architecture and structure and its scale—while updating the theatre and support spaces.

Kana Tanaka works in glass, a material she finds “shifts awareness within an instant” and best conveys the perceptions of light. Kana seeks to create artworks that are situations, by means of amplification, division, exaggeration and distortion that surround the audience and “affect their senses directly and broadly”. Glass is the net to gather light and share it with others.

This project provides an opportunity to create a focal point in the open spaces of the atrium. On a curved wall, above the future café ,near the north civic center entry, a constellation of  hand-sculpted long glass stems pierce the wall and draw light to create an elegant glow in the organic crowns of the pieces .The stems differ in height, contouring to the ridgelines of the iconic Camelback Mountain and the varying hues, from white to amber to fiery red, create crescendos within the artwork.

Kana Tanka’s arwork is entitled Spirit of Camelback. Drawing inspiration by how often Camelback Mountain comes view from varying points in the Valley, from arriving at Sky Harbor Airport to looking out from Taliesin West, the artist subtly evokes the mountain in the topographical pattern, in the organic reminiscences of cactus blooms found on its slopes, and in the glowing colors of the sunset, perhaps seen after a hike to the top.

More on Kana Tanaka’s work at www.kanatanaka.com

Ridgeline Pattern of Camelback Mountain	Preliminary Model
Glass Stem in Fabrication: Artist Kana Tanaka Torching	Artist Kana Tanaka Setting Final Touches

Project Manager

Jana Weldon

janaw@sccarts.org

Return to Capital Improvement Projects

Return to Welcome Page