2nd Phoenix Annual Virtual Portal To The Past Festival

Press release from the City of Phoenix:

September 15, 2020

Celebrate the art and ingenuity of the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People! Pueblo Grande Museum and Cultural Coalition, Inc. present the 2nd Annual Portal to the Past Festival as a free virtual event on Sunday, October 4 from 2 to 4 p.m. Live streamed on Facebook and YouTube, the event features cultural performances of dance, music, and storytelling celebrating the engineering ingenuity of the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People.

Last year’s inaugural Portal festival unveiled the “Portal to the Past” art installation, a winner of the New Arizona Prize Water Public Art Challenge. The piece, designed by local Arizona artist Zarco Guerrero, is a sculptural gate that incorporates images acknowledging the importance of the complex canal system created by the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People that we still use today. The “Portal” is located along the Grand Canalscape offering access to the grounds of Pueblo Grande Museum and an interpretive trail highlighting the accomplishments of the first inhabitants of the Valley of the Sun.

Schedule a Watch Party with friends and family to enjoy an afternoon of entertainment on Sunday, October 4, 2020 from 2 to 4 p.m.

STORYTELLING by Zarco Guerrero and Randy Kemp DANCE by the Gila River Akimel Basket Dancers, Indigenous Enterprise, and Salt River Achem Aa'L Basket Dancer

MUSIC by Randy Kemp, Tony Duncan, QVL

HISTORY with virtual tours of the Museum and the archaeological site

ART with children’s water art craft activity made with found objects from home

Visit the Facebook Event for updates on the schedule of performa

Visit Cultural Coalition or Pueblo Grande Museum's website for more information. This virtual program is made possible by a grant from Arizona Humanities and National Endowment for the Humanities.

This press release was produced by the City of Phoenix. The views expressed here are the author’s own.