About Scottsdale

Scottsdale is home to more than 125 professional art galleries and studios, one of the highest per-capita anywhere in the nation. The city has quickly become a center for art in the United States. 

Its galleries and studios are most famous for their western and Native American themed art, though a growing devotion to the contemporary arts has taken hold over the past couple of decades - an element most visible by the large number of modern art galleries which have opened along the Marshall Way Arts District, and the opening of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in 1999. Both are located in Downtown Scottsdale.

Located in the touristy Old Town district of Downtown Scottsdale, the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall is home to the intimate two-theater Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, the Scottsdale Historical Museum, as well as the more recently established Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, . It is the only permanent museum dedicated solely to the contemporary arts in the state of Arizona.

Taliesin West, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school from 1937 until 1959, is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in Arizona. The complex is located in the northeast fringe of the city, at the base of the McDowell Mountains.

"The West's most western town" prides itself in its rich Western history, preserving while heavily promoting its plethora of "western" activities and events. The Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show has been a tradition since 1955. Today, the show attracts thousands of visitors and tourists, to see nearly 2000 purebred Arabian and Half-Arabian horses competing for various prizes and recognition. The show also features over 300 vendors and exhibitions, and over 25 demonstrations and shows.

Perhaps the most famous present-day "cowboy" event is the Scottsdale Jaycees Parada del Sol, an annual month-long event that has been held in Scottsdale since 1954. Originally named The Sunshine Festival, the PRCA Rodeo was added in 1956. Cowboys and cowgirls from across the nation converge in Scottsdale to participate in this cultural and historical event. The event begins each year with the Parada del Sol Parade, the world's largest horse-drawn parade with over 150 entries in any given year.

Every January for nearly forty years, the city of Scottsdale has been home to very popular Barrett-Jackson Auto Show.  Now held at the expansive West World exhibition complex in North Scottsdale, the event is an auto enthusiast's and collector's spectacle. The show is known for featuring both exotic, luxury automobiles and historic vehicles which have been expertly restored to mint condition.

For the past three years, Scottsdale has been hosting elite and ultra high fashion shows in the annual Scottsdale Fashion Week which are comparable to those of New York City, including top-of-the-line fashion designers during the month of November.

In what is considered to be the longest continually running festival of its kind in the nation, the Scottsdale Culinary Festival is held annually during April.

Though many of its individual events are held city-wide, they concentrate in the downtown area. Entirely, it is estimated that the week-long festival draws over 40,000 people. The most heavily attended such event is the festival's Great Arizona Picnic, an outdoor fair-like showcase of both well-known local and national chefs and restaurants. It is held on the lawn of the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall.

The annual Scottsdale International Film Festival, concentrates in the use of film to foster of the world's cultures, lifestyles, religions, and ethnicities.