The University of Arizona Press
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Time: 6 p.m. potluck meal, 6:30 p.m. presentation
Where: Roundup Lodge, 2073 Highway 61, San Lorenzo, NM
Ann Hedlund, author of Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art (forthcoming in September 2025), will speak at the Grant County Archaeological Society meeting. Her presentation, “Artist Mac Schweitzer and Her Adventures in Southwest Archaeology,” draws from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life in the U.S. Southwest from the 1940s to the 1960s. Mac’s watercolors, oil paintings, prints, and sculptures—a diverse body of work never before seen in public—range from naturalistic studies of Sonoran Desert animals to impressionistic landscapes to moody abstractions.
The event is free and open to the public. Potluck (bring your own plates & utensils, and your best dish to share) and socializing starts at 6 p.m., presentation follows at 6:30 p.m.
About the book:
In Tucson during the 1950s, nearly everyone knew, or wanted to know, the southwestern artist Mac Schweitzer. Born Mary Alice Cox in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921, she grew up a tomboy who adored horses, cowboys, and art. After training at the Cleveland School of Art and marrying, she adopted her maiden initials (M. A. C.) as her artistic name and settled in Tucson in 1946. With a circle of influential friends that included anthropologists, designer-craftsmen, and Native American artists, she joined Tucson’s “Early Moderns,” receiving exhibits, commissions, and awards for her artwork. When she died in 1962, Mac’s artistic legacy faded from public view, but her prize-winning works attest to a thriving career.
Author Ann Lane Hedlund draws from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life.
