Old Town Scottsdale: A Walk through its Eclectic Art District

Old Town Scottsdale is one of America’s most concentrated art districts, also known as ”the West’s Most Western Town.” On this walking tour, you’ll discover how a frontier farming community transformed into a sophisticated cultural destination while maintaining its distinctive Southwestern character.

Starting in front of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, you’ll walk through the historical center, where Native American trading posts evolved into luxury galleries. You’ll weave through Main Street’s gallery corridor and Marshall Way’s boutique district. I’ll show you Scottsdale’s Old Adobe Mission and the Little Red Schoolhouse, one of its first buildings in the original Mexican-American barrio.

As you walk, you’ll browse Native American pottery at galleries representing four generations of trading families, and see the city’s first public art installation, Louise Nevelson’s monumental 1973 “Windows to the West” sculpture. By the time the tour ends at the Scottsdale Public Library and Civic Center Library, you’ll have traced the complete evolution of this desert town through its art and architecture.

On this Scottsdale tour, you’ll have a chance to:

• Step inside Bischoff’s Gallery, housed in a 1952 bank building where the original vaults now protect valuable Navajo rug collections
• Explore the site of Sarah Thomas’ 1897 general store – Scottsdale’s first female-owned business – now home to Bischoff’s Shades of the West trading post
• Visit King Galleries, recognized as one of the world’s top five destinations for authentic Pueblo Indian pottery
• Discover works by Andrew Wyeth, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso at American Fine Art’s 12,000-square-foot showcase
• Browse Sissoko Tribal Art Gallery’s extraordinary collection of African artifacts assembled by a former Malian gold trader
• Experience Sugar Bowl’s ice cream parlor, immortalized in ”The Family Circus” comic strip
• Walk the Civic Center pathway where the Mexican-American Vista del Camino neighborhood once stood before the 1970s urban renewal
• See the 360-degree Performance Pavilion with its undulating roof, surrounded by Banyan trees

By the end of this two-hour tour, you’ll have explored how Scottsdale became the Southwest’s premier art destination, while still managing to preserve the cowboy culture that earned it legendary status.