Tubac Festival of the Arts 1980 through 1989

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, local fabric artist Harwood Steiger created publicity banners for the Tubac Festival of the Arts. The banners were hung inside and outside village galleries.

In 1980 more than 100 children from the Tubac School painted designs on fabric and wore them as they marched around town on opening day of the Festival. The children's paintings were then hung at St. Ann's following the walk. Also in 1980, the Tubac Center of the Arts was expanded thanks to a generous gift from Mrs.G. Wendell Smith.

In 1982 and 1983 a special event was added to the Festival of the Arts. The children of the Tubac School presented a pageant based on the historical trek Captain Juan Bautista de Anza tool from Tubac in October 1775 to colonize the San Francisco area in California.

In 1984, a poster contest was started inviting local artists and children to submit prototypes for the official Festival of the Arts poster. The Historical Society has fortunate to have several of these original submissions as well as photos of the entries that were on display at the Tubac Center of the Arts.

A new controversy arose in 1988. The new Tubac Chamber of Commerce had taken back sponsorship of the Festival from the Santa Cruz Valley Art Association, but a new local group called the Tubac Artists Merchants Craftsmen Association planned to hold a separate festival at the same time.

By 1989, the attendance had steadily increased from 30,000 to 100,000 visitors.