Yuma Art Center in Historic Downtown

\Mural on the back of Yuma Art Center

The Yuma Art Center is located in a graceful old building in Historic Downtown Yuma. Walk inside, though, and the interior is anything but old. The ceilings are super high, obviously the result of a few floors combined. The interior lighting is wonderful.

The center, owned by the City of Yuma and operated y the Yuma Fine Arts Association, has four galleries on the bottom floor. There's a children’s gallery, showcasing art projects they’ve completed in classes here, on the second floor.

What we found disappointing, however, is there’s all this wonderful wall space, and only little pieces of work, some as small as 8-1/2x11 (just guessing here) on the walls, though some of the paintings were somewhat larger. (Perhaps I am too used to the wall=sized paintings you find in European art museums?)

We weren’t very impressed by the displays on the day we went, but this may be a matter of taste more than anything else. The largest gallery was a temporary exhibit of paintings of tattoos, done in depressing colors. I did enjoy a photo exhibit in a smaller gallery, where some of the photos were printed directly on wood, while others were highly detailed portraits of people from various walks of life. We both agreed, however, that our favorite gallery was the children’s art. Some of the artists were as young as three years old, yet showed impressive talent at that age.

The best art in the galley was in the gift shop, in my opinion. Besides paintings, there was a colorful collection of pottery and sculptures, all done my local artists or non-locals who had exhibited there in the past.

The art center is located at 254 S. Main Street. It is closed Sunday and Monday, and opens at 10 a.m. the rest of the year. Admission is free.